CHAPTERCLXV.PEACE CONFESSES HIMSELF TO BE THE MURDERER OF A POLICEMAN NEAR MANCHESTER—THE CONVICT AND MRS. THOMPSON.It was understood on the Wednesday night that the convict Charles Peace was expected to confess to having murdered Constable Cock, at Whalley Range, near Manchester—a crime for which a youth of eighteen years of age, named William Habron, had been sentenced to death, and only escaped with a commutation of his sentence to penal servitude for life. Peace, in justice to this young man, made a full and explicit confession. He admitted, with many professions of penitence, that he murdered the officer, and declared Habron to be perfectly innocent of the crime, for which he was at that time so cruelly and injustly suffering.When, in July, 1876, Peace heard that Mrs. Dyson had taken out a warrant against him, he packed up his “tools” and some other things and prepared to leave Darnall. His family asked him where he was going, and he replied, “To Manchester.” He had often been there before. Indeed, it was a favourite resort of his. When he lived on the Brocco, and in Scotland-street, as well as after he went to Darnall, he frequently ran over to Manchester, sometimes remaining there for a week or more.It is no secret that he went there to commit robberies. There was a man there to whom he sold his plunder, and he would come back to Sheffield with nothing but the proceeds in hard cash. Of course there was nothing remarkable in his going to Manchester, and he confessed that he went there on this particular occasion—as he had often gone before—“to work.”On the afternoon of the 1st August he went round by Whalley Range to select a likely house as the object of his burglarious intentions, and he “put up” that occupied by Mr. Gatrix, at West Point, where three public roads, and an occupation road, converge. Towards midnight he went to the place, and as he was creeping along under the overhanging trees on the opposite side of the road he saw Mr. Simpson and the two policemen, Cock and Beanland, talking together on the footpath.Presently he left his hiding-place and crossed from Upper Chorlton-road to Seymour-grove, looking distinctly at the officers as he passed. He entered Mr. Gatrix’s grounds, but before he could get up to the house he heard a policeman on his track; and it is a fact that Beanland followed him.Peace doubled, and attempted to leave the grounds by another way, when he was confronted by Police-constable Cock, who attempted to apprehend him. Said Peace, I told him to “Stand back!” and, to frighten him, I fired one barrel of my revolver. He, however, came towards me, and was about to collar me, when I hit him. By “hitting him” Peace meant that he fired at him; the officer fell and he escaped.Peace remained in Manchester for several days, and heard of the arrest of the Habrons, and the committal of John and William on the charge of “Wilful murder.” He then left the city and went to Hull.During the next few weeks he gravitated between Hull, Sheffield, and Manchester several times, and he was in the latter place at the end of November. Incredible as it may seem, he distinctly stated that he went to the Assize Courts and heard the two Habrons tried for the crime which he had himself committed. He was present when John was acquitted, and he heard William sentenced to death.He appeared to have had no compunctions of conscience whatever at the terrible position in which he had placed the youth. Had the sentence been carried out there is no reason whatever to suppose that Peace would have come forward and confessed to the crime. It would almost seem that his escape from the remotest suspicion at Manchester only made him more reckless, as the night after the trial he went to Bannercross and shot Mr. Dyson.Since he was himself sentenced to death at Leeds, and he had occupied the condemned cell, he had thought not only of the crime for which he was suffering, but also of that other almost more diabolical act of his at Whalley Range, for which an innocent man was undergoing punishment. Having given up all hope of life himself, and having nothing to fear from any confession he might make, he decided to do tardy justice to young Habron.Some days before his execution he asked the Governor to supply him with the necessary paper, pencils, rule, compassses, and so forth, that he might draw some plans. Having satisfied the Governor as to the object for which he wanted them, the articles asked for were supplied. He then began working diligently upon the plans; and the progress of his work was a matter of no small interest, not only to the governor and the chaplain, but to all the officials who had to do with him. The plan which he drew of Bannercross two years after the murder proved that Peace could remember localities, and that he could transfer to paper his recollections. The plans he drew of West Point—for they were in three or four parts—represent very accurately the locality, and on them the precise spot as indicated where Peace encountered Cock and shot him, and the route he took to escape. He completed the plans, and handed them over to the governor, together with a full confession of his guilt.Peace affected to the extremely sorry for the young man Habron, but he excused himself for not having done him the scant justice he deserved at his hands in a very plausible way. He said that if he had come forward and accepted the responsibility of his act he would have been sentenced to death without any doubt whatever; whereas the one who had to bear it had escaped with penal servitude.We give the circumstances under which the murder was committed, and it will be seen at once that the crime looks very much more like the work of a man of Peace’s experience than of a lad of eighteen, who probably never fired a revolver in his life.Nicholas Cock, the officer who was murdered, was twenty-three years of age, and had been in the county constabulary about eight months. He was a Cornish man, but had gone from Durham to Manchester to join the force. His beat on the night of the 1st of August was from Chorlton village, along Chorlton-road, to its junction with Seymour-grove and Upper Chorlton-road. The junction is known as West Point, and is near Manley Hall. The officer’s beat terminated there, and from that place he would retrace his steps to Chorlton village. The junction is a triangular piece of ground, from which three roads diverge—Chorlton-road, Upper Chorlton-road, and Seymour-grove—and there is also a small occupation road leading from that triangle to Firs Farm.Cock arrived at West Point at midnight, and there he was met by Mr. Simpson, who was at that time a law student, and whose father resided in Upper Chorlton-road. They walked together a short distance along that road, and meeting Police-constable Beanland they stopped and conversed for a few minutes.Whilst they were standing they observed a man walk out of the shadow of the overhanging trees in Upper Chorlton-road, and cross over the triangle to Seymour Grove. Here he stopped under a lamp, and, after gazing steadlastly at the officers, passed on. Beanland said to Cock, “Who’s that man?” and he replied that he did not know.They watched the man go up Seymour-grove, but finding that he did not pass the gates leading to the house of a Mr. Gatrix, Beanland said he would go and see who the man was.The officer accordingly went up to the gate, and finding it open passed in and went up to the house. He tried both doors and windows, and found them safe, and was turning to leave the grounds when he heard two shots, and saw two flashes of fire.At the same time he heard some one shout, “Oh, murder, murder! I’m shot, I’m shot!” Scarcely half a minute had elapsed since he had left Cock, and, running back to the spot, he found the officer lying on the kerbstone. He was bleeding from a wound in the breast.Police-sergeant Thompson, who was on duty in Whalley Range, and had heard the shots, came running up, and joined Beanland, at the same time that Mr. Simpson returned.That gentleman also heard the firing when he was about two hundred yards from the end of Upper Chorlton-road. At that moment a night-soil cart came past, and the injured man was lifted into it and taken to Dr. Dill’s surgery in Lower Chorlton-road.Cock was unsconcious when he arrived there, but after stimulants had been administered he revived a little, and was repeatedly asked who had shot him.Once he said “I don’t know,” but afterwards relapsing into semi-unconsciousness, he said “Leave me a-be. Oh, Frank, you are killing me.” There was no one named Frank in the room.He died shortly afterwards, and at the post-mortem examination made by Dr. Dill, a gun-shot wound was found in the breast near the right nipple.The ball had struck the fourth rib, shattered the bone, and had then gone through the right lung to the spine, where it had lodged. Death had resulted from hæmorrhage, which was very great, both internal and external.Suspicion fell upon three brothers named John, William, and Frank Habron, the first of whom had been employed for nine years, the second for seven years, and the third for eight years, by Mr. Francis Deakin, nurseryman, of Chorlton-lane. Cock being a young officer, was disposed to take notice of things that older and more experienced men would have tolerated with impunity.He had not been long in the neighbourhood before he incurred the ill-will of the Habrons, and both John and William were heard to use threats of violence towards him. In July, Cock saw John and William the worse for drink, and he obtained summonses against them.The case against William was heard on the 27th July, and he was fined 5s.and costs. The case against his brother was adjourned until the 1st August, and between those dates John, on several occasions, and William, at least once, was heard to threaten what they would do to Cock if he was not careful. At the adjourned hearing, John was fined 10s.6d., and that very night Cock was murdered.Cock had told his superior officers what these young men had been heard to say, and immediately after his death, Superintendant Bent went with Inspector Whittam and a large staff of officers to apprehend the two brothers.They occupied one room—a sort of outhouse—upon the premises of Mr. Deakin, their employer; and as the officers went up Chorlton-lane the room was full in view, and they saw a light in the window. Superintendent Bent called up Mr. Deakin, and then went to the outhouse, and found that in the meantime the light had been put out, and the police having rapped at the door, which was opened by one of the brothers, the three were arrested.Next day the prisoners were brought before the magistrates.No.95.Illustration: THE PLAN OF THE WHALLEY RANGE MURDERPEACE DRAWING THE PLAN OF THE WHALLEY RANGE MURDER.
It was understood on the Wednesday night that the convict Charles Peace was expected to confess to having murdered Constable Cock, at Whalley Range, near Manchester—a crime for which a youth of eighteen years of age, named William Habron, had been sentenced to death, and only escaped with a commutation of his sentence to penal servitude for life. Peace, in justice to this young man, made a full and explicit confession. He admitted, with many professions of penitence, that he murdered the officer, and declared Habron to be perfectly innocent of the crime, for which he was at that time so cruelly and injustly suffering.
When, in July, 1876, Peace heard that Mrs. Dyson had taken out a warrant against him, he packed up his “tools” and some other things and prepared to leave Darnall. His family asked him where he was going, and he replied, “To Manchester.” He had often been there before. Indeed, it was a favourite resort of his. When he lived on the Brocco, and in Scotland-street, as well as after he went to Darnall, he frequently ran over to Manchester, sometimes remaining there for a week or more.
It is no secret that he went there to commit robberies. There was a man there to whom he sold his plunder, and he would come back to Sheffield with nothing but the proceeds in hard cash. Of course there was nothing remarkable in his going to Manchester, and he confessed that he went there on this particular occasion—as he had often gone before—“to work.”
On the afternoon of the 1st August he went round by Whalley Range to select a likely house as the object of his burglarious intentions, and he “put up” that occupied by Mr. Gatrix, at West Point, where three public roads, and an occupation road, converge. Towards midnight he went to the place, and as he was creeping along under the overhanging trees on the opposite side of the road he saw Mr. Simpson and the two policemen, Cock and Beanland, talking together on the footpath.
Presently he left his hiding-place and crossed from Upper Chorlton-road to Seymour-grove, looking distinctly at the officers as he passed. He entered Mr. Gatrix’s grounds, but before he could get up to the house he heard a policeman on his track; and it is a fact that Beanland followed him.
Peace doubled, and attempted to leave the grounds by another way, when he was confronted by Police-constable Cock, who attempted to apprehend him. Said Peace, I told him to “Stand back!” and, to frighten him, I fired one barrel of my revolver. He, however, came towards me, and was about to collar me, when I hit him. By “hitting him” Peace meant that he fired at him; the officer fell and he escaped.
Peace remained in Manchester for several days, and heard of the arrest of the Habrons, and the committal of John and William on the charge of “Wilful murder.” He then left the city and went to Hull.
During the next few weeks he gravitated between Hull, Sheffield, and Manchester several times, and he was in the latter place at the end of November. Incredible as it may seem, he distinctly stated that he went to the Assize Courts and heard the two Habrons tried for the crime which he had himself committed. He was present when John was acquitted, and he heard William sentenced to death.
He appeared to have had no compunctions of conscience whatever at the terrible position in which he had placed the youth. Had the sentence been carried out there is no reason whatever to suppose that Peace would have come forward and confessed to the crime. It would almost seem that his escape from the remotest suspicion at Manchester only made him more reckless, as the night after the trial he went to Bannercross and shot Mr. Dyson.
Since he was himself sentenced to death at Leeds, and he had occupied the condemned cell, he had thought not only of the crime for which he was suffering, but also of that other almost more diabolical act of his at Whalley Range, for which an innocent man was undergoing punishment. Having given up all hope of life himself, and having nothing to fear from any confession he might make, he decided to do tardy justice to young Habron.
Some days before his execution he asked the Governor to supply him with the necessary paper, pencils, rule, compassses, and so forth, that he might draw some plans. Having satisfied the Governor as to the object for which he wanted them, the articles asked for were supplied. He then began working diligently upon the plans; and the progress of his work was a matter of no small interest, not only to the governor and the chaplain, but to all the officials who had to do with him. The plan which he drew of Bannercross two years after the murder proved that Peace could remember localities, and that he could transfer to paper his recollections. The plans he drew of West Point—for they were in three or four parts—represent very accurately the locality, and on them the precise spot as indicated where Peace encountered Cock and shot him, and the route he took to escape. He completed the plans, and handed them over to the governor, together with a full confession of his guilt.
Peace affected to the extremely sorry for the young man Habron, but he excused himself for not having done him the scant justice he deserved at his hands in a very plausible way. He said that if he had come forward and accepted the responsibility of his act he would have been sentenced to death without any doubt whatever; whereas the one who had to bear it had escaped with penal servitude.
We give the circumstances under which the murder was committed, and it will be seen at once that the crime looks very much more like the work of a man of Peace’s experience than of a lad of eighteen, who probably never fired a revolver in his life.
Nicholas Cock, the officer who was murdered, was twenty-three years of age, and had been in the county constabulary about eight months. He was a Cornish man, but had gone from Durham to Manchester to join the force. His beat on the night of the 1st of August was from Chorlton village, along Chorlton-road, to its junction with Seymour-grove and Upper Chorlton-road. The junction is known as West Point, and is near Manley Hall. The officer’s beat terminated there, and from that place he would retrace his steps to Chorlton village. The junction is a triangular piece of ground, from which three roads diverge—Chorlton-road, Upper Chorlton-road, and Seymour-grove—and there is also a small occupation road leading from that triangle to Firs Farm.
Cock arrived at West Point at midnight, and there he was met by Mr. Simpson, who was at that time a law student, and whose father resided in Upper Chorlton-road. They walked together a short distance along that road, and meeting Police-constable Beanland they stopped and conversed for a few minutes.
Whilst they were standing they observed a man walk out of the shadow of the overhanging trees in Upper Chorlton-road, and cross over the triangle to Seymour Grove. Here he stopped under a lamp, and, after gazing steadlastly at the officers, passed on. Beanland said to Cock, “Who’s that man?” and he replied that he did not know.
They watched the man go up Seymour-grove, but finding that he did not pass the gates leading to the house of a Mr. Gatrix, Beanland said he would go and see who the man was.
The officer accordingly went up to the gate, and finding it open passed in and went up to the house. He tried both doors and windows, and found them safe, and was turning to leave the grounds when he heard two shots, and saw two flashes of fire.
At the same time he heard some one shout, “Oh, murder, murder! I’m shot, I’m shot!” Scarcely half a minute had elapsed since he had left Cock, and, running back to the spot, he found the officer lying on the kerbstone. He was bleeding from a wound in the breast.
Police-sergeant Thompson, who was on duty in Whalley Range, and had heard the shots, came running up, and joined Beanland, at the same time that Mr. Simpson returned.
That gentleman also heard the firing when he was about two hundred yards from the end of Upper Chorlton-road. At that moment a night-soil cart came past, and the injured man was lifted into it and taken to Dr. Dill’s surgery in Lower Chorlton-road.
Cock was unsconcious when he arrived there, but after stimulants had been administered he revived a little, and was repeatedly asked who had shot him.
Once he said “I don’t know,” but afterwards relapsing into semi-unconsciousness, he said “Leave me a-be. Oh, Frank, you are killing me.” There was no one named Frank in the room.
He died shortly afterwards, and at the post-mortem examination made by Dr. Dill, a gun-shot wound was found in the breast near the right nipple.
The ball had struck the fourth rib, shattered the bone, and had then gone through the right lung to the spine, where it had lodged. Death had resulted from hæmorrhage, which was very great, both internal and external.
Suspicion fell upon three brothers named John, William, and Frank Habron, the first of whom had been employed for nine years, the second for seven years, and the third for eight years, by Mr. Francis Deakin, nurseryman, of Chorlton-lane. Cock being a young officer, was disposed to take notice of things that older and more experienced men would have tolerated with impunity.
He had not been long in the neighbourhood before he incurred the ill-will of the Habrons, and both John and William were heard to use threats of violence towards him. In July, Cock saw John and William the worse for drink, and he obtained summonses against them.
The case against William was heard on the 27th July, and he was fined 5s.and costs. The case against his brother was adjourned until the 1st August, and between those dates John, on several occasions, and William, at least once, was heard to threaten what they would do to Cock if he was not careful. At the adjourned hearing, John was fined 10s.6d., and that very night Cock was murdered.
Cock had told his superior officers what these young men had been heard to say, and immediately after his death, Superintendant Bent went with Inspector Whittam and a large staff of officers to apprehend the two brothers.
They occupied one room—a sort of outhouse—upon the premises of Mr. Deakin, their employer; and as the officers went up Chorlton-lane the room was full in view, and they saw a light in the window. Superintendent Bent called up Mr. Deakin, and then went to the outhouse, and found that in the meantime the light had been put out, and the police having rapped at the door, which was opened by one of the brothers, the three were arrested.
Next day the prisoners were brought before the magistrates.
No.95.
Illustration: THE PLAN OF THE WHALLEY RANGE MURDERPEACE DRAWING THE PLAN OF THE WHALLEY RANGE MURDER.
PEACE DRAWING THE PLAN OF THE WHALLEY RANGE MURDER.