Publish a one (1)
paragraph summary of your assigned case; a one (1) paragraph summary of the
differences between the official documents, the contemporary media accounts and
the unofficial versions; and bibliographic references/links (if available) to
the official court documents,
contemporary media and unofficial versions you discuss. Please follow the
standards of the MLA Handbook, eighth
edition, in listing your bibliographic references (see the handout “Citation
Tips for English 3401”).
Catherine Wilson was found guilty for the murder of Mrs. Maria Soames on September 22, 1862. She bribed Mrs. Soames for money and at the same time was slowly poisoning her. Although there was no poison found during the autopsy of Mrs. Soames, the examiners still managed to produce enough evidence to find her guilty of poisoning the victim. Wilson was accused of a few murders , however, this one happened to be the strongest case and one that survived trial. After being found guilty of murder for poisoning Mrs. Soames, Wilson was hung in front of a crowd of 20,000 people.
ReplyDeleteThe official trial document was based on the testimonies from people that were friends to Mrs. Soames, medical persons who examined her body and family members. The contemporary media account was based on the prisoner’s suspicious attempt to poison a woman by the name of Sarah Cornell using vitriol. The unofficial article, A Journal of Medical Science from the Medical Times and Gazette, primarily, concentrated on the medical conclusions of Dr. Whidbourne after examining the body of Maria Soames and Professor Taylor and Mr. Nunneley after analyzing the body of another accused victim. All three sources of information targeted different areas of the trial as well as accusations from a news article.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES:
Churchill, John. “A Journal of Medical Science.” Medical
Times and Gazette, 4 October 1862, p. 361-363. Print.
Emsley, Clive, et al. “London History - Currency, Coinage
and the Cost of Living.” The Proceedings of the Old
Bailey.
www.oldbaileyonline.org/static/Coinage.jsp.
Accessed 22 October 2016.
Hitchcock, Tim, et al. “Catherine Wilson, Killing >
murder.” The Proceedings of the Old Bailey. 22
September 1862, p. 1-32.Print.
“Murder.” The Crown Prosecution Service, Crown, 2004.
www.cps.gov.uk/legal/h_to_k/homicide_murder_and_mans
laughter/. Accessed 11 Nov. 2016.
“The Law of Murder”. E-Lawresources.co.uk
e-lawresources.co.uk/The-law-of-murder.php. Accessed
20 Nov. 2016.
“The Standard.” British Library Newspapers. London,
England, Tuesday, April 08, 1862, p.7; Issue 11748,
Part II: 1800-1900. Print.
“Timeline of Capital Punishment in Britain.” Capital
Punishment U.K.www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/time
line.html. Accessed 29 Nov. 2016.
This story is a story in the seventeenth century regarding George Gadesby a butcher also known as George Feast of the Parish of St. Peters Cornhill in the ward of Lime Street. Mr. Gadesby was indicted upon the coroner's request for the murder of his wife Mary Gadesby on the 5th of May 1697 by giving her one mortal wound with a knife on the right thigh near to the groin, of the breadth of an inch, and of the depth of three inches, of which she instantly died. Mr. Gadesby was indicted upon the statute of stabbing, with the knife used that day to stab his wife, she not having struck first, or having anything in which to defend herself.
ReplyDeleteAt the London's Criminal Court from 1674 to 1913, George Gadesby reference number t-16970519-27. His offence was for murder and the verdict was guilty. His punishment was death for the murder of his wife.
My official trial document which is the historical records of the London's Central Criminal Court has a printout of a punishment summary with a list of the names of the offenders who did crimes and whom the court proceeded to give Judgments.
The contemporary media provided me with a summary of the case by reference number, offence committed, verdict and punishment. Another contemporary media source provided me with a Packington's Pound ballad that referenced the case by date published, author, standard tune, imprint, license, collection, location, title, tune imprint and lines. These two areas helped me tremendously and helped shed some light to help me further in my essay. The others source such as the unofficial versions and other contemporary media sites was not very helpful such as the 17th -18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers, British Library Newspapers. The British Newspaper Archive was helping me to a point but then it started asking me for $12.95. I then moved on to a site that was so helpful I would like to email them or write to them to commend them on their site. They were the Old Bailey Proceedings site. I just loved that site for research.
Bibliography references
Tim Hitchcock, Sharon Howard and Robert Shoemaker, Research and Study Guides - Bibliography, "Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 7.0, 0.7 December 2016)
http://ebba.english.ucsb.edu/ballad/32548/recording
The criminal I selected for examination is Catherine Wilson. She was found guilty and sentenced to death for the murder of Maria Soames. After renting Ms. Wilson a room on the first floor of her house, Ms. Wilson started to provide Ms. Soames with nursing care when he fell ill. Eventually, Ms. Soames did not get well and died shortly after receiving care from Ms. Wilson. Many relative and close acquaintances believed Ms. Wilson was directly responsible for Ms. Soames murder. Ms. Wilson was eventually found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging.
ReplyDeleteThe differences between the official, unofficial and contemporary accounts of the incident are both obvious and points out the nuanced practice of the legal profession today. To start, the Old Bailey official transcript of the trail is just that... a transcript. It is raw and colorful and pulls readers into the moment as if we were an avid listener in the Old Bailey witnessing this historic trail. The unofficial Medical Times accounting of the case is quite cold and removed. It also focuses heavily on one account, that of Dr. Whitborne, who was the medical examiner of Maria Soames. I did appreciate the unofficial versions churlish yet subtle way of insinuating that Mr Whitebourne was perhaps an unprofessional buffoon for not retaining Ms. Soames stomach contents for further chemical examination. However, Ms. Wilson was still found guilty, perhaps, during a time when communities relied less on irrefutable medical evidence and more on circumstantial/ hearsay evidence. Also interesting to note, is how, procedurally, the courts gave the attorneys a lot more room to lead the witnesses testimony and introduce hearsay evidence. In todays standards, such actins would call for an immediate objection on the part of the adversary. The contemporary version of the case found on Murderpedia.org was quite straight forward. Not academic like the Medical Times version or a first-person retelling of the witnesses account like the official document. It mainly focused on the broad facts of the case citing the cause of death as colchicum poisoning.
Catherine Wilson | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers
Juan Blanco - http://murderpedia.org/female.W/w/wilson-catherine.htm
Churchill, John. “A Journal of Medical Science.” Medical
Times and Gazette, 4 October 1862, p. 361-363. Print.
Emsley, Clive, et al. “London History - Currency, Coinage
and the Cost of Living.” The Proceedings of the Old
Bailey.
www.oldbaileyonline.org/static/Coinage.jsp.
Accessed 22 October 2016.
Happy Holidays
DeleteWilliam Godfrey Youngman was on trial for the murders of his sweetheart Mary Wells Streeter, his mother Elizabeth Youngman,two brothers Thomas Neal Youngman and Charles Youngman. Testimony was given over an undisclosed period time by neighbors, landlord were Youngman resided, police, as well as acquaintances of Ms. Streeter. At the close of trial William Godfrey Youngman was found guilty of the four murders and sentenced to death. He was executed on September 4, 1860.
ReplyDeleteSome differences between the media accounts were the description of the crime scene and victims. The Annual Register article was very descriptive unlike the article by Arthur Conan Doyle "The Holocaust of Manor Place" and the trial transcript from the old Bailey website. The trial transcript was just testimony of the trial so content was a bit more dry than Doyle's article. Doyle's article seem to convert the trial transcript into a well put together story although factually based.
Bibliography
Oldbaileyonline.org. Reference Number: t18600813-723(trial 13 Aug. 1860).Web 2003-2015.
Annual Regiser http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/0004944201. Published London:Rivingtons, 1863-1953 V.102 1860 (pp. 532-540) Web.
Doyle.Conan.Arthur. “The Holocaust of Manor Place,” in Strange Studies from Life I (The Strand Magazine, March-May 1901; http://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com) Web.
In conducting my research of the crème de la crème murderer, reluctant in the defense of sanity, George Victor Townley, I discovered that it was rather difficult to locate actual court documents-or at least legible and of no cost-but I was able to obtain some information through certain cites. One informative site was google readings (a site whose sole purpose is to preserve the book’s information) which, along with another site entitled murderpedia.org, attempted to come to the same conclusion of declaring non compos mentis. The infamous crime was also introduced as a love affair by Arthur Conan Doyle in which the case was introduced by a magazine with the names to be changed so as to not bring sorrow to the surviving family. In an attempt to locate information via the Old Bailey Database I was unfortunately able to find an abundance of gentlemen with the name of Mr. George Townley but nothing pertaining to the criminal that I sought which was George Victor Townley. As always, I shall continue to obtain legal information regarding Mr. Townley…To be continued
ReplyDeleteBibliographic References:
An Interview with George Victor Townley, and Reflections thereon
John Hitchman.The British Journal of Psychiatry Apr 1864, 10 (49) 21-34; DOI: 10.1192/bjp.10.49.21
Blanco, Juan Ignacio. “George Victor Townley | Murderpedia, the Encyclopedia of Murderers.” George Victor Townley | Murderpedia, the Encyclopedia of Murderers, murderpedia.org/male.T/t/townley-george.htm.
Doyle, Arthur Conan. “The Love Affair of George Vincent Parker.” The Love Affair of George Vincent Parker - The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia, www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=The_Love_Affair_of_George_Vincent_Parker.
George Victor Townley was born in 1838. He was on trial in 1863 and was convicted of the cold blooded murder of Miss Elizabeth Caroline Goodwin. At first, the Coroners jury deemed Townley insane but later on evidence and evaluation prove otherwise. Townley was first sentenced to death and to be reviewed to see if he was of sound mind. George Victor Townley was engaged to Elizabeth Goodwin and because she called off the engagement due to disapproval of her family, disapproval from his family, and her finding another love, Townley grew enraged. During his interview Townley explained that he killed Miss Goodwin to repossess himself of her as his property. He took her out of the hands of his enemies, and placed her in a position where she would wait, where he would rejoin her when he died. Later on the contradicts himself by saying his reason for killing her was because he was under the influence of sudden impulse. After the decision to sentence Townley to death was overturned he was declared to be sane and his sentence is commuted to penal servitude for life. Sadly, shortly after being sent to Model prison in Pentonville Townley committed suicide in February 1865. His first attempt at suicide did not succeed when he tried to open the veins in his arms, so he deliberately jumped over the rails of the chapel and fell a height of twenty-three feet, crushing his head on the stone paving and died in three hours.
ReplyDeleteAfter spending an extensive amount of time doing research on George Victor Townley and analyzing each applicable source I drew several conclusions regarding the major substantive differences between each. To conduct my research, I used one official trial document, two forms of contemporary media accounts and two of the listed unofficial versions that were provided. I noticed that the official trial document was extremely long, but it was the primary source which meant it held more value. The official trial document gave a background of the case first and then described what occurred during the trial and the outcome of trial. I found the official document to be helpful, but because it is extremely long you would basically have to do a case brief to summarize it to make it shorter, but overall it was an effective source. The two contemporary media accounts which were both newspaper articles were also very effective. Unlike the official trial document, they were secondary sources basically explaining and summarizing the ending result of the trial and how the result was decided. Both articles were shorter in length than the official trial document. They both gave a background about the case and summarized the trial in its entirety. The contemporary media accounts however do not hold as much value as the official trial documents. Sometimes what is written in newspaper articles are usually exaggerated because it is geared towards getting the attention of the public. After reading the two news articles and comparing the information to what I read from the official trial document they all seem to contain the same/similar facts. Like the contemporary media accounts, the unofficial pieces are also secondary sources. The unofficial works seem to give more of an insight and was more descriptive in describing the facts of the case. One of the works by John Hitchman was and Interview with George Victor Townley that was conducted by medical experts, which let you hear his side of why he committed murder, rather than the media’s side or the court’s side. Interviews are also appealing to readers because you get to hear from the criminal’s point of view the reason he did why he did, wheteher or not he had any remorse, if he regrets what he did, and other questions that people would be interested in asking a criminal. The other unofficial work was a short story basically telling who George Victor Townley was and how and why he killed Elizabeth Goodwin. This form of unofficial piece was a creative way in describing the facts of the case and I personally enjoyed it the most.
Official court document
Delete"Townley, George Victor. The Trial and Respite of George Victor Townley, for Willful Murder." Harvard Mirador Viewer. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2016. ;.
Unofficial documents
Hitchman, John. An Interview with George Victor Townley, and Reflections thereon. The British Journal of Psychiatry April 1864, 10 (49) 21-34. Print
Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Love Affair of George Vincent Parker” in Strange Studies from Life II (The Strand, March-May 1901; https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com) . Accessed 03 Dec. 2016.
Contemporary media accounts
"Final Decision in the Case of George Victor Townley." Sheffield Daily Telegraph. British Library, 03 Feb. 1864. Web. 02 Dec. 2016. ;.
"Last Sunday George Victor Townley, Condemned to Death for the » 18 Feb 1865 » The Spectator Archive." The Spectator Archive. N.p., 18 Feb. 1865. Web. 02 Dec. 2016. ;.
Happy Holidays
DeleteHappy Holidays to everyone.
ReplyDeleteElinor
Happy Holidays
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