The question of portraits has caused some difficulty. Photographs were not common, to say the least, in 1856. Most woodcuts met with seemed not worth reproduction. This accounts for the few portraits which appear; though the number of Judges and Counsel was exceptionally large. Palmer alone is shown more satisfactorily than any of the others in the well-known figure at Madame Tussaud’s. Their modeller was present in Court and I have seen his casts of Palmer’s head and face taken after execution. The striking sketch of Palmer by Mr. Joseph Simpson, the well-known artist, has been made from a photograph of this figure, and from a contemporary print.
Palmer has the distinction of an article in the Dictionary of National Biography. Many of the contemporary accounts cannot be relied on; they are too evidently sensational and designed for excited and morbid imaginations. By the kindness of Dr. George Fleming, J.P., of Highgate, London, who is a treasury of Palmeriana and of Rugeley tradition, I have been able to use his collection of “Jane” letters. The substance of these letters appears in the Introduction. They reveal a sinister episode in Palmer’s career not to be found related elsewhere. Moreover, it was a real link in the chain of circumstances that led to Palmer’s crime and his trial. The letter from Palmer to his wife was kindly lent for reproduction by Dr. Kurt Loewenfeld, of Bramhall, Cheshire.
PAGE Introduction, 1 Table of Dates, 18 List of Counsel, 21 The Trial--
Ishmael Fisher, 23 Thomas Jones, 26 George Reid, 26 William Scafe Gibson, 26 Elizabeth Mills, 27
_Evidence for the Prosecution (continued)._
Elizabeth Mills (cross-examined) 33 James Gardner, 37 Anne Brooks, 37 Lavinia Barnes, 39 Anne Rowley, 42 Charles Hawley, 42 Sarah Bond, 42 William Henry Jones, 44 Elizabeth Mills (recalled), 49 Henry Savage, 49 Charles Newton, 49
_Evidence for the Prosecution (continued)._
Charles Joseph Roberts, 52 William Vernon Stevens, 52 Dr. John Thomas Harland, 55 Charles John Devonshire, 58 John Myatt, 59 Samuel Cheshire, 59 Samuel Cheshire (recalled), 60 Captain John Haines Hatton, 61 Samuel Cheshire (recalled), 61 George Herring, 61
_Evidence for the Prosecution (continued)._