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n At eight o’clock in the morningnof Friday December 2nd 1831, the courtroom doors at the Old Baileynwere opened and immediately the crush of spectators filled every availablenspace. At nine o’clock, the Deputy Recorder, Mr Sergeant Arabin sat at the bench and read the chargenthat on one count they had murdered one Carlo Ferrari, otherwise CharlesnFerriar, and on another count, they had wilfully murdered an unknown malenperson.
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| Newgate – Plan and Elevation |
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nAll three pleaded not guilty to the charges and were taken to sit belownthe dock whilst other cases were heard. At ten o’clock, Chief Justice Tindal,nMr. Justice Littledale, and Mr. Baron Vaughan took their seats at the bench,nwhere they sat with the Lord Mayor and the sheriffs, and His Royal Highness thenDuke of Sussex (the sixth son of King George III). The Counsel engaged for thenprosecution were Messrs. Adolphus, Clarkson, and Bodkin; for the prisoners,nMessrs. Curwood and Barry. There were thirty-one witnesses subpoenaed for thenprosecution, with twenty-two for the defence; one witness for the defence, a MrnMortimer, cut his own throat prior to the trial.
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| May, Williams and Bishop in the dock |
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nThe three prisoners werenreturned to the dock; John Bishop, 33, was dressed in a frock-smock, lookingnlike an agricultural labourer, Thomas Williams, 26, wore a fustian jacket and anbrown neckerchief and was a small, simple-looking man, James May, 30, also worena fustian jacket with a yellow handkerchief, and was a wiry, athletic man.nAfter the jury had been sworn in, Mr Bodkin addressed them by repeating thencharges, and then the first witness, William Hill, porter at King’s College,ntook the stand. Hill told the court what had occurred on November 5th,nwhen the four men had brought the hamper containing the body to his door. MrnCurwood for the defence, pointed out that only Bishop and May had been presentnin the dissecting room and that Williams had been in another room.
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nMrnPartridge, the anatomy demonstrator, was called next and again described thenscene, adding medical details of the injury to the spinal column caused, in hisnopinion, by a blow, a detail to which Mr Justice Tindall drew the jury’snattention. Other surgeons from King’s were called and gave their professionalnopinions, all concurring that the blow to the neck had been the cause of death.nThey were followed by the police officers who had made the arrests at King’s,nwith Superintendent Thomas telling the court how May had said,
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n“I have nothing at all to donwith it; the subject is that gentleman’s (pointing to Bishop.) I merelynaccompanied him to get the money for it.”n
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nThomas had asked Williams why henwas there, only to be told that he was there to look at King’s College, whichnhe had not seen before.
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nThere followed more witnesses whonall added, piece by piece, their fragments to the pitiful tale, from thenwaiters at the Fortune of War pub, through the London coachmen, porters andnwatermen, some of them living on the fringes of legality and bordering on thennotorious realms of the capital’s Regency underworld.
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| Carlo Ferrari and his mouse cage |
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nThere followed the harrowingntestimonies from those who had known the victim. Augustine Brun, an Italiannspeaking through an interpreter, said he had brought a fourteen-year-old boy,nCarlo Ferrier, over from Italy two years previously, who had lived with him fornsix weeks. The boy’s surname differs slightly in the various accounts, from Ferrier, Ferriar and Ferrari to Farrari or Farreri. He had been taken to Covent Garden and shown the body, which he hadnrecognised from the hair and the size, but could not recognize the face as thenteeth had been taken out. Another Italian, Joseph Paragelli, who played anbarrel organ and the pandean pipes, had known Carlo Ferriernsince May 22nd 1830, and had seen him on a daily basis. He had knownnthat he had been in Brun’s service, and had last seen him on Regent Street,nwhen he had a cage with two white mice around his neck.
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| Two white mice |
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nWhen taken to see thenbody, Paragalli ‘undoubtedly’ identified it as that of Carlo. When shownnthe hairy cap found by Thomas, he said he could not say for certain that itnbelonged to Ferrier, but the boy had always worn a cap. Mrs Mary Paragelli (hisnwife), testified that she knew the boy by sight and had seen him often, thenlast time being on November 1st, in Oxford Street, when he had ancage, like a squirrel cage that revolves, in which were two white mice, and wasnwearing his customary cap.
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nOn November 6th, she had been taken tonidentify the body, which she instantly recognized. Her eight-year-old son, whonwas with her, had played with Carlo and he also recognised his friendninstantly. Andrew Collier, a bird-cage maker, also knew Ferrier well, had seennand spoken to him on Oxford Street, where he had been with his white mice and antortoise, and wearing his cap, a blue jacket and grey trousers. He had seen thenbody at Covent Garden station-house and was certain it was the same person.nWhen shown the clothes found in Bishop’s garden, he said that they were thensame clothes that Carlo had been wearing the previous week – he recognised thenpatch on the leg of the trousers from the poor stitching and a tear in the cap.
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nTen-year-old John King spoke next, he lived less than a minute’s walk fromnBishop’s house and on the afternoon before Guy Fawkes Day he had seen a foreignnboy with a cage of white mice and wearing a hairy cap with a green lining onnits peak standing close to the Bird Cage pub. He had watched him from thenwindow. His eleven-year-old sister, Martha, confirmed this story, adding thatnshe had not seen this boy since. More neighbours were sworn in and allnconfirmed that an Italian boy with a cage of white mice about his neck had beennseen on the Wednesday or Thursday afternoon at or about Nova Scotia Gardens,nwearing a cap and shabby clothes.
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| The position of Nova Scotia Gardens |
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nThe next witnesses were thenresidents of Nova Scotia Gardens and their landlord’s wife, who said Williams,nthen calling himself Head, had rented number two from her husband for six ornseven weeks, but had then moved in to number three with Bishop, who was hisnfather-in-law. William Woodcock, the new tenant of number two, said he had beenndigging in the garden on the Sunday afternoon once, when Williams hadnapproached him and advised him to dig at a different spot, where he might findnlilies. He was awakened during the night of November 5th, when henheard scuffling and men’s voices and someone running past his house. His sonnhad seen Williams sitting in the garden, smoking his pipe.
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nEdward Ward, a boy ofnsix-and-a-half who also lived at Nova Scotia Gardens said that on Guy FawkesnDay his mother had given him a half-holiday, which he had spent playing withnBishop’s three children. They had shown him a revolving cage and two whitenmice, and he said he had never seen them with mice or a cage before that day.nHis brother, John, had been with him and confirmed the story.
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n Tomorrow – the verdict
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