PUBLIC OFFICE.
The business of this office during the last week has been devoid of public interest. […]
An application was made by Mr. Smith, solicitor, to have the prisoners who had been charged before the Coroner on Monday with the death of Styche, but who were not found guilty, admitted to bail and discharged.
Mr. George Redfern stated that the prisoners were in his custody, and although they were not found guilty on the inquest, he had not nor could he discharge them. When they were convicted of the assault, they were ordered to enter into sureties to keep the peace, and that they had not as yet done. Exclusive of that, they had been remanded on Monday by Mr. Lloyd Williams until next Monday, and that gentleman had said that it was his intention to proceed against the parties if they should be acquitted upon the inquest.
Mr. Spooner said he could allow them to enter into bail, but as the case stood he would not take it out of the hands of Mr. Lloyd Williams; he should not, therefore, discharge them, but was willing to receive any bail Mr. Smith wished to tender.
Mr. Smith said he considered it rather a hard case, but as such was the decision of the magistrates he must only wait until Monday.
PROCEEDINGS RELATIVE TO THE DEATH OF THOMAS STYCHE, AND ADJOURNED INQUEST ON THE BODY.
It will be in the recollection of our readers, that in consequence of the Secretary of State having declined issuing an order for the removal of the men from Warwick, who were in custody for the assault on Styche, a detainer was granted by Lloyd Williams, Esq., the committing magistrate, and accordingly, at the expiration of their imprisonment on Saturday, they were again taken into custody. On Monday morning they were conveyed to Birmingham; and at twelve o’clock they were brought up before Mr. Williams. Their names having been called over, Mr. Williams observed, that since their committal for the assault on Styche, that poor man had died. Since his death, the Coroner, in the discharge of his duty, had assembled a jury to enquire into its causes. That jury could not proceed in consequence of the absence of the accused, and a difficulty having arisen in obtaining a Government order for their removal to Birmingham, the inquiry had been adjourned. Application was made to the magistrates for a detainer, and he (Mr. Williams) issued his warrant to bring them before him at the expiration of their imprisonment, in order that they might be identified, and the serious charge against them might be gone into. He should now remand them for a week, in order that the jury and witnesses might see them, and if the jury should not find sufficient evidence to send them to trial, he should resume the inquiry upon the evidence already given before him, and deal with the case accordingly. He understood that they (the prisoners) had been advised that they were no longer amenable for the offence with which they were charged; it was said that because they had been convicted of the assault they could not be again civilly or criminally tried for the offence. They must not, however, flatter themselves that there was a good objection. He was bound to tell them there was nothing in it. The law said that they were not criminally liable for the assault, but the law said, that in such cases, the lesser charge merged into the greater one. They would now be taken before the Coroner, and if the verdict of the jury did not implicate them, they should be brought up on that day week, and then he should proceed as the evidence already before him might require.
The prisoners, Benjamin Bromwich, Frederick Pimm, William Whateley, George Pimm, William Griffiths, William Thickbroom, and Thomas Thickbroom, were removed.
THE INQUEST.
At half-past two o’clock the Coroner and jury met in one of the lower rooms of the Public-office, and the prisoners were brought in and placed standing at the end of the table. THe names of the jury having been called over, the Coroner said, he thought, as such a length of time had elapsed since the investigation had commenced, it would be better to examine all the witnesses. Before, however, he commenced, he should order all the witnesses, except him that was to be first examined, out of the room, because it was only fair to all parties to do so.
The watchman, Spittle, was then called and his examination proceeded with. He said, – On the morning of the 23rd of October, about half-past one o’clock, as I was coming down Calthorpe-street, towards the Five-ways, I heard a rattle spring. Upon that I went towards Mr. Ledsam’s wall, on the Harborne-road; when I got there I saw Styche leaning on his stick by the wall, and bleeding very much; he had his hat on; he said four or five men had been “dropping” on him; I should think that there was a quart of blood upon the ground; Walker and Neal, both watchmen, came up; whilst I was talking to Styche the five men afterwards “dropped” upon me, and beat me with a stick; they then beat Styche again; they knocked him down with a stick; he cried out, “for God’s sake, spare my life!” The whole five men were beating him at the same time; they beat him on his head and body, and kicked him after he was down; I think Thomas Thickbroom was one of them who beat the deceased.
Coroner: Have you any doubt?
Witness: I am sure he was one of them.
Coroner: What did you see him do?
Witness: The deceased had hold of him when I got up to them.
Coroner: Now be particular, and tell me exactly all you saw when you got up to the deceased.
Witness: I saw the deceased, and he had hold of this man. (Thomas Thickbroom.)
Coroner: What was he doing when you went up?
Witness: He was standing upright, and wrestling with this man.
Coroner: Are you sure that Thomas Thickbroom was the man.
Witness: Yes; I am sure.
Coroner: How long were they wrestling?
Witness: Not many minutes.
Coroner: Recollect yourself. Did you not say before that the deceased was standing against the wall by himself when you got up to him?
Witness: Yes; he was.
Coroner: You have just said that he and Thomas Thickbroom were wrestling.
Witness: And so they were; and Thickbroom wrestled himself away from Styche.
Coroner: What became of Thickbroom after he wrestled himself away, as you say?
Witness: He joined the other party.
Coroner: Where were the other party, and how many were there of them?
Witness: They were on the Harborne road; there were four or five of them.
Coroner: Was there any person near the deceased when you went up to him?
Witness: There was not.
Coroner: You had better begin again and tell all you saw in your own way, and take your time.
Witness: When I went up to him first, he was leaning on his stick against the wall.
Coroner: How could he be standing against the wall, leaning on his stick, if he was wrestling with Thickbroom? Which do you mean to say was the fact?
Witness: It was exactly as I told you. (Laughter.)
Mr. Knight, Foreman: Did you see the deceased and Thickbroom wrestling when you got to the spot, or was it when you were going towards them?
Witness: After I got up to them.
Coroner: Well, what else did you see Thomas Thickbroom do?
Witness: He loosed himself from Styche.
Coroner: But did he not first get hold of him?
Witness: They beat Styche on the head.
Coroner: I cannot understand you at all.
Mr. Knight: You said you saw him leaning on his stick, now how far were you from him at that time?
Witness: About forty or fifty yards.
Coroner: Did you see Thickbroom do any thing to the deceased, or the deceased do any thing to him before they began to wrestle?
Witness: Nothing at all.
Coroner: Then you did not see any blows struck before they began to wrestle?
Witness: None at all.
Coroner: You say they were wrestling when you got up to them.
Witness: Yes.
Coroner: What else did you see?
Witness: I saw blood upon the ground.
Coroner: When did you see the blood upon the ground?
Witness: When I came up first, and when Styche was bleeding against the wall.
Coroner: Did you see the blood after Thickbroom got away?
Witness: No; not then, there was none then. – (Laughter.)
Coroner: Then you mean to say there was no blood on the ground when Thickbroom got away?
Witness: Oh, yes; and Styche was bleeding a large quantity of blood.
Coroner: How many men attacked you?
Witness: Five men attacked me and the deceased.
Coroner: You said before, that Thickbroom came up by himself, and that he attacked Styche. Is that the case?
Witness: He was with the rest.
Mr. Knight: The man seems altogether confused. Perhaps we had better try him again from the commencement, and let him tell his own tale quietly.
Coroner: Let him do so. Begin now, Spittle, and take your time.
Witness began again, but soon became apparently bewildered, and not a soul in the court could understand what he meant to convey. The Coroner, Mr. Knight, and other persons endeavoured to elicit straight-forward answers from him, but without success, and he concluded by saying, he could not identify any of the prisoners except Thomas Thickbroom.
Mr. Knight: What age are you?
Witness: I cannot tell exactly; I think about sixty years of age.
Mr. Knight: Well, I think it is about time the inhabitants of Edgbaston had some better person than you to guard their lives and property.
The Coroner said he considered it would be great injustice to the prisoners to retain such evidence as they had just heard upon the depositions, and he should therefore erase it. He defied any man to reduce what he had said to writing, in such a manner as to render it intelligible. In this opinion the jury unanimously concurred.
In a short time after he was called in and rigidly examined by the Coroner, with a view to ascertain if his contradictions and stupidity were real or only put on. In answer to the questions put to him he said that one or two persons had called at the house the day before, but he did not know who they were. One of the persons said he was uncle to the prisoner Bromwich, but he did not speak many words to him. The man asked him what he could swear against Bromwich; and told him he hoped he would swear the truth. He told him he intended to say nothing but the truth. He had no drink with any one connected with the prisoners. Bromwich’s uncle left word at his house that he was to meet him at the Spread Eagle, but he did not go. Some persons called at his house when he was in bed. They saw his daughter, but he did not ask her what they said. He made no promise directly or indirectly to the friends of the prisoners, and he came to the Court that day to speak the truth, and he had done so.
The Coroner said he did not know what to make of the witness. He was certainly a very stupid old man to say the least of him. It was high time a better system of watching was adopted.
John Walker, watchman of William-street, examined: I was on duty on the 23rd of October last; I was crying half-past one when I heard several rattles spring near Mr. Ledsam’s gate; I went to the spot, and saw two or three men beating Styche. Two of them had sticks or staffs, I can’t tell which, in their hands; four men were beating him with sticks; he lay on his back on the ground – I said “D–n your eyes, don’t kill him quite.” I flashed my lantern in their eyes, and they then ran away. They afterwards flung stones at me and broke my lantern to pieces; I gathered up Styche, and the men went off with themselves towards Harborne; Benjamin Bromwich was one of the men who was beating Styche, and Frederick Pimm was another; both of them had sticks; they were fourteen or fifteen of them about the deceased when I got up, but only four of them took an active part; the whole of the party were laughing, and making a row together; I did not see the deceased strike any of them; I saw a good deal of blood on his coat, and he was bleeding very much. At about one o’clock I saw the prisoner, William Whateley, at the King’s Arms public-house; he was very much intoxicated, and there was a part of nine or ten waiting for him in William-street; William-street is a quarter of a mile from the Five-ways gate; I did not see any more of the party until the row.
John Mills, tailor, Harborne: On the morning of the 23rd of October last I was going to Harborne, at half-past one o’clock, when I saw some watchmen and a number of men near to the stables, beyond the gates on the Harborne-road; there might be from ten to fifteen men; they were standing in the road; there were three or four watchmen, and they seemed as if they were talking to the men. I passe on forty or fifty yards, and I then heard an outcry from the party. I stopped to listen, and while I stood one of the party came up – it was the prisoner Whateley. He said, “Ah, Mr. Mills, is it you?” I said, “What is up?” He said, “The b—-y watchmen, or watchman, has begun on us.” He had his hand behind his back, and I asked him what he had in his hand, and he said it was a staff. He went on a few yards, and then came back again and gave me the staff, with a remark, that I was not to say any thing about it. When I heard Styche had been so badly beaten I gave up the staff to the constable. I saw George Pimm standing with the party when I first passed them, and I saw Griffiths on the road, but not near the watchmen.
The Coroner said it would be convenient for Mr. Hodgson, the surgeon, if his evidence was then taken, and as it would make no difference in the course of the examination, they had better proceed with it.
Mr. Hodgson deposed as follows: On the 23rd of October I saw the deceased at the General Hospital. He had several cuts and bruises on the top and back part of his head, none on his forehead. There were none of them very deep. The parts around them were swelled. He was hot and feverish. Proper applications were ordered, and on Friday, the 28th, he said he was quite well, and anxious to leave the Hospital. He was strongly advised not to go, as the wounds were not then quite healed. He would, however, go, and he left that day. After this he became an outpatient. On the 4th of November he was re-admitted to the Hospital; I saw him the following day. He had an extensive erysipelas on the head and face, attended with great fever and delirium. He daily grew worse; the erysipelas extended, and also the fever and delirium. He died between six and seven o’clock on the 8th of November.
Cross-examined by Mr. Smith: In all probability, if the deceased had remianed in the Hospital a few days more he would have recovered. Excess of drinking, or excitement from any other cause, would give a disposition to erysipelas. I think drinking in such a case as that of the deceased might cause erysipelas, and aggravate it if it existed. If there was a disposition in the constitution of the deceased to erysipelas, it might remain some days after drinking before the effects made their appearance. In such wounds as the deceased received we should not look for extravasated blood upon the brain.
By the Coroner: The death of the deceased was occasioned by an inflammation of the brain, caused by an extension of the erysipelas from the head and face to the brain. The erysipelas might have come on if the deceased had remained in the Hospital.
Mr. Binley, surgeon, corroborated Mr. Hodgson’s evidence in every particular, adding, that he did not perceive during the time the deceased was an outpatient at the Hospital, any symptoms that might have been caused by drinking, nor did he suspect the deceased had been indulging in intemperance.
John Hughes, a watchman, saw the party in William street: Whateley was the only one of the party that he could identify.
Joseph Neale, a watchman, was then called and examined, but owing to his being almost entirely deaf, it was with great difficulty the Coroner could make him understand the questions put to him: he stated that when he first went up to the deceased, he saw him standing against the wall without his hat, and that there were then no other persons near him except Spittle and Walker. He did not see any one strike or ill treat Styche; he and Walker then went up the Harborne road after the party.
Coroner: Walker has said that you were there when he came up.
Witness: That is not the case.
Walker was called and he completely contradicted Neal’s evidence.
The Coroner said it appeared to him, as it had no doubt long since to the Jury, that the parish of Edgbaston was protected by a most extraordinary set.
One of the constables of Edgbaston said the watchmen were not appointed by the parish officers; they were appointed by the inhabitants, who paid them out of a fund raised by weekly subscriptions.
Mary Styche, widow of the deceased, swore positively that after her husband returned from the Hospital he kept himself quite sober; he was between thirty and forty years of age.
The case having closed for the prosecution, Mr. Smith wished to address the Jury, but the Coroner would not permit him; he said there had not been a sentence offered by any person to the Jury against the prisoners; he could not therefore, permit Mr. Smith to address the Jury in their favour.
In the defence a woman named Elizabeth Lees was examined; the purport of her evidence went to prove an alibi in favour of the prisoner Bromwich. She swore that she lived at Harborne, and on the Saturday night in question she was returning home from Birmingham with her husband and daughter, when Bromwich came up with them at about one hundred yards from the Five-ways Gate; it was then about one o’clock, about a quarter of an hour afterwards they came up with him near Mr. Bedford’s house; he was then going home.
Charles Hollis said, that on the night in question, he and Bromwich left Harborne at nine o’clock and came to Birmingham; they went to the Old Crown, in Edgbaston-street, and had some ale; they left to return home at twelve o’clock. When they got to the Woodman, in Easy-row, he (Hollis) went in and called for a pint of ale, and whilst he was drinking it Bromwich remained outside the door; they then went towards the Five-ways gate; when they got to the gate, they saw a man lying in a fit, and a great number of persons about; Bromwich and he helped the man into a cart, and then started for home; Bromwich was not engaged in any row during the time he was with him.
Elizabeth Bromwich, sister of the prisoner Bromwich, swore, that on the night of the 23rd of October, at a few minutes, or at most, a quarter of an hour after the clock struck one, her brother came home.
Henry Stubbs examined: I am a brass-founder; I knew the deceased, Styche, for ten years; I saw him last on the 29th of October, about one o’clock in the day, at the Black Lion, in Smallbrook-street; he remained there from one o’clock that day until eight at night; he was drinking and talking to his friends; when he left the house he was so intoxicated that he could not find his way out of the kitchen; I was in the house all the day; I went there at half-past eight o’clock in the morning, and I left at twelve at night; the deceased had a handkerchief tied under his chin and round his head; I was at play all that week, but not since, and I had reason to remember it; there was a man named Dewson in the house, but when he came in, or when he left, I cannot say; I did not see the deceased have anything to eat on that day; the deceased sat in the corner by the fire all the time; I should think Styche had about seven pints of ale; I know he called for six or seven pints, and he shared them with one or two whom he knew; I took notice of what Styche had, because I thought it was not proper for a man having bruises such as he had, to drink so much.
Thomas Dewson examined: I was at the Black Lion on the Saturday after Styche came out of the hospital; Stubbs was there; I believe it was on the 29th of October; I stopped there about an hour or an hour and a half; I did not take much notice of Styche, but when I saw him I took him to be rather tipsy; he was given to drinking; he had something bound round his head; he had his hat on; when I came into the kitchen he was standing up, and then he sat down on the right hand side of the tap-room door; I saw him drinking ale out of a pint pot, but I cannot say how much he drank; I am a master cabinet-maker, and have two men and two boys working for me.
Mrs. Styche was again called, and she swore positively that the statements of Stubbs and Dewson were absolutely false.
The Coroner said, he should send for Mrs. Joiner, the landlady of the Black Lion; and in a short time Mrs. Joiner and her husband came into the office.
Mrs. Joiner being sworn, said, I knew the deceased; I saw him in my house after he came out of the hospital; I do not remember the day; he came in the morning between breakfast and dinner, and staid about three parts of an hour; he had one half-pint of fourpenny ale, and he paid for it; I only saw him once, and I do not think he was there at any other time; I am very seldom out; never on a Saturday night; I have no particular recollection of the 29th of October; I do not think he could have been in my house from one o’clock on that day, until eight o’clock at night, without my knowledge; I never received for seven pints of ale from him at any time after he was hurt; Stubbs comes to our house; I do not recollect his having been there on the 29th of October, but he might have been; if any person was led out of my tap-room he must have passed the bar, and I must have seen him.
The Coroner asked if there was any further evidence to offer, and on being informed that there was not, he summed up the whole with great care. The jury then retired, and after the lapse of an hour, they returned into the office at two o’clock in the morning, having agreed on the following verdict:- “We find Benjamin Bromwich, Frederick Pimm, and William Whateley, guilty of Manslaughter, and the rest of the prisoners Not Guilty.”
With a very few exceptions, the whole evidence, from beginning to end, was a mass of wilful or accidental contradictions.
(Birmingham Journal, 7th January 1837)
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