Murder & Crime Leeds by Margaret Drinkall

Author:Margaret Drinkall
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780752482095
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2012-04-12T04:00:00+00:00

Normington’s defence, Mr C. Foster, maintained that his client was innocent of the murder, but guilty of pawning the watch of the dead man. However, the evidence against Normington was too strong and the jury took only fifteen minutes to find him guilty. As the judge donned the black cap, there was a heart rending shriek from a woman, later identified as Normington’s mother. The sound echoed throughout the courtroom, and she had to be physically restrained and removed. On hearing the outcome of the case, the prisoner, who had kept a calm demeanour throughout the trial, collapsed into the arms of York Castle’s deputy governor, Mr Green.

When Normington was put in the condemned cell, he became extremely upset and started to cry. As a result of his distress, he was visited by Mr Green, who advised him to make full use of the time he had left to write out a true confession. He told Mr Green that he had indeed killed the old man, and that he had hit him several times, until he fell on the ground. He still maintained that he was not alone and the other unnamed man had kicked Broughton whilst he was down. His confession stated that he had not known the other man until the day of the murder and didn’t know his name. He stated that after the attack on the old man, his companion opened the waistcoat, but it was Normington who had taken out the watch. He said that he had met his companion the following day at 9 a.m. near the Marsh Lane station, in order to pawn the watch. They had gone into three pawnshops before successfully pawning the watch, and he had given the man 3s and kept the remainder for himself. They had then parted. Normington wrote that he had not seen the man since.

The next day, after writing out his confession, Normington was visited by his mother at the castle and she also begged him to tell the truth. He replied, ‘I have; I have told Mr Green all about it.’ Mr Green, who was present at this interview, confirmed that he had a written confession which the boy had signed.

Whilst in York Castle Prison, Normington dictated a series of letters while one of the wardens wrote them out for him. It had been reported that he had spent most of his life with his mother in Leeds whilst his father lived in Bradford. The couple had parted due to his father refusing to put up with the profligate life that his son had led. The letters indicate the strength of the condemned man’s religious feelings. The one to his mother is particularly heart-rending:

York Castle, 20 December 1859

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.