purchased a cake of Miss Armes (it was a baker's shop), remarking to her that it was very strange O'Connor had not come home; to which Miss Armes assented; my wife desiring her to be kind enough to tell him that she had been two evenings to see him, as she desired to do so upon important business. My wife remained there about the same time as on the previous day. On Saturday she told me she wanted me to go to a sharebroker's with some Eastern Counties' shares. I asked her what was the use of doing so, as I should have to commit a forgery. She replied, The man is dead, so there can be no witness against you.' Upon which I said it would be impossible to sell the shares now, as fifteen days' notice was required before a sale could be effected. She then said I could borrow money on them; and I went to Messrs. Killick and Co., sharebrokers, and wanted to borrow £120 upon them. They asked who had referred me to them, and I replied, 'A gentleman who had been in the habit of doing business with them.' I was then asked my name and residence, to which I replied 'Patrick O'Connor, 21, Greenwood-street, Mile-end-road.' I was told that £120 could not be advanced on the shares, but that I might have £110, and that the rate of interest was 5 per cent., and for six weeks. I replied, 'I should not want

VOL. I.

E

the money more than two months;' and they said the charge would be the same if I had it only for a week. They then produced a document, which I signed Patrick O'Connor, 21, Greenwoodstreet, Mile-end-road.' They gave me a £100 note and 10 sovereigns. I immediately went to the Bank of England and had the note changed for 50 sovereigns and five £10 notes, and returned home and gave the money to my wife. There were other shares with O'Connor's name on them, and my wife said I had better take them to another broker and turn them into money. The lastnamed shares I believe to have been some of the Leicestershire and Birmingham, an India bond for £5, and about six scrips of the Bordeaux Railway. I declined to comply with this last request. She declared there was not the least danger, as the man was dead; and she became much excited and insisted on my going. I put on my hat, and went out as if going to a broker; and returned in about two hours, and said I had been to a broker (though I had not), who would advance money on the shares on Thursday. She remarked it was strange he would not do so then, and that she had her doubts as to my having been to a broker. Monday, the 13th August, I left home at nine in the morning, and returned about half-past 12, when my wife told me two persons had been there

On

inquiring both for O'Connor and myself; that she did not know them, but believed they were Custom-house officers. I replied it was my firm. opinion they were policemen in plain clothing, and that as sure as she was .a woman we should both be apprehended for this crime. She replied, 'Don't tell me that, or I shall faint.' I then sat down to dinner, and after dinner she said I had better go to Bainbridge's, the broker, and get him to come and take the furniture that night, so that we might take our departure by the train to Liverpool, and go thence by steam-packet to New York. I left at half-past two for Bainbridge's, and upon my quitting she said she would join me in about an hour and a half. After waiting about two hours, I sent the servant to Minver-place, but she did not find the house. I then went home, and found my wife was gone away in a cab with all her boxes. I went through a neighbour's house, and found my own back door wide open, and that everything, except the furniture, had been taken away; and I was therefore left penniless. In about half an hour I returned to Bainbridge's, and told Mrs. Bainbridge that my wife had started for the sea-side, but I thought I should remain with them a fortnight. I asked the terms, and was told they were the same that Massey paid. I remained there till Wednesday morning, when I

.....

declared my intention of going into the country for a month or so (having sold the furniture to Bainbridge for £13 10s.); and I sent Bainbridge's girl for a cab; and quitted the house at half-past seven o'clock, but did not tell the cabman where to drive to till he had gone a quarter of a mile down the street. I then told him to go to the South-Western station, where I took a ticket for Southampton, and left that place at midnight by the packet, and reached Jersey in twelve hours, and went to the Navy Arms Hotel. . . . . . When my wife returned from Mr. O'Connor's on the night of the murder, she went down-stairs with a large pair of scissors, and cut off the whole of his clothes, and buried them, as well as the slippers that were upon the corpse; and then she got a strong piece of cord, and we both tied the legs back to the haunches; and having done so, we put the body in the hole and covered it with lime, and then trod the earth in, which occupied a considerable time, and we did not retire till nearly midnight, and the next morning we again set to work at the grave, and concluded it about 11 o'clock, and then my wife said, 'Thank God we are safe; it is over; no one will think of looking there for him.' About a fortnight before, we purchased a pint and a half of vitriol, and this was thrown over the body before the lime

My wife also frequently expressed her

pleasure at O'Connor being dead, and said that he was the greatest villain that ever lived, and she said she would put no money out to interest. She afterwards said it would never be found out unless through my nervousness, and if any one came she would answer them, as she had the nerve of a horse. She likewise said she was sorry she had not read prayers over the body." After the murder the parties fled.

The sharp

Mrs.

and experienced intelligence of the police found the buried body in the empty house. Manning had made off with a quantity of O'Connor's property; she was taken at Edinburgh. Her husband, who also escaped, was soon after her capture, secured in the island of Jersey. They were tried together for the murder, on the 25th and 26th October, 1849, at the Central Criminal Court, before Sir Frederick Pollock, Lord Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer, and Sir William Henry Maule, and Sir Cresswell Cresswell, Judges of the Courts of Common Pleas.

The Attorney-General, Sir John Jervis, (now Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas) was the leading counsel for the prosecution. Mr. Sergeant Wilkins, Mr. Charnock, and Mr. Saunders, appeared for Manning: Mr. Ballantine and Mr. Parry, for the female prisoner.

The defence of each culprit rested on an