Radlett murder
Encyclopedia
The Radlett murder, also known as the Elstree murder, was a murder
in Radlett
, Hertfordshire
, England
, in 1823. The victim, William Weare, was killed in Radlett and the body disposed of in a pond in Elstree
. It gained a great deal of attention and was the subject of numerous books and stage plays. It is commemorated by the rhyme:
of Lyon's Inn
and a gambler. His killer was John Thurtell (1794–1824), a sports promoter, amateur boxer, a former Royal Marine officer
and the son of the mayor of Norwich
. Thurtell owed Weare a gambling debt of £300, then an immense sum. Thurtell believed Weare had cheated him of the money. Whatever the truth, when Weare demanded payment Thurtell murdered him rather than pay up. He invited Weare to join him and his friends - Joseph Hunt, a tavern landlord, and William Probert, a former convict and alcohol merchant - for a weekend of gambling at Probert's cottage at the site of Oaks Close off Gills Hill Lane (subsequently popularly known as Murder Lane), Radlett. On October 24, 1823 they journeyed from London in Thurtell's horse-drawn gig
, but Weare was killed in a dark lane just short of their destination.
Thurtell shot Weare in the face with a pistol, but this failed to kill him. Weare escaped from the carriage but did not get far before Thurtell caught him. As Weare lay injured, Thurtell slit his throat with a knife before driving the pistol into his head with such force that his brains were dashed over the ground. Assisted by Hunt and Probert he hid the corpse in a pond near the cottage. This hiding place was judged too unsafe for Probert, however, and the body was moved to another pond in Elstree. By this time both weapons had been found, as Thurtell had left them on the road. The pistol was one of a pair, the other still in Thurtell's possession. The culprits were identified and caught. Hunt himself led the authorities to the body.
which indicted them was William Lamb
, who as Lord Melbourne would later become the prime minister
. They were tried at Hertford
Assize Court. Even though Hunt had cooperated the most with the authorities, it was Probert who was offered the chance to save himself by turning King's evidence: giving evidence against the other two in exchange for freedom. Hunt was tried as an accessory to murder; his counsel was Frederic Thesiger
, a future lord chancellor
(head of the English judiciary
).
The murder and trial attracted unprecedented publicity, to the point where questions were raised as to whether the defendants could have a fair trial. Construction of the gallows
was begun even before the trial started. The trial judge, Mr Justice Park, lamented: "if these statements of evidence before trial which corrupt the purity of the administration of justice in its source are not checked, I tremble for the fate of our country." Nevertheless he allowed Thurtell and Hunt to be convicted.
Thurtell and his associates’ actions pursuant to the murder were as widely reported and commented upon as the crime itself. Having temporarily disposed of Weare’s corpse, "the trio entered the house, Hunt was introduced to Mrs Probert, directions were given to cook some pork chops for supper, and then Thurtell took the two men to the field, where they rifled the body, and left it lying enveloped in the sack. After supper a jovial evening was spent, Hunt sang several songs over the grog, and Thurtell gallantly presented Mrs. Probert with the gold chain he had taken from the body." A contemporary street ballad, The Hertfordshire Tragedy, did not fail to emphasize the particulars:
He down to supper sat,
And passed the time in merry mood,
With drink and songs and chat.
The singing in particular commanded attention. In discussing post-homicide cold-blooded tranquility, H.B. Irving
(a Victorian barrister
, and oldest son of the Victorian stage star Sir Henry Irving
), author of the Book of Remarkable Criminals remarks, “Such callousness is almost unsurpassed in the annals of criminal insensibility. Nero
fiddling over burning Rome, Thurtell fresh from the murder of Weare, inviting Hunt, the singer and his accomplice, to ‘tip them a stave’ after supper . . .” Nor were the proceedings of the trial lacking in amusement, supplied generously by Hunt’s testimony in court. Hunt was questioned about the supper indulged in immediately after the murder: “Was the supper postponed?”—“No, it was pork.” Another piece of testimony had literary value. When someone was asked about the character of Thurtell, the answer was that he was a gentleman because he kept a "gig" (a two wheel carriage). Thomas Carlyle
seized upon this as a definition of a false gentility, writing about "gigmanity".
on January 9, 1824, aged 33, by James Foxen. Having always denied his crime, he admitted it on the gallows. On the day after his death, Thurtell's body was dissected
(part of the sentence for murderers at the time). A waxwork of his body was displayed in Madame Tussauds
for 150 years. Although Thurtell had been popular and had received public sympathy, some of his relatives still chose to change their names to avoid being associated with him.
Joseph Hunt was also sentenced to death, but in recognition of his cooperation his sentence was commuted to transportation
to an Australian penal colony
for life. He was taken to Botany Bay
, where he rehabilitated. After serving his time, he gained his freedom and started a life in Australia, marrying and raising a son and a daughter. He became such a respected man that he became a police constable. He died in 1861.
William Probert was never punished for Weare's death. However reports of his involvement in the newspapers meant he was reviled and he became a social outcast. Unable to find work, he resorted to crime to support himself and his wife, and in 1825, at 33, was hanged at Newgate Prison
for stealing a horse worth £25 from a relative.
The case retained notoriety throughout the century. Like many others, Sir Walter Scott
visited the spot of the murder a few years after it took place. In his diary he wrote of the "labyrinth of intricate lanes, which seemed made on purpose to afford strangers the full benefit of a dark night and a drunk driver, in order to visit Gill’s Hill, famous for the murder of Mr. Weare . . . The principal part of the house is destroyed, and only the kitchen remains standing. The garden has been dismantled, though a few laurels and flowering shrubs, run wild, continue to mark the spot. The fatal pond is now only a green swamp, but so near the house, that one cannot conceive how it was ever chosen as a place of temporary concealment for the murdered body. The dirt of the present habitation equals its desolation . . . [t]he landlord had dismantled the place because no respectable person would live there."
Another distinguished essayist, Thomas Babington Macaulay, acidly remarked:
"There is a possibility that Thurtell may have killed Weare only in order to give the youth of England an impressive warning against gaming and bad company. There is a possibility that Fauntleroy
may have forged powers of attorney, only in order that his fate might turn the attention of the public to the defects of the penal law. These things, we say, are possible. But they are so extravagantly improbable that a man who should act on such suppositions would be fit only for Saint Luke’s [a mental asylum]."
There are other literary connections for Thurtell. Among his acquaintances were the essayist
William Hazlitt
(who talked of him as "Tom Turtle" in the essay The Fight), the
sports historian Pierce Egan
, and the writer George Borrow
. Weare too had a brush with the intelligentsia, as he frequently played billiards with the future controversial Shakespearean scholar John Payne Collier
.
In the short story Markheim
by Robert Louis Stevenson
there is a reference to a wax chamber of horrors with "Weare in the death grip of Thurtell".
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
in Radlett
Radlett
Radlett is a small town in the county of Hertfordshire between St Albans and Borehamwood on Watling Street with a population of approximately 8,000. It is located in the council district of Hertsmere and is covered by two wards, Aldenham East and Aldenham West...
, Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, in 1823. The victim, William Weare, was killed in Radlett and the body disposed of in a pond in Elstree
Elstree
Elstree is a village in the Hertsmere borough of Hertfordshire on the A5 road, about 10 miles north of London. In 2001, its population was 4,765, and forms part of the civil parish of Elstree and Borehamwood, originally known simply as Elstree....
. It gained a great deal of attention and was the subject of numerous books and stage plays. It is commemorated by the rhyme:
They cut his throat from ear to ear,
His head they battered in.
His name was Mr William Weare,
He lived in Lyons Inn.
The killing
William Weare was a solicitorSolicitor
Solicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...
of Lyon's Inn
Lyon's Inn
Lyon's Inn was one of the Inns of Chancery attached to Inner Temple. Founded some time during or before the reign of Henry V, the Inn educated lawyers including Edward Coke and John Selden, although it was never one of the larger Inns...
and a gambler. His killer was John Thurtell (1794–1824), a sports promoter, amateur boxer, a former Royal Marine officer
Royal Marines
The Corps of Her Majesty's Royal Marines, commonly just referred to as the Royal Marines , are the marine corps and amphibious infantry of the United Kingdom and, along with the Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary, form the Naval Service...
and the son of the mayor of Norwich
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
. Thurtell owed Weare a gambling debt of £300, then an immense sum. Thurtell believed Weare had cheated him of the money. Whatever the truth, when Weare demanded payment Thurtell murdered him rather than pay up. He invited Weare to join him and his friends - Joseph Hunt, a tavern landlord, and William Probert, a former convict and alcohol merchant - for a weekend of gambling at Probert's cottage at the site of Oaks Close off Gills Hill Lane (subsequently popularly known as Murder Lane), Radlett. On October 24, 1823 they journeyed from London in Thurtell's horse-drawn gig
Gig (carriage)
A gig, also called chair or chaise, is a light, two-wheeled sprung cart pulled by one horse.-Description:Gigs travelling at night would normally carry two oil lamps with thick glass, known as gig-lamps. Gig carts are constructed with the driver's seat sitting higher than the level of the shafts. ...
, but Weare was killed in a dark lane just short of their destination.
Thurtell shot Weare in the face with a pistol, but this failed to kill him. Weare escaped from the carriage but did not get far before Thurtell caught him. As Weare lay injured, Thurtell slit his throat with a knife before driving the pistol into his head with such force that his brains were dashed over the ground. Assisted by Hunt and Probert he hid the corpse in a pond near the cottage. This hiding place was judged too unsafe for Probert, however, and the body was moved to another pond in Elstree. By this time both weapons had been found, as Thurtell had left them on the road. The pistol was one of a pair, the other still in Thurtell's possession. The culprits were identified and caught. Hunt himself led the authorities to the body.
Trial
Thurtell, Hunt and Probert were indicted for murder. The foreman of the grand juryGrand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...
which indicted them was William Lamb
William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne
William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, PC, FRS was a British Whig statesman who served as Home Secretary and Prime Minister . He is best known for his intense and successful mentoring of Queen Victoria, at ages 18-21, in the ways of politics...
, who as Lord Melbourne would later become the prime minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
. They were tried at Hertford
Hertford
Hertford is the county town of Hertfordshire, England, and is also a civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of the county. Forming a civil parish, the 2001 census put the population of Hertford at about 24,180. Recent estimates are that it is now around 28,000...
Assize Court. Even though Hunt had cooperated the most with the authorities, it was Probert who was offered the chance to save himself by turning King's evidence: giving evidence against the other two in exchange for freedom. Hunt was tried as an accessory to murder; his counsel was Frederic Thesiger
Frederic Thesiger, 1st Baron Chelmsford
Frederic Thesiger, 1st Baron Chelmsford PC KC FRS was a British jurist and Conservative politician. He was twice Lord Chancellor of Great Britain.-Early life:...
, a future lord chancellor
Lord Chancellor
The Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, or Lord Chancellor, is a senior and important functionary in the government of the United Kingdom. He is the second highest ranking of the Great Officers of State, ranking only after the Lord High Steward. The Lord Chancellor is appointed by the Sovereign...
(head of the English judiciary
Judiciary
The judiciary is the system of courts that interprets and applies the law in the name of the state. The judiciary also provides a mechanism for the resolution of disputes...
).
The murder and trial attracted unprecedented publicity, to the point where questions were raised as to whether the defendants could have a fair trial. Construction of the gallows
Gallows
A gallows is a frame, typically wooden, used for execution by hanging, or by means to torture before execution, as was used when being hanged, drawn and quartered...
was begun even before the trial started. The trial judge, Mr Justice Park, lamented: "if these statements of evidence before trial which corrupt the purity of the administration of justice in its source are not checked, I tremble for the fate of our country." Nevertheless he allowed Thurtell and Hunt to be convicted.
Thurtell and his associates’ actions pursuant to the murder were as widely reported and commented upon as the crime itself. Having temporarily disposed of Weare’s corpse, "the trio entered the house, Hunt was introduced to Mrs Probert, directions were given to cook some pork chops for supper, and then Thurtell took the two men to the field, where they rifled the body, and left it lying enveloped in the sack. After supper a jovial evening was spent, Hunt sang several songs over the grog, and Thurtell gallantly presented Mrs. Probert with the gold chain he had taken from the body." A contemporary street ballad, The Hertfordshire Tragedy, did not fail to emphasize the particulars:
Although his hands were warm with blood,
He down to supper sat,
And passed the time in merry mood,
With drink and songs and chat.
The singing in particular commanded attention. In discussing post-homicide cold-blooded tranquility, H.B. Irving
Harry Brodribb Irving
Harry Brodribb Irving , was a British stage actor and actor-manager; the eldest son of Sir Henry Irving and his wife Florence , and father of designer Laurence Irving and actress Elizabeth Irving....
(a Victorian barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
, and oldest son of the Victorian stage star Sir Henry Irving
Henry Irving
Sir Henry Irving , born John Henry Brodribb, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility for season after season at the Lyceum Theatre, establishing himself and his company as...
), author of the Book of Remarkable Criminals remarks, “Such callousness is almost unsurpassed in the annals of criminal insensibility. Nero
Nero
Nero , was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68, and the last in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor, and succeeded to the throne in 54 following Claudius' death....
fiddling over burning Rome, Thurtell fresh from the murder of Weare, inviting Hunt, the singer and his accomplice, to ‘tip them a stave’ after supper . . .” Nor were the proceedings of the trial lacking in amusement, supplied generously by Hunt’s testimony in court. Hunt was questioned about the supper indulged in immediately after the murder: “Was the supper postponed?”—“No, it was pork.” Another piece of testimony had literary value. When someone was asked about the character of Thurtell, the answer was that he was a gentleman because he kept a "gig" (a two wheel carriage). Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.He called economics "the dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator.Coming from a strict Calvinist family, Carlyle was...
seized upon this as a definition of a false gentility, writing about "gigmanity".
Punishment
John Thurtell was hangedHanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
on January 9, 1824, aged 33, by James Foxen. Having always denied his crime, he admitted it on the gallows. On the day after his death, Thurtell's body was dissected
Dissection
Dissection is usually the process of disassembling and observing something to determine its internal structure and as an aid to discerning the functions and relationships of its components....
(part of the sentence for murderers at the time). A waxwork of his body was displayed in Madame Tussauds
Madame Tussauds
Madame Tussauds is a wax museum in London with branches in a number of major cities. It was founded by wax sculptor Marie Tussaud and was formerly known as "Madame Tussaud's", but the apostrophe is no longer used...
for 150 years. Although Thurtell had been popular and had received public sympathy, some of his relatives still chose to change their names to avoid being associated with him.
Joseph Hunt was also sentenced to death, but in recognition of his cooperation his sentence was commuted to transportation
Penal transportation
Transportation or penal transportation is the deporting of convicted criminals to a penal colony. Examples include transportation by France to Devil's Island and by the UK to its colonies in the Americas, from the 1610s through the American Revolution in the 1770s, and then to Australia between...
to an Australian penal colony
Penal colony
A penal colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general populace by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory...
for life. He was taken to Botany Bay
Botany Bay
Botany Bay is a bay in Sydney, New South Wales, a few kilometres south of the Sydney central business district. The Cooks River and the Georges River are the two major tributaries that flow into the bay...
, where he rehabilitated. After serving his time, he gained his freedom and started a life in Australia, marrying and raising a son and a daughter. He became such a respected man that he became a police constable. He died in 1861.
William Probert was never punished for Weare's death. However reports of his involvement in the newspapers meant he was reviled and he became a social outcast. Unable to find work, he resorted to crime to support himself and his wife, and in 1825, at 33, was hanged at Newgate Prison
Newgate Prison
Newgate Prison was a prison in London, at the corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey just inside the City of London. It was originally located at the site of a gate in the Roman London Wall. The gate/prison was rebuilt in the 12th century, and demolished in 1777...
for stealing a horse worth £25 from a relative.
Notoriety
Besides the gruesome details, the murder was also sensational because it exposed the seedy London underworld of gambling and amateur boxing to a public ignorant of it. As more details were published of the underworld which Thurtell and Weare had inhabited, there were increasing calls for something to be done.The case retained notoriety throughout the century. Like many others, Sir Walter Scott
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....
visited the spot of the murder a few years after it took place. In his diary he wrote of the "labyrinth of intricate lanes, which seemed made on purpose to afford strangers the full benefit of a dark night and a drunk driver, in order to visit Gill’s Hill, famous for the murder of Mr. Weare . . . The principal part of the house is destroyed, and only the kitchen remains standing. The garden has been dismantled, though a few laurels and flowering shrubs, run wild, continue to mark the spot. The fatal pond is now only a green swamp, but so near the house, that one cannot conceive how it was ever chosen as a place of temporary concealment for the murdered body. The dirt of the present habitation equals its desolation . . . [t]he landlord had dismantled the place because no respectable person would live there."
Another distinguished essayist, Thomas Babington Macaulay, acidly remarked:
"There is a possibility that Thurtell may have killed Weare only in order to give the youth of England an impressive warning against gaming and bad company. There is a possibility that Fauntleroy
Henry Fauntleroy
Henry Fauntleroy was an English banker and forger, the last to be hanged for forgery in the United Kingdom....
may have forged powers of attorney, only in order that his fate might turn the attention of the public to the defects of the penal law. These things, we say, are possible. But they are so extravagantly improbable that a man who should act on such suppositions would be fit only for Saint Luke’s [a mental asylum]."
There are other literary connections for Thurtell. Among his acquaintances were the essayist
William Hazlitt
William Hazlitt
William Hazlitt was an English writer, remembered for his humanistic essays and literary criticism, and as a grammarian and philosopher. He is now considered one of the great critics and essayists of the English language, placed in the company of Samuel Johnson and George Orwell. Yet his work is...
(who talked of him as "Tom Turtle" in the essay The Fight), the
sports historian Pierce Egan
Pierce Egan
Pierce Egan was an early British journalist, sportswriter, and writer on popular culture.Egan was born in the London suburbs, where he spent his life. By 1812 he had established himself as the country's leading 'reporter of sporting events', which at the time meant mainly prize-fights and...
, and the writer George Borrow
George Borrow
George Henry Borrow was an English author who wrote novels and travelogues based on his own experiences around Europe. Over the course of his wanderings, he developed a close affinity with the Romani people of Europe. They figure prominently in his work...
. Weare too had a brush with the intelligentsia, as he frequently played billiards with the future controversial Shakespearean scholar John Payne Collier
John Payne Collier
John Payne Collier , English Shakespearian critic and forger, was born in London.-Reporter and solicitor:...
.
In the short story Markheim
Markheim
"Markheim" is a short story by Robert Louis Stevenson first published in a magazine in 1884, then republished in 1885 in The Broken Shaft: Tales of Mid-Ocean...
by Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
there is a reference to a wax chamber of horrors with "Weare in the death grip of Thurtell".
External links
- Execution of John Thurtell
- Jonathan Yovel: Invisible Precedents: On the Many Lives of Legal Stories Through Law and Popular Culture (50 Emory Law Journal), a study of popular culture's depiction of the Thurtell case, legal questions it involved, and its subsequent appearances in English and American courts.
- Elstree local newspaper, 2001
- The Elstree Murder
- Murder in Suburbia
- The Yellowplush Papers, Charles Dickens