Cambridgeshire Murders (7 page)

Later Slade had worked as a labourer for, among others, Mr Waterhouse. Then from November 1826 he laboured for a Little Stukeley farmer named Mr Hall. He was dismissed by Mr Hall in May 1827 after being found responsible for a petty theft. This was not the first time he had been caught stealing and he had no further regular employment, just odd days of casual work in the weeks leading up Waterhouse's death.

By this time Slade had already become close to his neighbour William Heddings. Working as a team, often with John Slade as an accomplice, they were eventually found to be responsible for a large spate of local night-time thefts, particularly those involving the rustling of livestock. The villagers of Little Stukeley had often witnessed them returning with stolen property but had kept their silence for fear of reprisals.

Heddings was a more experienced criminal. He was also an adept lock-picker and passed this skill on to Slade.

In the weeks leading up the assizes the rectory became a curiosity and was visited by many people. On Monday 30 July a huge crowd gathered in the market place to await the start of the trial. Of all the cases heard that day, only the dismissal of charges against Slade's parents and Lansdale Wright were in any way connected with the Waterhouse murder. At exactly 9 a.m. the following morning Lord Chief Baron Alexander entered the packed courtroom and Slade was brought before him. The charges were read out and when asked to plead Slade replied ‘not guilty'.

There were six key points on which the prosecution based its case: the blood stains on Slade's clothes; the blood stains on Slade's knife and Sykes's bill (see page 36); the footprints found at the rectory and in the tunnel; witnesses identifying Slade by his distinctive gait; the fabrication of Slade's alibi; and the statement from Heddings.

Sergeant Storks testified that he had noticed blood on Slade's clothes when he had first interviewed the prisoner on Thursday 12 July, nine days after the killing. He stated:

I was struck with the appearance of his trousers down the front. He wore slop fustian trousers and jacket, of a dirty brown colour, and a blue cravat; the front of his trousers, I noticed, had a dark greasy shining appearance. It struck me, but not at that moment, that it was blood and dirt rubbed together . . .

I examined his jacket on the Sunday following, and his shoes three days ago; I found a large stain of blood on the inner side of the covering of the skirt of his jacket, and also a stain on the inner side of the left shoulder; the right thigh of the trousers appeared to me to have been washed, or some liquid put upon it to take out the stain.

Living as part of the Slade family was a man named Thomas Sykes, who owned a woodman's bill which he stored in a cupboard within the house. Sykes testified that the last time he had used the bill was in the spring when he had cleaned it and put it away. This became one of two possible murder weapons, the other being the clasp knife found in Slade's possession while he was awaiting trial. About this Storks stated:

I examined the bill with a magnifying glass and could discover grey-coloured human hair and blood, and dirt appeared to have been put on afterwards. I knew Mr. Waterhouse – he was an old man, and had grey hair, and the hair on the bill corresponded. There were several cuts on the tub; they must have been given with great violence, and, in my opinion, with a bill.

The next witness to take the stand was W. Francis who had been at the Swan public house with Slade on the evening before the murder. He testified that, at somewhere between one and two in the morning, they had left the pub. The last that Francis had seen of Slade was as his drinking companion headed in the direction of both the church and his home.

On the following Monday, Francis and another man named Woods had taken one of the prisoner's shoes and gone to Mr Waterhouse's field across a stile and a ditch where, in the bank, they had found an imprint of a shoe. Comparing this to the one they carried they found it a perfect match.

When Peter Sabey took the stand his identification of Joshua Slade had become far more specific than it had been when he had made his earlier statement and included the following remark:

The man lobbed a little in his gait, and appeared to be a young man, about five feet six inches in height. My opinion was, that it was the prisoner Slade; but I did not see his features, and could not swear it was him.

The fifth point made by the prosecution, and potentially one of the most damning for Slade, was the proof that he had fabricated his alibi and therefore had demonstrated himself to be a liar. The constable, John Richardson, took the stand and made a short but thorough statement undoing every part of Slade's original story. Joshua Slade's defence argued that as he was disliked in the village he had felt the need to protect himself from malicious gossip with the invention of an alibi.

The final evidence from the prosecution was Heddings' testimony. Despite Heddings's bad reputation his statement was the single most important element of the prosecution's case.

Heddings repeated his previous statement virtually word for word, recounting everything that Joshua Slade had purportedly told him as they walked towards the Swan public house. The judge asked Slade whether he wished to question the witness. Slade replied, ‘He has told a false story, my Lord.'

When cross-examined by the defence Heddings was asked whether he thought he would be shown mercy in return for making his statement and Heddings admitted ‘I hope so.'

The defence was keen to discredit Heddings as quickly as possible. Although Heddings claimed that he had been in the company of several others when Slade had confessed, no one else was able to corroborate his statement.

Joshua Slade was then invited to give his version of events:

I saw Heddings come from the Bell, as I was in the Swan along with John Hawkes. Hawkes said, ‘Tell Heddings to come in.' I went out to him and tapped him on the shoulder; he said ‘What do you think of this concern?' I said, ‘I don't know.'

He said, ‘I have a strong suspicion of old Wright.' These were his very words. He then said, ‘I am sorry the old man is dead; I would as leave half the parish had died as him, for I counted on having a quarter of barley from him this week.' Hawkes can prove that I was in the Swan, and only went out for a minute to call Heddings to have some drink.

Hawkes was called to give evidence, but did not appear.

The defence addressed each of the prosecution's points. With regards to the blood on Slade's clothes Mrs Garner clearly remembered that Slade had cut his finger and thumb while cutting bread and that this had occurred on Monday 24 June. Under cross-examination Sergeant Storks admitted, ‘I said the only mark of blood I could swear to was on the left side of the trousers, and the prisoner gave a very probable cause for it'. When asked about the blood on Sykes' bill he continued, ‘It is a very difficult thing to swear to blood. To the best of my belief it was human hair on the bill, and there was some stain on the handle. What I thought was human hair might have been the hair of a sheep's face, but it was not wool.'

As for the knife which had been found in Slade's possession, Wilson, the surgeon, was cross-examined and conceded: ‘Other instruments of a similar shape and size would inflict such a wound. I believe the corrosion on the knife is caused by coloured animal matter; the blood of a sheep would produce the same effect.' With regards to the footprints, the Lord Chief Baron argued that as Francis and Woods had not visited the tunnel until six days after the murder it would be reasonable for Joshua Slade to have innocently travelled that route on numerous other occasions.

In his summing up the Lord Chief Baron addressed the jury. He stressed that the case predominantly rested on the statement of Heddings and that all the other evidence presented had been circumstantial. He warned the jury that Heddings's testimony was given in the same order and identically worded to the testimony he had given magistrates just over two weeks earlier and suggested that it had all the hallmarks of a prepared story. In conclusion he said that he trusted that the real criminal would soon be arrested.

By this point the general feeling was that Joshua Slade would be acquitted, but after retiring for a mere twenty minutes the jury returned the verdict of guilty. Lord Chief Baron passed the death sentence adding that Slade's ‘body afterwards be dissected and anatomised'.

Immediately following this Heddings's own trial commenced. He was found guilty of theft, largely on evidence given by Joshua Slade's brother John. Heddings was also condemned to death.

John Slade was released and eventually found employment as a labourer.

On being returned to his cell the chaplain foiled Slade's attempt at suicide. Slade continued to protest his innocence, insisting that while he had been a thief he had never been a murderer. On the morning he was due to hang, Thursday 2 August 1827, the Lord Chief Baron ordered a twenty-four hour stay of execution.

On the following day the under-sheriff arrived from Cambridge with a second stay of execution deferring the execution until 1 September. During the day of 3 August Joshua Slade had said final farewells to several members of his family. Later that day he asked to see the chaplain and confessed.

The under-sheriff consulted the judges who concluded that the stay should remain in force and so should the new execution date of 1 September. The confession was written down by the county clerk, Mr Sweeting, and witnessed by Charles Margetts and John Thomas. Later Slade made an addition that he would have confessed sooner except for the thought of facing his family once they knew he was guilty.

Slade's confession clarifies all the points made in the trial:

On the morning of the 3rd of July 1827, I went direct from the Swan public house, at a quarter past two, and got over the garden wall. I was then fresh. I saw Peter Sabey at his door; I went to a straw wall near the dove-house, and laid there while five o'clock in the morning; I had a sword hid in the straw wall about four or five weeks; had stolen it from the Horse and Jockey public-house, Huntingdon; drew the sword out; and left the scabbard in the wall, and put the sword down my trousers by my thigh.

I went into the garden; saw Mr. Waterhouse then in the yard, but he did not see me; the garden door was not fastened. I opened the door, and went in up stairs and hid myself in the wool-chamber from five o'clock until ten, for the purpose of plundering the house; I meant to have robbed the house at night of any thing I could.

I was asleep from five to ten among the wool; Mr. Waterhouse, happening to come up stairs, heard me breathe; I dare say I was snoring; upon which Mr. Waterhouse came up to the chamber, and called ‘Holloa! who are you? What do you do here?'

I then got up, drew the sword, and laid hold of him. Mr. Waterhouse tried to go in at the chamber where his blunderbuss was, but I would not let him. I led him down stairs, Mr. Waterhouse trying all the way to get up stairs. No conversation passed in coming down. When we got down stairs, I said, ‘Now Mr. Waterhouse, if you'll forgive me, I will forgive you; and if not, this is your death warrant,' holding up the sword. Mr. Waterhouse said, ‘No, I will suffer any thing first.'

I was standing opposite to him in the lower passage: When I let him go, Mr. Waterhouse went to run by me to the kitchen-door to call somebody; upon which, just as Mr. Waterhouse was turning into the kitchen, I struck him a back-handed blow, the great cut across the jaw, and he reeled back, caught himself against the tub, and fell backwards into it; he guarded his head with his hands when in the tub; I struck him several blows with the sword; he laid hold of the sword twice; upon which I drew it out of his hands and cut his fingers; I also stabbed him in the throat, which was the last blow.

Mr. Waterhouse then said, ‘I am done,' and died immediately. There was no blood whatever upon me except on my finger, which I spit on and wiped it on the grass, and also one spot on my waistcoat, which I scratched out with my nail immediately; it never was seen. I have heard that blood of a murdered person will not wipe out, but I am sure this did. I did not hear the dog bark all the time; he would not bark at me; he barked once when I first got over the wall, but as soon as he heard my step he knew me, and was quiet.

The kitchen-door leading into the yard was wide open all the time; no person came into or near the house all the time. No other instrument was used, excepting the sword, and no other person was present, or knew any thing about it, until I made a confession to the Chaplain yesterday.

All that passed between Heddings and myself on the Wednesday and night of the inquest was as follows. I asked Heddings whether he would go and drink with me; Heddings drew me on one side, and asked me ‘what do you think of this concern?' Heddings said, ‘I have strong suspicion of old Wright, and, I am sorry he (Mr. Waterhouse) is dead; I would as leave all the folks in the town should be dead as him, for I counted of having a quarter of barley from him this week.'

Having committed the murder, which was all finished by ten minutes past ten (I had my watch with me), I immediately ran out of the house. I had pulled off my shoes when I first went into the garden at five in the morning, and am sure the footmarks alluded to in the evidence at the trial were not made then. The one in the garden might have been mine, as I was in the garden on the following day, when I was examined at Mr. Waterhouse's by Mr. Torkington. I turned immediately to the right and threw the bloody sword among the young oaks near the privy. I then ran at the back of the hay-ricks, went over that stile where it was said that the steps were, without my shoes, which I put on when I got to the top of Horse Close. In going through Dove-house Close, I saw Parker by the dove-house: but Parker did not see me. There was an old man at work in the church-yard at the same time, but he never saw me. After getting over the stile I turned to the right, and went across the closes into the tunnel; as stated in the evidence; saw the two women on the hill, did not stay in the tunnel a minute; went down the dike and laid down in Mr. Waterhouse's fields. It was about twenty minutes after ten when I got to the barley field; I remained there till seven at night; and then I went to my own house, round by the town, had my supper, and went to bed; as I was going home I saw folks running about. On Wednesday I was at work at Stanion's.