Shooting Victoria (80 page)

198:   … “we find the prisoner Guilty on the second and third counts”:
Times
18 June 1842, 8.

198:   That verdict, according to a court reporter, “rendered Mr. Clarkson's objection immaterial”:
Times
18 June 1842, 8.

198:   “John Francis, you stand convicted of high treason: what have you to say why the court should not give you judgment to die according to the law?”:
Times
18 June 1842, 8.

199:   … a jaded population, which “seems to require stimulants of an extraordinary nature to arouse it.… Poor Daly was only shot.
He was not cut up!”: Morning Chronicle
20 June 1842, 6.

200:   The prosecution's witnesses methodically established all of Cooper's actions on the fifth of May, from his confrontation with Moss to his eventual apprehension: For full (and at times varied) accounts of Cooper's trial, see the
Times
20 June 1842, 7–8;
Morning Chronicle
20 June 1842,
6–7;
“Thomas Cooper.”

200:   … he “should have his father up out of his grave, as there was no use in his lying there”:
Times
20 June 1842, 8.

200:   Cooper's odd behavior had all begun with a bout of “putrid fever”:
Times
20 June 1842, 8.

201:   … “he once bought a silver watch for 14s., and picked it to pieces. He then sold it for
7s.”: Morning Chronicle
20 June 1842, 6.

201:   … the “regimen and restraint” of Newgate had had a deeply therapeutic effect on his client:
Times
20 June 1842, 8.

201:   … “every person who had arrived at the age of discretion must be considered sane until he was proved to be otherwise”:
Times
20 June 1842, 8.

202:   … Cooper was ordered to stand:
Morning Chronicle
20 June 1842, 7.

202:   “You had better listen to me. You had better listen to me, prisoner, instead of shaking your fist at any one there”:
Morning Chronicle
20 June 1842, 7.

202:   … Cooper burst into a frenzied rage and tried to tear an inkwell out of the bar of the dock:
Morning Chronicle
20 June 1842, 7.

202:   … he instead again shook his fist and hurled threats of vengeance against the all witnesses:
Times
20 June 1842, 8.

202:   When returned to his cell after his trial, he collapsed into a seat, moaning and weeping:
Morning Chronicle
20 June 1842, 6.

203:   … the
Times
on the next day ran an editorial that predicted, based on Justice Tindal's “grave and solemn” way of passing verdict, that Francis would indeed be executed:
Times
18 Jun 1842, 6.

203:   … “there could be no pretence for entertaining a single thought to her prejudice or against her sacred person”:
Morning Chronicle
20 June 1842.

203:   The reporter for the
Morning Chronicle
reporting this scene held that Francis was weak-minded and impressionable:
Morning Chronicle
20 June 1842, 6.

203:   Cooper expected no reprieve; he wished death to come as soon as possible:
Times
1 July 1842, 6.

203:   … Cooper generally reverted to his natural state of rage, sputtering curses and threats of violence against the Metropolitan Police:
Times
1 July 1842, 6;
Era
26 June 1842, 8.

203:   His only regret was that he could not hurt them or the witnesses against him:
Era
26 June 1842, 8.

203:   Francis received the news with “heart-rending despair”:
Era
26 June 1842.

204:   John Francis Senior sent his petition for clemency to the Queen via Home Secretary Graham: TNA PRO HO 45/3079.

204:   Francis's sister Jane wrote her own petition, and sought a different avenue to the Queen: TNA PRO HO 45/3079.

204:   At least three other groups drew up petitions to Graham or the Queen: TNA PRO HO 45/3079.

204:   Almost certainly against Cooper's wishes, his mother drew up a petition for her son as well:
Era
26 June 1842, 8.

204:   “I am directed to express to you [Graham's] regret that there is no sufficient ground to justify him consistently with his public duty in advising her Majesty to comply with the prayer thereof”:
Era
26 June 1842,11.

204:   It was a scene of “a most distressing character,” according to a witness:
Era
3 July 1842.

205:   On Saturday 1 July, Peel reported the decision to Prince Albert: Charlot 221.

205:   “Norfolk Island is scarcely safety—prolonged agony it certainly is”: Browning and Browning 6:28.

205:   … “the feeling that he is to be executed is very painful to me,” Victoria wrote in her journal. And when she learned of the commutation she wrote “I of course am glad”: RA VIC/MAIN/ QVJ/1842,1 July 1842.

205:   A convict ship, the
Marquis of Hastings
, had arrived in Portsmouth on 24 June:
Caledonian Mercury
30 June 1842, 4.

206:   Two days later … he was clapped in heavy irons and one of Newgate's chief jailers conveyed him by the Southwestern Railway to Gosport:
Examiner 9
July 1842, 445.

206:   On the eighteenth, he embarked: “Convicts and Convict Ships sent to Tasmania.”

206:   “The opinion is that he will not long survive the hardships consequent on the fulfillment of his sentence,” wrote a writer in the
Examiner: Examiner 9
July 1842.

Chapter 12: Hunchbacked Little Miscreant

207:   … on either side of the Mall, two or three deep … :
Times
4 July 1842, 4.

207:   He hardly saw himself as a human being:
Ipswich Journal
16 July 1842, 1, qtd. from the
Globe
.

207:   … [he was] tired to death of his life:
Era
10 July 1842, 7.

208:   His arms were atrophied sticks:
Ipswich Journal
16 July 1842, 1, qtd. from the
Globe
.

208:   His eyes sunk into his head. His expression was permanently careworn and weary:
Times
5 July 1842, 5.

209:   “I shall never be otherwise than I am”:
Ipswich Journal
16 July 1842, 1, qtd. from the
Globe
. 209:   … but the painstaking work was simply too exhausting for his pitiful limbs:
Freeman's Journal 7
July 1842, 3; qtd. from the
Globe
.

209:   … his apprenticeship to a cheesemonger resulted in failure, as did a job as an errand boy at Her Majesty's Stationery Office:
Morning Chronicle 7
July 1842, 5.

209:   Two months before, he had come across in this way several articles on Edward Oxford: TNA MEPO 3/19A;
Morning Chronicle
6 July 1842, 5; an example of such an article, appearing a month before, appears in the
Weekly Dispatch
5 June 1842, 271.

210:   But he suffered greatly from the insults and disrespect of his younger brothers: 1841
England Census
(mistranscribed as “John Bonn”);
Examiner
9 July 1842, 442.

210:   His mother fell ill with worry; his father frantically took a full description of the boy to Clerkenwell police station and pressed them to find him:
Morning Chronicle
5 July 1842, 3; 7 July 1842, 5.

210:   Four days later, Bean's employer Mr. Hilton spotted him lurking outside his business:
Morning Chronicle 7
July 1842, 5.

210:   … he bought his pistol from a neighbor, Mr. Bird:
Times
5 July 1842, 5;
Morning Chronicle
5 July 1842, 3; 6 July 1842, 5.

210:   … he had sold off his meager collection of books, including his Bible, to get it:
Times
5 July 1842, 5.

210:   … probably not worth the three shillings he paid:
Annual Register
84:120;
Times
5 July 1842, 5.

210:   Bird noticed Bean's “childish glee”:
Annual Register
120.

211:   Bean then brought the pistol to a neighbor to clean it:
Times
5 July 1842, 5;
Morning Chronicle
5 July 1842, 3.

211:   … a few fragments of a clay smoking-pipe:
Morning Chronicle
26 August 1842, 4; Martin 1:124.

211:   He again lived on the streets, sleeping where he could—in abandoned houses, in fields—on the outskirts of Islington:
Times
5 July 1842, 5.

211:   … he had survived last week on only eight pence:
Era
10 July 1842, 7.

211:   “Dear Father and Mother”: “John William Bean”;
Times
5 July 1842, 5. Several variations of this letter appeared in the newspapers, but this one is a transcription of the actual letter, read aloud at Bean's trial.

212:   The four had come and gone from the palace:
Times
1 July 1842, 6; 2 July 1842, 6.

212:   The carriages were all covered landaus: “John William Bean.”

212:   Leopold rode with them.
Times
4 July 1842, 5; Martin 1:123.

212:   … “genteel-looking,” of normal size and stature, and very nattily dressed:
Morning Chronicle
4 July 1842, 5; TNA PRO MEPO 1/19A.

213:   … some could see the light blue or maybe pale green bonnet of the Queen: “John William Bean.”

213:   He clearly saw the hammer drop and heard the click:
Times 4
July 1842, 4.

213:   “Look here, Fred,” he exclaimed, “this chap is going to have a pop at the Queen”:
Morning Chronicle
4 July 1842, 5.

214:   “He did not walk so fast as my brother wished,” said Frederick Dassett: “he
is
a cripple”: “John William Bean.”

214:   Dassett “certainly appeared to me,” one member of the crowd later said, “to be disposed to excite the mob”: “John William Bean”; TNA PRO MEPO 3/19A.

214:   It was a hoax, some shouted—the gun wasn't loaded! Others called out to Dassett to give the boy back his pistol, and to let him go: “John William Bean”;
Morning Chronicle
26 August 1842, 4.

214:   “put it into your pocket and run away with it”:
Times
4 July 1842, 4.

214:   Dassett presented pistol and Bean to P.C. Thomas Hearn, explaining what had happened:
Times
4 July 1842, 4.

214:   … an officer with much more experience on the force and particularly with guarding the Queen:
Morning Chronicle
26 August 1842, 4; “John William Bean.”

214:   … “large numbers actually clambered the sharp-pointed railings”:
Times
4 July 1842, 4.

215:   … “otherwise my arm would have been broken”:
Times
4 July 1842, 4.

215:   … Partridge dismissed Dassett's story of the hunchbacked dwarf as “shamming”: Martin 1:124.

215:   … joined by Inspector George Martin, who took custody of the pistol:
Morning Chronicle
26 August 1842, 4.

215:   … at least six hundred of the Queen's loyal subjects”:
Morning Chronicle
, 4 July 1842, 5.

215:   Three thousand, according to the
Times: Times 4
July 1842, 4.

216:   One of the first there was Daniel O'Connell;
Times
4 July 1842, 4.

216:   Graham personally complimented him … for his meritorious behavior:
Times
4 July 1842, 4.

216:   Within a day, they were to be dismissed from the force:
Morning Chronicle
5 July 1842, 3.

217:   “Description of a boy”:
Times
4 July 1842, 4.

217:   … a reporter … identified the “exceedingly agitated and flushed” boy:
Times
4 July 1842, 4.

217:   … some newspapers the next day were able to report the certain capture of the assailant:
Times
4 July 1842, 4;
Morning Chronicle
4 July 1842, 5.

217:   At Smithfield, an inspector was particularly enthusiastic:
Morning Chronicle
5 July 1842, 3.

218:   … a hunchbacked man was walking down the road dividing E and F Divisions, when he was spotted simultaneously by two officers on either side of the street:
Morning Chronicle
5 July 1842, 3.

218:   “… the number of little deformed men ‘detained,' to use a mild phrase, was astonishing”:
Illustrated London News
, qtd. Lock 73.

218:   
Punch
caught the absurdity of the moment:
Punch
3 (1842): 23.

218:   … P.C. Henry Webb, lingered after muster and reminded Penny that the description in the route paper matched the description a distraught John William Bean Senior had given the police nearly three weeks before of his son:
Morning Chronicle
5 July 1842, 3.

218:   His state of undress, in Victorian terms—no coat, waistcoat, or cap: Morning Chronicle 5 July 1842, 3.

218:   When Webb touched Bean's shoulder, he realized the boy was trembling uncontrollably:
Times
5 July 1842, 5.

219:   As they left the house, Bean's alarmed mother, Sally, came upon them:
Times
5 July 1842, 5.

219:   … the resemblance between the two was striking:
Morning Chronicle
5 July 1842, 3.

219:   The Dassetts had to be called in … to identify Bean as the one who assaulted the Queen:
Times
5 July 1842, 5.

219:    Charles Dassett and Webb then had the honor of signing the sheet charging Bean with “attempting to shoot at Her Majesty”:
Times
5 July 1842, 5.

219:   “I suppose Cooper is hanging now”:
Freeman's Journal
7 July 1842, 3; qtd. from
The Globe
5 July 1842.

219:   Cooper's sullen passivity about his fate had vanished two days before the end, and he quaked as he walked to his death: For accounts of Cooper's execution, see the
Times
5 July 1842, 6, and the
Morning Chronicle
5 July 1842, 3.