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n Outsidenthe Old Bailey crowds began to congregate early on the Sunday afternoon, andnstrong barriers were erected at Old Bailey and the ends of Newgate Street,nGiltspur Street and Skinner Street. An enclosure was built to surround thengallows and hold back the crowds in the yard, as further barriers were placednat fixed distances from Ludgate Hill to Smithfield.
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| The Condemned Cell, Newgate |
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nThroughout the day, thenthrong grew larger and larger, packing the streets and houses, as everynavailable vantage spot was booked, rented and occupied. Police reinforcementsnwere brought in but could not get through the crowd and had to go in throughnthe Old Bailey courts and pass through the private passages to their station.nAt half past midnight, the gallows was brought from the yard and placed in itsncustomary position outside the Debtor’s Gate. Someone, somewhere, had made annoversight, as three chains were handing from the main beam but when this wasnnoticed Mr Wontner, the Governor of Newgate, ordered one to be removed and anwhisper went through the crowd that May had been respited.
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| Rowlandson – The Dissecting Room |
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nAt six o’clock on the morning of December 5thn1831, Bishop and Williams rose and were visited by the Reverend Cotton and twonother clergymen, and at half past seven, the Sheriff and the Under-Sheriffsnarrived and transferred Bishop to the press-room. His wrists were bound and hisnarms pinioned, then Williams was brought in and the same done to him. Both mennhad changed considerably; gone was the cockiness and swagger, to be replacednwith trembling terror. Bishop looked much younger than his thirty years, palenand bowed he shambled as if in a daze, not so much resigned to his fate asnunconscious of it. Williams shook visibly, muttering prayers to his god, andnstaring onto the floor. With Rev Cotton leading, the procession walked slowlynto the gallows, and as thenUnder-Sheriffs asked each man if he had anything more to confess, both replied,nevasively, that they had told the whole truth.
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nJust before eight o’clock, thenexecutioner and his assistant appeared on the scaffold, followed shortly afternby the prisoners. As they emerged into the sight of the crowd, a great cry wentnup. Between thirty and forty thousand spectators now crushed around the OldnBailey, perching on walls, roofs and lampposts, but such was the press ofnbodies in Giltspur Street, that the stout barrier beam facing the Compterncollapsed, in spite of iron hoops holding it to uprights planted over two feetninto the ground. Several men, women and children were injured and hospitalised,nbut fortunately none were killed.
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| The Giltspur Street Compter |
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nBishop was brought forward first, stumblingnand indifferent, as the mob hooted and bayed for his life, the executionernplaced a noose about his neck and fastened it to the chain on the main beam.nThen Williams was led forward, making a slight bow in the direction of thencrowd, who responded with boos and groans, and had the cap placed over his headnand the rope put about his neck. Rev Mr Cotton started the prayers and at thengiven signal, the executioner released the drop; Bishop died instantly butnWilliams struggled for several minutes before becoming still.
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| The Execution of Bishop and Williams |
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nThe bodies werenleft hanging for almost an hour until, at nine o’clock, the executionernreturned and cut them down to the accompaniment of the howls, jeers and yellsnof the multitude. They were put in a small cart, covered with sacks drawn downnGiltspur Street to No 33 Hosier Lane and the waiting scalpels of Mr Stone, whonmade the legally required incisions into the chests of the bodies.
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| The Route from Newgate to Hosier Lane |
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nThey werentransferred on Monday evening, Bishop to King’s College and Williams to thenTheatre of Anatomy in Windmill-street, Haymarket, where they were bothnanatomised and the remains displayed on Tuesday and Wednesday to vast crowds.nThe skeletons were retained and publicly displayed for many years.
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| W Clift – The Head of John Bishop |
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nIn the professional opinion of other Londonnresurrection men of the day, John Bishop was a buffoon and a coward, whonpreferred to bribe the watchmen or to claim dead bodies from hospitals andnworkhouses by pretending to be related to the deceased. He was known to havenburgled houses in which he knew was a recently dead body, and steal it away.nOnce, he took a room in a boarding house where he knew an old lady had died andnwas laid out awaiting burial. During the night, he stole the body and sold itnthe next morning, before the alarm had been raised.
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nBishop’s father had been ancarrier and was said to have amassed quite a fortune over his long life which,nwhen he died at an advanced age, was to be divided amongst his numerousnchildren and his three wives. The last of these wives was considerably youngernthan the old man, being about forty, and after the death of her husband, and innless than six months, this merry widow married John Bishop, her step-son bynanother mother, an act of moral if not biological incest. One of Bishop’snhalf-sisters by another mother, the seventeen-year-old Rhoda, had marriednThomas Williams, a former apprentice brick-layer who had been released from hisnindentures on account of his habitual drunkenness.
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| W Clift – The Head of Thomas Williams |
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nNot long before the wedding,nWilliam’s had been in custody on suspicion of stealing the dead body of a youthnfrom a house near the Hackney road – women nearby were suspicious when theynobserved a man carrying a foul-smelling hamper down the road. When the theftnwas discovered, they identified the thief as Williams but then he had sold thencorpse and he was released for lack of evidence. Less than seven weeks afternhis wedding, he was arrested again, charged with murdering Carlo Ferrier.
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| Once a Week – February 27 1864 |
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nJamesnMay was the son of a barrister and a laundrymaid, who had been sent to boardingnschool, with hopes that he would follow his father’s profession. He had workednin a law office but didn’t like the work and was eventually apprenticed to anbutcher, but he wasn’t too fond of this work either, so he drifted into criminalitynand body snatching. He made the mistake in thinking that this was an honourablenmove, and was fond of bragging about his exploits and the sums of money he wasnmaking from the gentlemen doctors, until the penny finally dropped thatneveryone he spoke to despised him utterly and wished themselves anywhere but innhis company. He drifted further afield in London and finally washed up innHounslow, where he met Bishop and Williams. It was then but a short step fromnthere to Australia, bound one-way on a prison ship for Botany Bay.
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| Fragment of tattooed skin from John Bishop |
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nThe case ofnBishop, Williams and May was astonishingly infamous in 1831 – fifty thousandncopies of the newsapaper that published their confessions were sold in one day,nand together with that of Burke and Hare was instrumental in the passing of thenAnatomy Act of 1832.
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nWe need to consider one more case of Burking however –nthat of Elizabeth Ross.
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