October 5, 2024 • 59 mins
In this episode of Twisted Britain, Bob and Ali take us back to the early 19th century, to the small English village of Strewd, where a heinous crime took place amidst the social upheaval of the Industrial Revolution. The hosts dive deep into the harrowing case of Richard Taylor, a 13-year-old boy, brutally murdered by 14-year-old John Bell. With themes of jealousy, poverty, and social divide, the episode explores how economic struggles and resentment fueled this shocking crime. Listen in as we unravel the details of Richard’s tragic death, the investigation, and the grim fate that awaited young John Bell—the youngest person hanged in the UK during the 19th century.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Hello. I'm welcome to Twist of Britain, the podcast and
True Crime Britain with a sprinkling the Weird macab and
your host Sammy.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Bub Daal and me Ali Downey.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Good evening, Ali, Danny. How are you.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I am fabulous. Life in Bournemouth is great. It is
sunny nice.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Oh yeah, we were talking about this yesterday when I
phoned you. It's nice up here, but probably nicer where
you are.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
That's gorgeous down here.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
So we are remote recording again for this evening. You
have a tale of tale of horror, tale of crime,
tale of what.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
A tale of murder?
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Nice one, It's very good, it's good. It's probably the
most Scottish thing that's everyone said and born with as well.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
It's been a murder in burger King.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
I like it a lot. I'm not a burger thing
in ages.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Man, You're not missing out, no, I don't think so.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Anyway, what is your tale of murder?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Well, this week I'd like to talk about a very
very sad crime actually from the early nineteenth century that
that troubles me for a number of reasons which will
become apparent as we go through the details of this case.
The tragic tale begins in the small English village of Strude. Strude,
(01:52):
very Scottish sounding English town.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
I was going to say, almost Scandinavian sounding, to be honest. Strude, Yeah,
maybe a Strudel.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah. It's in the County of Kent, quite near Rochester.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
So it's not too far from you. Then, No, it's.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Actually not too far from you. No, it's right on
the banks of the River Medway.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Have you done enough Scottish stuff now that you're just
working your way north from the south coast? Is that
what's happening now? Yeah? Yeah, I thought you just cover
Britain by working you way north.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, I'm going from the south up the country.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
I'll defeat you at the wall Alistair.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Which one the Anton? I know, the Adrian I.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Mean maybe my garden wall. To be honest, I'm not
putting a limit on how far you make it.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
I've made it to your garden wall before.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Indeed, and you will do again. But Strude, tell me
of Strude.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Yes, Strude. Here Robert Taylor lived with his wife and
his thirteen year old son Richard and daughter in a
small cottage. Now. The eighteen hundreds, as we know, were
times of huge change up and down the country as
the Industrial Revolution changed manufacturing and production methods, creating new
(03:11):
and fresh opportunities in the big cities like London and Manchester.
But it was also a time of increasing poverty as
cities failed to meet the needs of the huge influx
of people looking for work.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
I was going to say, if anything, the poverty comes
from the influx of people, doesn't it Like It wasn't
that they're moving into poor areas, They were just creating
poor areas. Almost.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yeah, the cities couldn't keep up with the influx of people.
The services just weren't meant and designed to deal with
that in the number of people. And if anything, it
was worse in the small rural villages like Strewed, as
new farming techniques made unskilled farm workers less and less
necessary and put more and more laborers out of work.
(03:58):
And the problems were compounded and areas as well due
to limited access to education and healthcare facilities.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
It's almost the same story as you're getting now, Like that,
when they're building huge amounts of new builds on the
edges of towns, the first outcry is is there enough schools?
Is there enough hospitals?
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Yes? Sarah has just told me that it's pronounced stroud,
not strude.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Well, Sarah, you need to come in and tell us
on Mike, tell us unlike Stroud Stroud, We'll take that strow.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
You don't need to roll any amas. I have to
roll my rs great.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
To have Sarah here, I mean she's she's automatically made
the AI generated clip for this episode.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
I think that's right.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Anyway, I'm the ladies.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
I believe everything you say right now.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Don't think we don't.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
She's not happy with me right now because my dog
would peed on her wedding shoes. So Beck and I
are both in the doghouse, quite literally, quite literally, as
(05:23):
I said. At the same time, a series of enclosure
acts meant that a lot of the land which previously
had been held in common by the people now belonged
to wealthy landowners, and it was no longer able to
be used by the common people for grazing or for
growing their own food. And this meant that families who
previously could have provided for themselves with a fair level
of self sufficiency were now having to earn more money
(05:46):
just to eat. By the eighteen thirties, life in rural
English villages was often a struggle for survival as people
lived in cramped, unsanitary conditions and found it harder and
harder just to feed themselves loan their children.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
And this is due to the influct of people in
the area basically causing more demand on the land and stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yeah, more demand on the land, new farming techniques coming in,
making farm laborers less necessary and putting more and more
people out of work in the rural.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Areas, Automation changing the landscape quite literally exactly.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Many families now found themselves living below what we'd call
the breadline and unable to sustain themselves without assistance from
the government in the form of what was known as
outdoor relief or the parish allowance, which was spoken up before.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
I've had an outdoor relief before you have, and almost
got arrested for it. It's a terrible statement. Sorry.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
The parish allowance was a form of financial assistance offered
by the local parishes to those in danger of destitution
or to the elderly or the It was intended to
help keep poor people fed, keep their heads above water,
so to speak, and prevent them from having to be
sent to workhouses.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Yeah, which you don't want to go to notoriously horrible
places to be there.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Yeah, they were hideous places to go.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Do you remember the Anie mcle.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Oh my god, yes, New Lanark.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
I think we've probably talked about this in the podcast before,
but it's like one of my like stuck in memories
from primary school. Man, was the going to New Lanark
and that Anie mccleoud like workforce roller coaster almost that
they go on.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
It was amazing with the hologram.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Yeah, and that's like the best part of thirty years ago. Man.
They were not good holograms, but in my mind they
were like the hollow deck from Star Trek.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah, I remember it being amazing, but a bet it wasn't.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
No, let's go again another time. Yeah, we should I
belt for that definitely.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
I bet we could record from New Lanark.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Oh yeah, I mean they've got huge amount outdoor areas.
With the new kit, we should be able to just
record wherever we want.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Now, there you go on location recording and New Lanark.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Let's do it. I'm keen.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Anyway, back to our tail. On Friday the fourth of
March in the year eighteen thirty one, Robert Taylor, who
was a tallow chandler by trade, which is essentially a
candle maker, said his son Richard, on the nine mile
walk to Aylsford to collect the family's weekly parish allowance,
(08:39):
which was about nine shillings.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
That's a long ass walk for nine shillings.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Yes, now, this was a task and a journey that
thirteen year old Richard had made many many times before,
and the young boy was very familiar with the route.
It wasn't unusual for children in their early teens at
this time already be holding down a job, so sending
Richard on his errand would have been absolutely normal for
a father around this time. Richard's younger sister frequently accompanied
(09:10):
him on the journey as well, but on the day
in question, she'd stayed home to help Robert with his work.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Richard were described what sorry, what age is Richard at
this point?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Thirteen thirteen?
Speaker 1 (09:24):
I was trying to relate that, But like, I can't
imagine sending Isaac to the shop around the corner. But
I know he's only seven, but like maybe at thirteen, yeah, okay,
maybe even still? Now, did you have a key to
your house after school at thirteen?
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Yeah, I think I did as well. Yeah, okay, yeah,
I'm fine with it.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
But I don't think Mum would have sent me nine
miles to collect like the family allowance.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
She might have sent you nine miles just to go away.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
She would have sent me nine miles to go away. Actually,
thirteen year old Richard was described as being of above
average intelligence for a boy of his age, and he
was very polite and well spoken for a child brought
up in a rural village. Collecting the family's parish allowance
was a job that, as I said, Richard Taylor had
(10:14):
done many times before, and his father, Robert had instructed
the boy many times on the importance of the task
and on the importance of safeguarding the money discreetly on
his return journey. As a consequence, Richard had was.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
He quite well educated then, not well educated, but like
I'm picturing rural life this kind of time period that
he dropped out of school, like three or four years ago.
But he was all right.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
He was far better educated than most other rural kids
and far better spoken.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Good manners go a long way, Alistair. I'm a happy
man with that.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
They do. It's true now. As a consequence of his
father's warnings, Richard had a well established root seen for
concealing the money, which he adhered to diligently, and he
was acutely aware of how much this admittedly small sum
of money meant to his impoverished family. Before leaving on
the morning of the fourth of March, Richard asked his
(11:14):
father if he could borrow a small knife, as he
wanted to carve himself a bow and arrow on his
return journey from Milford, A reasonable request for a boy
raised in a rural community. Richard simply wanted to turn
the weekly errand into a bit of fun for himself.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
That's a sick idea man like, I'm yeah, crack on arrow.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
So his father, Robert, agreed, and he gave his son
a small wood carving knife before he went on his way.
Richard left that morning at around nine am wearing a
blue jacket, brown trousers, over stockings, and black shoes. He
also had a Southwestern hat on his head and a
striped handkerchief around his neck, so he looked pretty sad.
(11:57):
Robert saw his son off, Yeah, he looked good, well
turned out for a rural okaye as well. I was
just thinking, like Robert saw his son.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
It was not normal. I mean in the UK now
it's abnormal for a child of that age to have
a wood carding knife. But like not even just modern society,
it's illegal yesterdays that. But like when we were on
holiday in Holland, there there was a German family camping
(12:24):
in the pitch next to us, and there we boy
who must have been like thirteen had a had a
knife that he cut about with, not as a weapon,
you know, just as a twol.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Thirty years ago in this country. I mean I was
in the Scouts and we had wood carving knives.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
And pen knives, not now, not now. No.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Anyway, on the morning in question, Robert saw his son
off in the morning as usual, and then began his
day's work. The walk to Aylsford was mostly along well
kept roads, and the round trip normally took young Richard
about six hours, with him returning around three in the afternoon. However,
on that fateful fourth of March, three pm came and
(13:10):
went and Richard still hadn't come back. Robert Taylor waited
all afternoon and evening, with his sense of unease growing
greater and greater as more and more time passed. Richard
was a very dependable and well behaved boy, not easily
led astray or tending to tardiness. By the next morning,
(13:30):
when Richard still hadn't returned, Robert's unease had grown into
a stomach clenching worry that something terrible had happened to
his son. So he made the nine mile trip into
Aylsford himself to try and work out where Richard might be.
Following his son's assumed route, Robert first went to the
address of the parish's relieving officer, mister Cupbirth. Here he
(13:54):
learned that Richard had arrived on time as usual and
in fine spirits. The boy had received the nine shillings
parish allowance and then left on his way back home
just after midday. Richard had hidden the money, as he
always did, in a drawstring pouch, which he then concealed
in the palm of a pair of mittens, which he
(14:15):
always took with him.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
I can't imagine the like burnt in guilt that this
man is feeling because he's the one that sent the
boy out and the boy's not come back. Now, we
don't at this point, No, I'm presuming it's not pretty,
but we don't know what's happened to him. You've not
told us yet. However, that feeling of like, yeah, I
(14:39):
don't know how to describe it, that that level of
guilt have gone. Ill. Fuck, I've sent him out. Something's happened.
He must have been like en bitts man.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Yeah. Ten out of ten panic, ten out of ten, guilt,
ten out of ten. Worry.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Absolutely yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Robert retraced his son's route back to their home in Stroud,
still saw no sign of Richard. By this time, news
of the boy's disappearance had spread through the small community,
and during the rest of the day of the fifth
of March, and from sun up until sunset the next day,
concerned villagers assisted in a search of the road and
(15:16):
of the woods surrounding Strude, trying to find the missing
Richard Taylor. Despite the effort put into the search, Richard
seemed to have vanished into thin air, which is an
odd phrase. Yeah, it's always thin air, but it's never
fat air or chubby air or thick air. You are right, Yeah,
(15:40):
I think about these things.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
I know you did.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
I know you do, And being a naturally inquisitive soul,
I felt they need to actually look into this and
like so many phrases in our English language. It comes
from the Great bar to himself, William Shakespeare.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Oh was he the first one to have used it?
Speaker 2 (15:57):
He was in sixteen oh four the play a Fellow
gave us the line go vanish into air away, and
then in sixteen ten in the Tempest, Prospero tells the
audience these actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits
and are melted into air, into thin air. And that's
the first use of the term. I like it the
(16:21):
pointless fact for everyone.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
No, no, I very much enjoy it. Thank you very
much for that. How many people are out looking at
this point? Have we got a rough idea?
Speaker 2 (16:31):
There was about three hundred people staying in Stroud and
about half of them help with a search.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Oh so it's like all men to the pumps.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Yeah, it really was so. Anyway, getting back to our tail,
Mister Cupbirth, the parish relieving officer, wasn't the last person
to see Richard alive. On the fourth of March, a
witness named mister Lewington had seen Richard in the morning
around ten am when he'd walked part of the way
into Aylesford with him, and then again in the afternoon
(17:03):
when he saw Richard leaving the town in the company
of two local boys, John Bird Bell and his younger
brother James. Mister Lewington was a sailor aboard the ship
HMS Warrior, which was anchored not far away, and he
also helped with the search for Richard on the fifth
of March.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
So that they've got some reasonably reasonable sightings.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah, there were a few sightings. Another witness who had
seen Richard with these two boys that afternoon was Missus Jones,
who lived in a cottage not far from Benham Common
on the outskirts of Aylesford. John and James Bird were
asked on the fifth of March if they knew where
Richard was, but they replied that they had only walked
with him as far as a turn up field just
(17:45):
outside of town and then left him to make the
journey home himself. Richard's apparent disappearance was the talk of
the surrounding towns like Rochester and Aylesford, but his loss
was felt most keenly in the small, close knit community
of Stroud. For weeks following the event, Robert Taylor, assisted
by other concerned villagers, searched the extensive woodland around Stroud
(18:10):
unsuccessfully for any sign of what could have happened to
his son.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
So this is a really extensive search, like they're going
to town in the local area. Yeah, and I suppose
they would know it's not a stab in the dark
where they're looking either, because they they've got markers of
sightings along the way and it would have been the
same route as he'd walked however, many times before.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Hundreds of times before. A man called mister Izard not Eddie,
was walking deep in the woods outside of Aylsford along
a narrow and seldom used path. This was on the
eleventh of May, eight weeks after the boy's disappearance, and
(18:58):
he came across a terrible sight. In a ditch some
way off the paths, he discovered the body of a
young boy in an advanced state of decomposition. The boy's
mitten had been cut from his left hand, and his
clothes were damaged and disheveled, as though he'd been in
a struggle or dragged through the forest.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
It's a really detailed scene you put you paint there
at alistair and really un really unsavory in my mind, No.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
It's horrendous. It's a sad crime.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
These are the things I think about a lot. You
were talking about the earth thick hair, all that kind
of stuff. I have on more than one occasion thought,
imagine walking up like Backies where we used to go
when we were younger. Imagine walking up there, it's a
proper nice forest path to the back of the back
of Dumblane, and stumbling across a body. You'd fucking lose
your mind. That's PTSD territory right there. Absolutely, they are
(19:56):
the sort of things I think about.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
That probably more normal.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Yeah, yeah, I'd like to know of other people listening.
Which one's more normal at least then earth thicker or
me worrying about a body.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Now, speaking of the body, the poor condition the body
was in made the cause of death impossible to determine
at the scene. However, from the amount of blood covering
the boy's clothes, it was obvious that he had met
a violent end. The body was found roughly two miles
outside of Rochester, lying in a ditch. It was on
(20:34):
its back, with the right arm across the chest and
the left which had the mitten cup from it, stretched out.
Not far from the body, a rusted knife was found
with a white horn handle, not the knife that he'd
left with.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
That's what was gonna knife. It wasn't his knife.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
It wasn't his knife.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Would essentially two miles from the sighting of him with
John and James. Yeah about that. Just so that I'm
getting the shright, he's two miles on the return journey essentially,
So like he's done the nine miles to town, he's done,
he's collected this shit, he's turned round, he's come out,
he's been spawn with these two boys, and then he's
(21:13):
two miles back down the road.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Exactly right.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Cool.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Robert Taylor himself attended the scene and identified the body
as that of his son Richard from the clothing and
from a birthmark in the shape of a bunch of currents.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Just some spotty bits.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Yeah. The body was taken to Rochester Poorhouse where it
was examined by doctor Edward Seaton and doctor Bryant. They
quickly concluded that the cause of death had been a
slash across the throat from the left side to the
right side with a short blade of some sort. From
the nature of the wound, it was evident that it
(21:53):
could not have been inflicted by the deceased boy. Either
deliberately or accidentally.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
I would guess by angle and depth and all sorts.
It wouldn't take too much to exactly to define that.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
The coroner's inquest brought back a verdict of wilfilm murder
by a person or person's unknown. At that time, the
list of suspects was small, and before long because of
inconsistencies in their stories, John bird Bell and his brother
James Bell were taken in for further questioning by the magistrates.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
What age were John and James?
Speaker 2 (22:33):
John bird Bell was fourteen years old and his brother
was eleven.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Oh fuck, I really thought you were going to say,
like fifteen and seventeen, or like Steen sixteen eighteen. I
was definitely going older with both of them, But yeah,
I fourteen and eleven, so essentially same age and younger brother.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Yeah. They both lived with their father in a poor
house in Rochester, not far from the place where Richard's
body had actually been found, well about two miles away
from where the body was found. The white bone handle
knife found at the scene was identified as one belonging
to John Bell, and Richard's sister had also recognized the
(23:16):
boys from a previous occasion when they had tried to
convince Richard to go into the forest with them when
she'd been with him and he'd refused.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Okay, so they knew each other.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Yes, they were known to each other.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Not even quite acquainted, but they knew of each other's I.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Wouldn't have said acquaintances or friends, but they knew each other.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Knowledgeable of each other's existence.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Yeah, poor Richard was actually the target of some what
we'd call bullying because he was far better spoken and
far better mannered than most of the rural boys, and
certainly than any of the boys who have been staying
in a workhouse.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
That almost sets you apart really from them, like it
does it did, would have they'd have seen him as
the postboy.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Exactly. During the course of the investigation. Richard's body had
been buried in a local cemetery. However, as the circumstantial
evidence against the two boys began to accumulate, it was
decided to exhume the body for further examination, and unusually,
John and James Bell were brought to the graveyard to
(24:38):
watch Richard's body being dug up. John maintained a cool,
quiet calm during the operation, but his younger brother, James
was visibly shaken and disturbed by the exhamation. When the
body was removed from the ground, James approached it and
immediately put his hand into the pocket of the jacket
(24:59):
that Richard had been buried in and took out the
knife that Robert had given his son that fateful day
and which had been buried with the boy.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
So any robbery that's happened to be solely for the money, Yeah,
for him to still have that, that would have been
worth taking to somebody. But it's been literally, yeah, we're
robbing the rich boy.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Yeah. Unable to bear the fear and the guilt that
he'd been living with for over three months now, the
now eleven year old James Bell broke down and confessed
much of the chilling story of how Richard had met
his end. John Bell, along with James, had been planning
(25:43):
the callous killing of poor Richard Taylor for some time.
They both resented Richard's apparently easy life and, from their view,
snooty and posh character. We know that this is about
a million miles from reality. Since the Taylor found they
were receiving a parish allowance, meaning that they were living
in what we would now call extreme poverty. However, Richard's
(26:06):
above average intelligence and the fact that he was so
well spoken and polite made him seem of a higher
class than he was and made him a target. They
also everything is relative.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
They targeted the outsider, the weird guy.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Exactly, and they targeted the rich boy. They targeted the outsider, the.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Weird thing is like, I genuinely was surprised there when
you said he'd been planning it for ages. I assumed
this was a momentary Robin is when I was going,
in my mind, this.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Was premeditated, cold, calculated. It's cold, and it is calculated. Yeah.
It's clear that John Bell was more offended by Richard's
manners than James, but the younger brother still held plot
and execute Richard's murder, although probably with little actual understanding
(26:59):
of what the act we meant or the consequences of
the deed.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
He was just going along, Yeah, he was just going
along with his big brother, really, wasn't it. Yeah, which
is really horrible because eleven is like such a young
age as well. He is gone, yeah, yeah, cool, alter
it yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
No. To give you an idea of the level of premeditation.
For many weeks, the two boys had watched Richard when
he reached Ailsford to collect the nine shillings parish allowance,
and each time they saw him put the money in
his drosstring bag and then conceal the bag in his mitten.
For how he'd cased.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Him, Yeah, I was gonna say they cased him over
how how long a period we were talking about.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
James the younger the younger boy, James said, many, many weeks,
but it was three weeks before that. The two boys
had tried to coax Richard into the forest when he
was with his sister, and he'd refused because his sister
was them.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
So we could safely assume a couple of months, probably, yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Probably a couple of months, six weeks, at least a
few weeks before the fourth of March. John and James
Bell had, as I said, tried to entice Richard into
the woods, but then he had refused because his sister
was with him. Richard had no inkling of what the
other two boys planned, so on the day in question,
when his sister had stayed home and John Bell told
(28:27):
him that there was something he wanted to show him
in the woods, Richard went with the boys, unaware of
the danger that he was walking into. Once they were
sufficiently far away from the main paths, John Bell attacked
Richard while his brother James kept watch nearby. Although only
one year older, James was significantly bigger than little Richard Taylor,
(28:49):
and he had no difficulty in subduing the younger boy
and slitting his throat with the white handled bone knife
once the deed was done. Yeah, all right, I know
it's grim and it gets grimmer. Once the deed was done.
John Bell then cut the mitten from Richard's left hand
(29:11):
and took the money that he knew was concealed inside.
He gave one shilling and sixpence of it to his
brother James, thinking that adding to his brother's complicity would
reduce the risk of James telling anyone what the pair
had done in the woods that day.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
It's yeah, I'm sorry, I was gonna start talking there,
but I'm like, I'm just processing in my head. Really,
that's what I'm doing here. Yeah, there's some lake, there's
some menace in this fourteen year old boy, And yeah,
I feel like it's not just about the money. It's
like there's some real.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
He resented, Yeah, Richard for being posh for having what
he saw as an easy life. I mean, we know
he didn't have an easy life, but everything is relative.
He had an easy life compared to the.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Brothers who I was living in a workhouse. I'm going
to say comparative to them. Yeah, we've said he's a
rich boy, but he's like, he's still, as you say,
collecting a parish allowance. So he's by no means a
tall rich. But no, that's yeah, it's all to do
with how you see it, isn't it Like these boys
are never going to come across somebody who's actually rich,
(30:27):
other than maybe the boss at the workhouse. So yeah,
in their heads, this boy that can saunter about and
say please and thank you is upper class, middle at
least middle.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Class anyway, certainly middle class.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
But to actually have that amount of hatred for somebody
because of their perceived class standings just mad. I mean,
don't get me wrong, I don't like rich people either,
but I don't hate them.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
I love rich people. They're bunkers.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Yes, there is that. There is an eccentricity that comes
with not having to give a fuck about anything.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Yeah. Now, the younger James Bell was released on the
grounds that he had played no physical part in the
murder of Richard Taylor, and also because he was an
eleven year old boy and had very little conceptual idea
of what his brother was really planning to do.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Yeah, because he's not at that brain space when he's
processing what they're talking about. Yet he's just going along
with his big brother.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Resume Yeah. John Bird Bell was arrested and charged with
the wilful murder of Richard Taylor. The authorities at the
time believe that the motive was simple robbery. However, as
we shall soon see from the confessions of John Bell,
his malice and his jealousy toward Richard was also partly
(31:55):
to blame. This wasn't a simple mugging, as you said.
There was real resentment for Richard, and it sounds.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Like it's gotten beyond the point of like this isn't fixable.
I hate you yet.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
John was remanded for trial in Maidstone, and on the
way there he took the authorities to where he had
washed his hands and clothes in a pond not far
from the scene following the murder. He also pointed out
the root into the woods that the boys had taken
that day and said to the escorting constable. That's where
(32:34):
I killed the poor boy. Although apparently unremorseful for the murder,
John Bell was aware of the severity of the crime
that he committed and of the potential punishment that he
might receive. On the same journey to Maidstone Prison to
await trial, John also remarked to the same constable, he's
(32:55):
better off than I am. Now, don't you think he is, sir,
to which the constable agreed that he probably was.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
What, So he's just here's everything. I'm like, yeah, he's
ratting on himself. Yeah, I'm just I'm struggling to follow
the narrative here from him being from him his brother,
(33:26):
his brother. So his younger brother admitted to everything. Is
that right?
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Yeah, his younger brother admitted to everything. And as soon
as his younger brother admitted to everything he said.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
He started just like was it squawking like a parrot
or whatever? He just kept what Once he was out,
he was out? Yeah, okay, No, that's fine. I just
I wanted to I was confused in my head there
where they were still talking about his younger brother was
telling them that this happened, this happened, this happened, but actually,
John went no, I did this. Yep, Okay, I did this.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
I did this. That's where I washed my hands after
I did it. The trial of John Bell for the
wilful murder of Richard Taylor took place on the twenty
ninth of July eighteen thirty one at Maidstone Assizes, with
Justice Gasarly presiding.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
That's a good name. We've not come across.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Before, Judge Justice Gasarly.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
Yeah, that's yeah, and I remembered that one. I don't
think we've come across him before.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
No, we haven't. When the charge was read out, in
a slight reversal, John Bell pled not guilty.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
But he's already told them that he did it. Yeah,
And I don't mean to sound stupid here, but like.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Why he was probably aiming for manslaughter.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
He's or he's probably been told to do that.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Yeah, he will have. He will have received some legal
advice counsel as such.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
But I'm sure you're about to get onto this. But
do they go down our standard insanity play all that
kind of stuff in his defense?
Speaker 2 (35:20):
They tried to. Yes, it doesn't work.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
It's like a bog standard for pretty much everything we
talk about. It is.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Now at the trial Evans was heard from a devastated
Robert Taylor and from Richard's seven year old sister. Mister Lewington,
the sailor from HMS Warrior, told his part, as did
mister Cuthbert, the parish relief officer, also a line draper
from Rochester. Mister Railton testified that he had given John
(35:53):
Bell change for half a crown shortly after Richard Taylor
had gone missing. This was a huge sum of money
for any boy at the time, but even more unusual
for a boy who lived in one of Rochester's poorhouses.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Yep, yep.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
The most darning evidence, though, was the reading of his
brother James's confession and the testimony of Constable Patterson, who
was the officer that John himself had confessed to while
being escorted to Maidstone jail.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
I was going to say, like that, the most obvious
evidence to present in this case is the fact that
he told the police officer he did it. Yeah, surely,
that's just that's it at that point.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
Pretty much. Yeah, we're not at the point now where
you have to sort of sign your witness statement to
the police. If you say to a policeman it can
be entered his evidence.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Yeah, but it's a he said, she said, woman, if
there's no lightly Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
But but John Bell had given Constable Patterson a full
account of the crime well on his journey, and it
paints an even darker picture of the murder than we
already have. I mentioned earlier that this crime was motivated
by jealousy and malice and not just robbery, and this
is why John Bell told Constable Patterson, and the officer
(37:25):
then told the court how John had enticed Richard Taylor
off the main paths by claiming that there was something
amazing in the forest that he wanted to show him.
After leading the younger boy through numerous twists and turns,
and once they were far enough into the woods, Richard
had become distressed and upset that he no longer knew
(37:46):
where he was in the wood or how to find
his way back to the main paths. John said that
he had no idea how to get back either, and
this upset Richard further. Sitting down on the ground, Richard
began to cry. This display of what he saw as
cowardly behavior angered John Bell, and it was now that
(38:07):
he drew his knife and started toward Richard with murder
in his eyes. Richard saw the attack coming, and, assuming
that what John was after was the nine shillings he
had hidden in his mitten, offered the money to the
older boy, along with the small carving knife that his
father had given him and anything else he had on him,
if John would just let him go unharmed. John Bell
(38:30):
was unmoved, though, and proceeded to attack Richard, stabbing him
in the throat before slashing his jugular open and leaving
him to bleed to death on the ground while he
robbed him.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
I mean, I said earlier, the picture you painted was
quite disturbing, but you've won uped yourself there.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
It's hideous. This is way more than just robbery. Oh no,
he could have had the money, he could have had
the knife, he could have had everything.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
It's this, as we were saying before, there's malice with
like rage intent there.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Yeah. After the final evidence had been heard, the Judge,
Justice Gasserly explained to the jury that deciding the fate
of a fourteen year old boy, John Bird Bell would
require their full attention and should be given the utmost consideration. However,
having just heard Constable Patterson's testimony of the boy's own confession.
(39:31):
The jury deliberated for exactly zero minutes.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
In fact, wait, is that is this the shortest case ever?
Speaker 2 (39:44):
This is the shortest the jury deliberation ever, perfect zero minutes.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
They're not even get the log geting the cup of
tee a rich biscuit.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Then they didn't even feel the need to leave the bench.
The foreman, say Tim Place, stood up and delivered a
verdict of guilty, although they did, however, suggest that John
Bell might deserve mercy due to the conditions of his upbringing,
that is to say, being raised in relative destitution in
a poor house. Justice Gasarly, though, knew that the statutory
(40:22):
sentence for murder at the time, accepting please of insanity
was death, so he donned his black cap and sentenced
the fourteen year old boy to hang by the neck
until dead, after which, as was often the case, his
body would be given over for dissection.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
So eighteen thirties, eighteen thirty, eighteen forties, we're talking about, Yeah,
eighteen thirties, I can't think of I mean, that's a
very young execution order, very young.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
There are other young there are younger. It's you're talking
seventeen hundreds to go younger.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
Yeah, that's what I meant. But like in this time period, sentence.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
Like that just almost unheard of.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
Yeah, I would have thought so.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
John bird Bell had maintained an attitude of aloof and
almost childish disdain during the trial, frequently interrupting proceedings with
outbursts during witnesses testimonies, and apparently not really appreciating either
the severity of the crime or the potential sentence. The
only real emotion the boy showed was said to be
(41:40):
a single tear which he shed when he learned that
his body would be dissected. So he doesn't want to
give back at all, he's a proper hours well. Also,
it also means that he won't be buried in consecrated ground.
His body will be given over for a dissection, an
unceremoniously buried and unconsecrated ground.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
To a fourteen year old, would that have been important?
I mean, I guess he was reasonably mature with his
you know, murder plans and stuff like that, But like,
would the parish have been that important to it?
Speaker 2 (42:14):
The parish might not, But I think an idea of
the everlasting the after life was far more ingrained in
everyone back then. Certainly, growing up in a workhouse, religion
would have been a huge part of the.
Speaker 1 (42:34):
Boy's daily life. I suppose they probably did prayers and
things like that in the mornings, at breakfast and everything.
I don't know every day. Yeah, but to have that
process of thought to go, oh, they're going to kill me, fine,
but like at least burny me when I want to
be buried. Yeah, that's a mad statement for anyone, never
(42:56):
mind a fourteen year old, it is.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
But his childish bravado would last until he was returned
to his cell in Maidstone Jail, where he broke down
and wept. When his parents visited him before his execution,
he blamed them for his fate. John's father was actually
implicated in the concealment of the crime, but there was
insufficient evidence to charge him as an accessory. After the fact,
(43:21):
John himself requested that his brother James attend his execution
as an example and a lesson to the young boy.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
Okay, I mean this is getting really deep and troubling,
but okay.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
John bird Bell was hanged on August the first, near
Maidstone in front of a crowd of over eight thousand people,
which did include his brother Jans. It was reported that
he walked steadily up to the gallows and his last
words were, Lord, have mercy upon us. Pray good, Lord,
(43:58):
have mercy upon us. All the people before me take
warning by me, Lord, have mercy upon my poor soul.
At eleven thirty am, John bird Bell's neck was placed
in the noose. He was the youngest person executed in
the UK in the nineteenth century, and he was hanged
(44:19):
by the new drop method of a trapdoor. But this
shouldn't be mistaken with the long drop, which actually wouldn't
come into use for some years. The first person to
be hanged by the long drop I think was William
Horry in eighteen seventy something.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
I did know it was eighteen seventies, but I couldn't
have told you who.
Speaker 2 (44:42):
It was eighteen seventy two, I think William Horry. Following
John bird Bell's execution, his body was given over to
surgeons in Rochester for dissection, and so ended the sad
story of the crime of John bird Bell. I'm not
quite finished though. Due to his very young age, John
(45:05):
Bird's crime was sensational public news, and I've actually found
a lot of poems and songs written about him at
the time in the press, including one that was reportedly
written by John Bell himself while in his cell in
awaiting execution. So I'd like to read that one before
(45:26):
we wrap up.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
Please do. But before that, what was the brother found
guilty of anything at all?
Speaker 2 (45:34):
Nope?
Speaker 1 (45:34):
So he literally he obviously watched his brother's execution, but
wasn't found guilty of anything.
Speaker 2 (45:40):
Yeah, he wasn't found guilty of anything. All James Bell
had actually done was wait by a hedge about two
hundred yards away, watching for people on the path.
Speaker 1 (45:54):
So because he so he wasn't an accessory in any way,
because he hadn't physically done anything.
Speaker 2 (46:00):
Yeah, I mean he was an accessory. If that was
two grown men, he would have been charged as an accessory.
It was just because he was an eleven year old boy.
Speaker 1 (46:10):
Yeah, given his age, he was given more leeway.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
Yeah, one hundred percent. Now, before I read this poemo,
I should point out that, in my opinion, although it
was reported in the press, it's very unlikely that John
Bird Bell actually did write this. For me, the language
is all wrong for a fourteen year old boy raised
in a workhouse in the early nineteenth century. But I
(46:36):
think it still serves as a look at how the
crime was viewed at the time by both the media
and by the general public.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Because we've already said that he was jealous of Richard's
eloquence and things like that, So does that lean into
this Like you wouldn't have thought that this was written
by him.
Speaker 2 (46:56):
I wouldn't have thought that a fourteen year old boy
raised in a workhouse would have written this. It seems unlikely.
But here we go. Come children and parents too, and
listen to these lines which I have penned within my
cell where I suffer for my crimes and from my fate.
(47:21):
A warning, take and keep from evil ways, or if
in evil paths you tread, it will cut short your
days of crimes. I have guilty, been though my years
they are but few, and now I am condemned to
die for a murder. It is true. I knew Taylor
had to pass or through a lonely spot and from
(47:44):
the parish for his father nine shillings he had got
of which I thought to rob him and troth I
now unfold that he did make resistance with courage, stout
and bold. I took with me my brother to do
this dreadful fact, and stationed him close to the hedge
with directions how to act to see no one was
(48:08):
coming with me to interfere. Well, I did murder, tailor
for which runs many a tear. As he sat down,
I stabbed him in the neck on the left side,
then washed my hands all in a pond that stood
by the roadside. I made my brother swear he the
(48:29):
secret near would tell. But God above he seed the act,
and of it knew full well. When nine weeks were gone,
I thought this deed none ever would know, as none
had then the body found. Yet I was still in woe.
But God, who never lets murder pass without a punishment,
(48:50):
cause izard to discover it, as through the woods he went,
for which I was brought to trial and sentenced, as
you see, to die on Monday morning upon the fatal tree. Now,
all ye youths, both high and low, by me a
warning take and if you know you're doing ill your
(49:11):
bad ways, pray for sake or else, like me, too late,
you'll find distress and woe severe will overtake you in
your wickedness and stop your sad career.
Speaker 1 (49:25):
So first thing I'm going to interject with is he
didn't write that at all.
Speaker 2 (49:30):
No, Yeah, that is that was written I think by
a reporter who said that John bird Bell wrote it
to sell papers.
Speaker 1 (49:41):
And somebody who is skilled at writing wrote that. Very
well read, very well written. I don't see the fourteen
year old boy on death row. Death row is a
fucking silly word. I didn't mean that, you know what
I mean. He didn't write that and.
Speaker 2 (49:54):
Know exactly what you mean, and especially being workhouse educated.
At the risk of sounding terribly middle.
Speaker 1 (49:59):
Class, Yes, that's fair because like we've already acknowledged that
he was, if I mean, perceived lower class than than Richard,
but probably not that much in reality. But he already know.
Speaker 2 (50:18):
Richard was well spoken, that's what word Bell was not.
Speaker 1 (50:21):
That's what I mean. But John bard Bell already perceived
himself as the lower class, so there's no way he
would have had that in him.
Speaker 2 (50:31):
No, I doubt it.
Speaker 1 (50:32):
What's a lovely poem?
Speaker 2 (50:35):
Yeah, but a terrible story.
Speaker 1 (50:39):
I take that back, Not a lovely poem, A well
written horrible poem is what I meant. Yeah, really, but
you knew what me.
Speaker 2 (50:47):
I knew exactly what you meant, and a horrible story.
Youngest person ever executed in the nineteenth century.
Speaker 1 (50:54):
Well there you go. Well in the UK, in the UK,
hanged by a court of law on the United Kingdom, exactly,
very not you that case.
Speaker 2 (51:06):
I know.
Speaker 1 (51:08):
Why that one. I mean, okay, we'll get onto that
in a sound horrific I think it's probably the easiest
way about that, Like imagine said and like I said
it earlier, because you imagine the guilt and the father's
head and and and mind and for the rest of
his life sending his son out to go and do
the weekly task as such. Yeah, and I'm never coming
(51:32):
home again. I just can't comprehend the pain that that creates.
So I share for that, But the the callousness of
the crimes totally, Like, I don't get it. It's just
(51:53):
that that level of hatred that comes from someone different.
It's a weird thing, isn't it. Like I don't I know,
we don't suffer from it, obviously, but it's almost like
it's not xenophobia, but it's along those lines, really, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (52:09):
Yeah. As to why this case, it interested me for
a number of reasons, I've been looking into quite a
lot of child criminals. Okay, recently we've just started releasing
the Teacup Poisoner trilogy in four parts, and I've become
(52:32):
quite interested in what drives children, especially to commit crimes,
and the idea that you're born evil. I don't really
ascribe to, so child criminals interest me.
Speaker 1 (52:54):
We've said before we'll never do the nature nurture debate
on a podcast. There's no point in us doing that.
Neither of us are experts. We have our own opinions.
I'm absolutely with you. I don't think anybody is born evil.
I think that's a really no, it's a lazy, sloppy
thing to say about somebody. But yeah, I totally get
the intrigue that you get from that. But I do
(53:15):
find it weird that, like, and we can probably chase
this over episodes, that you get into a wee moment
of like doing poisoners, doing child It's weird that you
get into that, and I'm not surprised that, having done
one recently, that you went. I found other knowledge by
(53:36):
doing that and found it that way. Yeah, I hadn't
actually related it to the Teacup Poisoner there at all,
but it makes sense that you've gone child criminals. That's
a weird sentence in itself. But you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (53:49):
No, it's absolutely true, And in this case I didn't
mention it much because it's not pertinent to this story.
But John bird Bell did lead a really rough childhood.
He was physically abused by his father, as well as
growing up in a workhouse, which is an adverse childhood
(54:09):
experience in itself. So I still don't believe anyone's born evil,
but you can certainly become evil by the age of
thirteen fourteen.
Speaker 1 (54:19):
You can bake it right in there at an early age,
that's for sure. Yeah, societal issues more than anything else,
not one that I mean, you can correct me if
I'm wrong. But normally when we talk about people that
could not normally, but a lot of the times we
talk about people who have suffered from brain injury and
all that kind of stuff. But he was just your
(54:40):
normal boy.
Speaker 2 (54:43):
Yes, we do have to remember that adverse childhood experiences
don't have to just be physical. They can be mental.
He didn't sustain any sort of brain injury or notable
physical trauma as a child, but he did sustain years
of systemic physical abuse from his father and grew up
in a workhouse, which is.
Speaker 1 (55:06):
Rough in itself.
Speaker 2 (55:07):
Not that we're excusing what he did in any way, shape.
Speaker 1 (55:09):
Or form, No, not at all, But we're just almost
trying to relate it almost like that level of mental
abuse is huge there.
Speaker 2 (55:19):
Yeah, And you do often see violent criminals have violent
childhoods and feel the need to exercise the same sort
of power over others that they'd had exercised over them
(55:41):
during their trauma as a child. We talked about it
in the Teacup Poisoner episodes. We certainly talk a bit
about a god complex in that and oh a lot
about god complex in that one.
Speaker 1 (55:56):
Yeah. Do you feel like Bell has a bit of
that in him? Or is it just pure malice?
Speaker 2 (56:04):
I don't think Bird Bell has the same sort of
God complex that Graham Young had. I think with bird Bell,
it's more like, in order to make him feel less
(56:26):
weak and inferiors because of the way his dad made
him feel weak and inferior, he has to make other
people weaker than him. He has to inflict the same
sort of trauma on other people that was inflicted on him.
Speaker 1 (56:43):
Is it just we man syndrome a little bit? Yeah,
He's just why you.
Speaker 2 (56:49):
Are we men syndrome where you pick on people weirder
than you. Yeah, big man syndrome, big man syndrome.
Speaker 1 (56:56):
Yeah, fair enough. Well that was a horrific tale. Just
thank you very much for that.
Speaker 2 (57:03):
Yeah, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (57:05):
We don't be sorry. It's what we do, isn't it is.
Speaker 2 (57:09):
I'll make that the last child criminal for a while,
if you would, I'd appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (57:12):
Actually, thank you very much. We've had a few of
them recently, everything from June and Ivani right through to this.
None of them have been tales of happy rainbows. So no,
they haven't. I don't think we can tell the tale
of happy rainbows unless we can find a criminal rainbow.
Speaker 2 (57:30):
No, but I do think you'll enjoy the next rabbit
hole will be going down, which is going to be
the development of forensic science.
Speaker 1 (57:38):
I think very nice.
Speaker 2 (57:41):
I've got Spillsbury's autobiography. I've got a couple of other
great books that I'm going through.
Speaker 1 (57:47):
And I've enjoyed that tonight. It was interesting. We don't
say enjoyed, do we.
Speaker 2 (57:53):
No, it wasn't an enjoyable one.
Speaker 1 (57:55):
Oh it really wasn't. I still quite sad. Now I'm
going to see if.
Speaker 2 (58:00):
Occasionally there are enjoyable ones.
Speaker 1 (58:02):
Yes, very occasionally, very occasionally, I don't know, Like sometimes
I always come back to that My Peter Gibbs case
is the one that's just that's the one that rattles
around the empty space inside. I actually enjoyed that. I
know a man died, but he also went home my baer.
I'm gonna fly going fireplane. So you know, yeah, nobody
killed well, we don't know if anybody killed them with
(58:23):
us anyway, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (58:25):
Sometimes on the HMS readnot.
Speaker 1 (58:28):
I was was gonna say, and you've got your ome
ones where you sometimes go. I really enjoyed learning about that.
Speaker 2 (58:34):
I loved it. Yeah, and I'll get a picture up
on the website of Beck next to Seriah's wedding shoes.
Speaker 1 (58:41):
And write the story of the pissy shoes. Yeah, the
Bournemouth shoepur.
Speaker 2 (58:47):
She was more angry at me than the dog because
I thought it was hilarious.
Speaker 1 (58:52):
Don't tell her I found it funny. Then. Anyway, we
shall leave you as we always do, with a thank you,
love you by and I thank you, love you bye,
thank you fewbye.
Speaker 2 (59:08):
Heself I called you bye.
Hello. I'm welcome to Twist of Britain, the podcast and
True Crime Britain with a sprinkling the Weird macab and
your host Sammy.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Bub Daal and me Ali Downey.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Good evening, Ali, Danny. How are you.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I am fabulous. Life in Bournemouth is great. It is
sunny nice.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Oh yeah, we were talking about this yesterday when I
phoned you. It's nice up here, but probably nicer where
you are.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
That's gorgeous down here.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
So we are remote recording again for this evening. You
have a tale of tale of horror, tale of crime,
tale of what.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
A tale of murder?
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Nice one, It's very good, it's good. It's probably the
most Scottish thing that's everyone said and born with as well.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
It's been a murder in burger King.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
I like it a lot. I'm not a burger thing
in ages.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Man, You're not missing out, no, I don't think so.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Anyway, what is your tale of murder?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Well, this week I'd like to talk about a very
very sad crime actually from the early nineteenth century that
that troubles me for a number of reasons which will
become apparent as we go through the details of this case.
The tragic tale begins in the small English village of Strude. Strude,
(01:52):
very Scottish sounding English town.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
I was going to say, almost Scandinavian sounding, to be honest. Strude, Yeah,
maybe a Strudel.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah. It's in the County of Kent, quite near Rochester.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
So it's not too far from you. Then, No, it's.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Actually not too far from you. No, it's right on
the banks of the River Medway.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Have you done enough Scottish stuff now that you're just
working your way north from the south coast? Is that
what's happening now? Yeah? Yeah, I thought you just cover
Britain by working you way north.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, I'm going from the south up the country.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
I'll defeat you at the wall Alistair.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Which one the Anton? I know, the Adrian I.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Mean maybe my garden wall. To be honest, I'm not
putting a limit on how far you make it.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
I've made it to your garden wall before.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Indeed, and you will do again. But Strude, tell me
of Strude.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Yes, Strude. Here Robert Taylor lived with his wife and
his thirteen year old son Richard and daughter in a
small cottage. Now. The eighteen hundreds, as we know, were
times of huge change up and down the country as
the Industrial Revolution changed manufacturing and production methods, creating new
(03:11):
and fresh opportunities in the big cities like London and Manchester.
But it was also a time of increasing poverty as
cities failed to meet the needs of the huge influx
of people looking for work.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
I was going to say, if anything, the poverty comes
from the influx of people, doesn't it Like It wasn't
that they're moving into poor areas, They were just creating
poor areas. Almost.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yeah, the cities couldn't keep up with the influx of people.
The services just weren't meant and designed to deal with
that in the number of people. And if anything, it
was worse in the small rural villages like Strewed, as
new farming techniques made unskilled farm workers less and less
necessary and put more and more laborers out of work.
(03:58):
And the problems were compounded and areas as well due
to limited access to education and healthcare facilities.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
It's almost the same story as you're getting now, Like that,
when they're building huge amounts of new builds on the
edges of towns, the first outcry is is there enough schools?
Is there enough hospitals?
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Yes? Sarah has just told me that it's pronounced stroud,
not strude.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Well, Sarah, you need to come in and tell us
on Mike, tell us unlike Stroud Stroud, We'll take that strow.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
You don't need to roll any amas. I have to
roll my rs great.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
To have Sarah here, I mean she's she's automatically made
the AI generated clip for this episode.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
I think that's right.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Anyway, I'm the ladies.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
I believe everything you say right now.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Don't think we don't.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
She's not happy with me right now because my dog
would peed on her wedding shoes. So Beck and I
are both in the doghouse, quite literally, quite literally, as
(05:23):
I said. At the same time, a series of enclosure
acts meant that a lot of the land which previously
had been held in common by the people now belonged
to wealthy landowners, and it was no longer able to
be used by the common people for grazing or for
growing their own food. And this meant that families who
previously could have provided for themselves with a fair level
of self sufficiency were now having to earn more money
(05:46):
just to eat. By the eighteen thirties, life in rural
English villages was often a struggle for survival as people
lived in cramped, unsanitary conditions and found it harder and
harder just to feed themselves loan their children.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
And this is due to the influct of people in
the area basically causing more demand on the land and stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yeah, more demand on the land, new farming techniques coming in,
making farm laborers less necessary and putting more and more
people out of work in the rural.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Areas, Automation changing the landscape quite literally exactly.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Many families now found themselves living below what we'd call
the breadline and unable to sustain themselves without assistance from
the government in the form of what was known as
outdoor relief or the parish allowance, which was spoken up before.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
I've had an outdoor relief before you have, and almost
got arrested for it. It's a terrible statement. Sorry.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
The parish allowance was a form of financial assistance offered
by the local parishes to those in danger of destitution
or to the elderly or the It was intended to
help keep poor people fed, keep their heads above water,
so to speak, and prevent them from having to be
sent to workhouses.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Yeah, which you don't want to go to notoriously horrible
places to be there.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Yeah, they were hideous places to go.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Do you remember the Anie mcle.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Oh my god, yes, New Lanark.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
I think we've probably talked about this in the podcast before,
but it's like one of my like stuck in memories
from primary school. Man, was the going to New Lanark
and that Anie mccleoud like workforce roller coaster almost that
they go on.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
It was amazing with the hologram.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Yeah, and that's like the best part of thirty years ago. Man.
They were not good holograms, but in my mind they
were like the hollow deck from Star Trek.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah, I remember it being amazing, but a bet it wasn't.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
No, let's go again another time. Yeah, we should I
belt for that definitely.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
I bet we could record from New Lanark.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Oh yeah, I mean they've got huge amount outdoor areas.
With the new kit, we should be able to just
record wherever we want.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Now, there you go on location recording and New Lanark.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Let's do it. I'm keen.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Anyway, back to our tail. On Friday the fourth of
March in the year eighteen thirty one, Robert Taylor, who
was a tallow chandler by trade, which is essentially a
candle maker, said his son Richard, on the nine mile
walk to Aylsford to collect the family's weekly parish allowance,
(08:39):
which was about nine shillings.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
That's a long ass walk for nine shillings.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Yes, now, this was a task and a journey that
thirteen year old Richard had made many many times before,
and the young boy was very familiar with the route.
It wasn't unusual for children in their early teens at
this time already be holding down a job, so sending
Richard on his errand would have been absolutely normal for
a father around this time. Richard's younger sister frequently accompanied
(09:10):
him on the journey as well, but on the day
in question, she'd stayed home to help Robert with his work.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Richard were described what sorry, what age is Richard at
this point?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Thirteen thirteen?
Speaker 1 (09:24):
I was trying to relate that, But like, I can't
imagine sending Isaac to the shop around the corner. But
I know he's only seven, but like maybe at thirteen, yeah, okay,
maybe even still? Now, did you have a key to
your house after school at thirteen?
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Yeah, I think I did as well. Yeah, okay, yeah,
I'm fine with it.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
But I don't think Mum would have sent me nine
miles to collect like the family allowance.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
She might have sent you nine miles just to go away.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
She would have sent me nine miles to go away. Actually,
thirteen year old Richard was described as being of above
average intelligence for a boy of his age, and he
was very polite and well spoken for a child brought
up in a rural village. Collecting the family's parish allowance
was a job that, as I said, Richard Taylor had
(10:14):
done many times before, and his father, Robert had instructed
the boy many times on the importance of the task
and on the importance of safeguarding the money discreetly on
his return journey. As a consequence, Richard had was.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
He quite well educated then, not well educated, but like
I'm picturing rural life this kind of time period that
he dropped out of school, like three or four years ago.
But he was all right.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
He was far better educated than most other rural kids
and far better spoken.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Good manners go a long way, Alistair. I'm a happy
man with that.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
They do. It's true now. As a consequence of his
father's warnings, Richard had a well established root seen for
concealing the money, which he adhered to diligently, and he
was acutely aware of how much this admittedly small sum
of money meant to his impoverished family. Before leaving on
the morning of the fourth of March, Richard asked his
(11:14):
father if he could borrow a small knife, as he
wanted to carve himself a bow and arrow on his
return journey from Milford, A reasonable request for a boy
raised in a rural community. Richard simply wanted to turn
the weekly errand into a bit of fun for himself.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
That's a sick idea man like, I'm yeah, crack on arrow.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
So his father, Robert, agreed, and he gave his son
a small wood carving knife before he went on his way.
Richard left that morning at around nine am wearing a
blue jacket, brown trousers, over stockings, and black shoes. He
also had a Southwestern hat on his head and a
striped handkerchief around his neck, so he looked pretty sad.
(11:57):
Robert saw his son off, Yeah, he looked good, well
turned out for a rural okaye as well. I was
just thinking, like Robert saw his son.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
It was not normal. I mean in the UK now
it's abnormal for a child of that age to have
a wood carding knife. But like not even just modern society,
it's illegal yesterdays that. But like when we were on
holiday in Holland, there there was a German family camping
(12:24):
in the pitch next to us, and there we boy
who must have been like thirteen had a had a
knife that he cut about with, not as a weapon,
you know, just as a twol.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Thirty years ago in this country. I mean I was
in the Scouts and we had wood carving knives.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
And pen knives, not now, not now. No.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Anyway, on the morning in question, Robert saw his son
off in the morning as usual, and then began his
day's work. The walk to Aylsford was mostly along well
kept roads, and the round trip normally took young Richard
about six hours, with him returning around three in the afternoon. However,
on that fateful fourth of March, three pm came and
(13:10):
went and Richard still hadn't come back. Robert Taylor waited
all afternoon and evening, with his sense of unease growing
greater and greater as more and more time passed. Richard
was a very dependable and well behaved boy, not easily
led astray or tending to tardiness. By the next morning,
(13:30):
when Richard still hadn't returned, Robert's unease had grown into
a stomach clenching worry that something terrible had happened to
his son. So he made the nine mile trip into
Aylsford himself to try and work out where Richard might be.
Following his son's assumed route, Robert first went to the
address of the parish's relieving officer, mister Cupbirth. Here he
(13:54):
learned that Richard had arrived on time as usual and
in fine spirits. The boy had received the nine shillings
parish allowance and then left on his way back home
just after midday. Richard had hidden the money, as he
always did, in a drawstring pouch, which he then concealed
in the palm of a pair of mittens, which he
(14:15):
always took with him.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
I can't imagine the like burnt in guilt that this
man is feeling because he's the one that sent the
boy out and the boy's not come back. Now, we
don't at this point, No, I'm presuming it's not pretty,
but we don't know what's happened to him. You've not
told us yet. However, that feeling of like, yeah, I
(14:39):
don't know how to describe it, that that level of
guilt have gone. Ill. Fuck, I've sent him out. Something's happened.
He must have been like en bitts man.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Yeah. Ten out of ten panic, ten out of ten, guilt,
ten out of ten. Worry.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Absolutely yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Robert retraced his son's route back to their home in Stroud,
still saw no sign of Richard. By this time, news
of the boy's disappearance had spread through the small community,
and during the rest of the day of the fifth
of March, and from sun up until sunset the next day,
concerned villagers assisted in a search of the road and
(15:16):
of the woods surrounding Strude, trying to find the missing
Richard Taylor. Despite the effort put into the search, Richard
seemed to have vanished into thin air, which is an
odd phrase. Yeah, it's always thin air, but it's never
fat air or chubby air or thick air. You are right, Yeah,
(15:40):
I think about these things.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
I know you did.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
I know you do, And being a naturally inquisitive soul,
I felt they need to actually look into this and
like so many phrases in our English language. It comes
from the Great bar to himself, William Shakespeare.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Oh was he the first one to have used it?
Speaker 2 (15:57):
He was in sixteen oh four the play a Fellow
gave us the line go vanish into air away, and
then in sixteen ten in the Tempest, Prospero tells the
audience these actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits
and are melted into air, into thin air. And that's
the first use of the term. I like it the
(16:21):
pointless fact for everyone.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
No, no, I very much enjoy it. Thank you very
much for that. How many people are out looking at
this point? Have we got a rough idea?
Speaker 2 (16:31):
There was about three hundred people staying in Stroud and
about half of them help with a search.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Oh so it's like all men to the pumps.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Yeah, it really was so. Anyway, getting back to our tail,
Mister Cupbirth, the parish relieving officer, wasn't the last person
to see Richard alive. On the fourth of March, a
witness named mister Lewington had seen Richard in the morning
around ten am when he'd walked part of the way
into Aylesford with him, and then again in the afternoon
(17:03):
when he saw Richard leaving the town in the company
of two local boys, John Bird Bell and his younger
brother James. Mister Lewington was a sailor aboard the ship
HMS Warrior, which was anchored not far away, and he
also helped with the search for Richard on the fifth
of March.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
So that they've got some reasonably reasonable sightings.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah, there were a few sightings. Another witness who had
seen Richard with these two boys that afternoon was Missus Jones,
who lived in a cottage not far from Benham Common
on the outskirts of Aylesford. John and James Bird were
asked on the fifth of March if they knew where
Richard was, but they replied that they had only walked
with him as far as a turn up field just
(17:45):
outside of town and then left him to make the
journey home himself. Richard's apparent disappearance was the talk of
the surrounding towns like Rochester and Aylesford, but his loss
was felt most keenly in the small, close knit community
of Stroud. For weeks following the event, Robert Taylor, assisted
by other concerned villagers, searched the extensive woodland around Stroud
(18:10):
unsuccessfully for any sign of what could have happened to
his son.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
So this is a really extensive search, like they're going
to town in the local area. Yeah, and I suppose
they would know it's not a stab in the dark
where they're looking either, because they they've got markers of
sightings along the way and it would have been the
same route as he'd walked however, many times before.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Hundreds of times before. A man called mister Izard not Eddie,
was walking deep in the woods outside of Aylsford along
a narrow and seldom used path. This was on the
eleventh of May, eight weeks after the boy's disappearance, and
(18:58):
he came across a terrible sight. In a ditch some
way off the paths, he discovered the body of a
young boy in an advanced state of decomposition. The boy's
mitten had been cut from his left hand, and his
clothes were damaged and disheveled, as though he'd been in
a struggle or dragged through the forest.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
It's a really detailed scene you put you paint there
at alistair and really un really unsavory in my mind, No.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
It's horrendous. It's a sad crime.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
These are the things I think about a lot. You
were talking about the earth thick hair, all that kind
of stuff. I have on more than one occasion thought,
imagine walking up like Backies where we used to go
when we were younger. Imagine walking up there, it's a
proper nice forest path to the back of the back
of Dumblane, and stumbling across a body. You'd fucking lose
your mind. That's PTSD territory right there. Absolutely, they are
(19:56):
the sort of things I think about.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
That probably more normal.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Yeah, yeah, I'd like to know of other people listening.
Which one's more normal at least then earth thicker or
me worrying about a body.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Now, speaking of the body, the poor condition the body
was in made the cause of death impossible to determine
at the scene. However, from the amount of blood covering
the boy's clothes, it was obvious that he had met
a violent end. The body was found roughly two miles
outside of Rochester, lying in a ditch. It was on
(20:34):
its back, with the right arm across the chest and
the left which had the mitten cup from it, stretched out.
Not far from the body, a rusted knife was found
with a white horn handle, not the knife that he'd
left with.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
That's what was gonna knife. It wasn't his knife.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
It wasn't his knife.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Would essentially two miles from the sighting of him with
John and James. Yeah about that. Just so that I'm
getting the shright, he's two miles on the return journey essentially,
So like he's done the nine miles to town, he's done,
he's collected this shit, he's turned round, he's come out,
he's been spawn with these two boys, and then he's
(21:13):
two miles back down the road.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Exactly right.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Cool.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Robert Taylor himself attended the scene and identified the body
as that of his son Richard from the clothing and
from a birthmark in the shape of a bunch of currents.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Just some spotty bits.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Yeah. The body was taken to Rochester Poorhouse where it
was examined by doctor Edward Seaton and doctor Bryant. They
quickly concluded that the cause of death had been a
slash across the throat from the left side to the
right side with a short blade of some sort. From
the nature of the wound, it was evident that it
(21:53):
could not have been inflicted by the deceased boy. Either
deliberately or accidentally.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
I would guess by angle and depth and all sorts.
It wouldn't take too much to exactly to define that.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
The coroner's inquest brought back a verdict of wilfilm murder
by a person or person's unknown. At that time, the
list of suspects was small, and before long because of
inconsistencies in their stories, John bird Bell and his brother
James Bell were taken in for further questioning by the magistrates.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
What age were John and James?
Speaker 2 (22:33):
John bird Bell was fourteen years old and his brother
was eleven.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Oh fuck, I really thought you were going to say,
like fifteen and seventeen, or like Steen sixteen eighteen. I
was definitely going older with both of them, But yeah,
I fourteen and eleven, so essentially same age and younger brother.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Yeah. They both lived with their father in a poor
house in Rochester, not far from the place where Richard's
body had actually been found, well about two miles away
from where the body was found. The white bone handle
knife found at the scene was identified as one belonging
to John Bell, and Richard's sister had also recognized the
(23:16):
boys from a previous occasion when they had tried to
convince Richard to go into the forest with them when
she'd been with him and he'd refused.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Okay, so they knew each other.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Yes, they were known to each other.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Not even quite acquainted, but they knew of each other's I.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Wouldn't have said acquaintances or friends, but they knew each other.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Knowledgeable of each other's existence.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Yeah, poor Richard was actually the target of some what
we'd call bullying because he was far better spoken and
far better mannered than most of the rural boys, and
certainly than any of the boys who have been staying
in a workhouse.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
That almost sets you apart really from them, like it
does it did, would have they'd have seen him as
the postboy.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Exactly. During the course of the investigation. Richard's body had
been buried in a local cemetery. However, as the circumstantial
evidence against the two boys began to accumulate, it was
decided to exhume the body for further examination, and unusually,
John and James Bell were brought to the graveyard to
(24:38):
watch Richard's body being dug up. John maintained a cool,
quiet calm during the operation, but his younger brother, James
was visibly shaken and disturbed by the exhamation. When the
body was removed from the ground, James approached it and
immediately put his hand into the pocket of the jacket
(24:59):
that Richard had been buried in and took out the
knife that Robert had given his son that fateful day
and which had been buried with the boy.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
So any robbery that's happened to be solely for the money, Yeah,
for him to still have that, that would have been
worth taking to somebody. But it's been literally, yeah, we're
robbing the rich boy.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Yeah. Unable to bear the fear and the guilt that
he'd been living with for over three months now, the
now eleven year old James Bell broke down and confessed
much of the chilling story of how Richard had met
his end. John Bell, along with James, had been planning
(25:43):
the callous killing of poor Richard Taylor for some time.
They both resented Richard's apparently easy life and, from their view,
snooty and posh character. We know that this is about
a million miles from reality. Since the Taylor found they
were receiving a parish allowance, meaning that they were living
in what we would now call extreme poverty. However, Richard's
(26:06):
above average intelligence and the fact that he was so
well spoken and polite made him seem of a higher
class than he was and made him a target. They
also everything is relative.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
They targeted the outsider, the weird guy.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Exactly, and they targeted the rich boy. They targeted the outsider, the.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Weird thing is like, I genuinely was surprised there when
you said he'd been planning it for ages. I assumed
this was a momentary Robin is when I was going,
in my mind, this.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Was premeditated, cold, calculated. It's cold, and it is calculated. Yeah.
It's clear that John Bell was more offended by Richard's
manners than James, but the younger brother still held plot
and execute Richard's murder, although probably with little actual understanding
(26:59):
of what the act we meant or the consequences of
the deed.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
He was just going along, Yeah, he was just going
along with his big brother, really, wasn't it. Yeah, which
is really horrible because eleven is like such a young
age as well. He is gone, yeah, yeah, cool, alter
it yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
No. To give you an idea of the level of premeditation.
For many weeks, the two boys had watched Richard when
he reached Ailsford to collect the nine shillings parish allowance,
and each time they saw him put the money in
his drosstring bag and then conceal the bag in his mitten.
For how he'd cased.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Him, Yeah, I was gonna say they cased him over
how how long a period we were talking about.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
James the younger the younger boy, James said, many, many weeks,
but it was three weeks before that. The two boys
had tried to coax Richard into the forest when he
was with his sister, and he'd refused because his sister
was them.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
So we could safely assume a couple of months, probably, yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Probably a couple of months, six weeks, at least a
few weeks before the fourth of March. John and James
Bell had, as I said, tried to entice Richard into
the woods, but then he had refused because his sister
was with him. Richard had no inkling of what the
other two boys planned, so on the day in question,
when his sister had stayed home and John Bell told
(28:27):
him that there was something he wanted to show him
in the woods, Richard went with the boys, unaware of
the danger that he was walking into. Once they were
sufficiently far away from the main paths, John Bell attacked
Richard while his brother James kept watch nearby. Although only
one year older, James was significantly bigger than little Richard Taylor,
(28:49):
and he had no difficulty in subduing the younger boy
and slitting his throat with the white handled bone knife
once the deed was done. Yeah, all right, I know
it's grim and it gets grimmer. Once the deed was done.
John Bell then cut the mitten from Richard's left hand
(29:11):
and took the money that he knew was concealed inside.
He gave one shilling and sixpence of it to his
brother James, thinking that adding to his brother's complicity would
reduce the risk of James telling anyone what the pair
had done in the woods that day.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
It's yeah, I'm sorry, I was gonna start talking there,
but I'm like, I'm just processing in my head. Really,
that's what I'm doing here. Yeah, there's some lake, there's
some menace in this fourteen year old boy, And yeah,
I feel like it's not just about the money. It's
like there's some real.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
He resented, Yeah, Richard for being posh for having what
he saw as an easy life. I mean, we know
he didn't have an easy life, but everything is relative.
He had an easy life compared to the.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Brothers who I was living in a workhouse. I'm going
to say comparative to them. Yeah, we've said he's a
rich boy, but he's like, he's still, as you say,
collecting a parish allowance. So he's by no means a
tall rich. But no, that's yeah, it's all to do
with how you see it, isn't it Like these boys
are never going to come across somebody who's actually rich,
(30:27):
other than maybe the boss at the workhouse. So yeah,
in their heads, this boy that can saunter about and
say please and thank you is upper class, middle at
least middle.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Class anyway, certainly middle class.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
But to actually have that amount of hatred for somebody
because of their perceived class standings just mad. I mean,
don't get me wrong, I don't like rich people either,
but I don't hate them.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
I love rich people. They're bunkers.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Yes, there is that. There is an eccentricity that comes
with not having to give a fuck about anything.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Yeah. Now, the younger James Bell was released on the
grounds that he had played no physical part in the
murder of Richard Taylor, and also because he was an
eleven year old boy and had very little conceptual idea
of what his brother was really planning to do.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Yeah, because he's not at that brain space when he's
processing what they're talking about. Yet he's just going along
with his big brother.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Resume Yeah. John Bird Bell was arrested and charged with
the wilful murder of Richard Taylor. The authorities at the
time believe that the motive was simple robbery. However, as
we shall soon see from the confessions of John Bell,
his malice and his jealousy toward Richard was also partly
(31:55):
to blame. This wasn't a simple mugging, as you said.
There was real resentment for Richard, and it sounds.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Like it's gotten beyond the point of like this isn't fixable.
I hate you yet.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
John was remanded for trial in Maidstone, and on the
way there he took the authorities to where he had
washed his hands and clothes in a pond not far
from the scene following the murder. He also pointed out
the root into the woods that the boys had taken
that day and said to the escorting constable. That's where
(32:34):
I killed the poor boy. Although apparently unremorseful for the murder,
John Bell was aware of the severity of the crime
that he committed and of the potential punishment that he
might receive. On the same journey to Maidstone Prison to
await trial, John also remarked to the same constable, he's
(32:55):
better off than I am. Now, don't you think he is, sir,
to which the constable agreed that he probably was.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
What, So he's just here's everything. I'm like, yeah, he's
ratting on himself. Yeah, I'm just I'm struggling to follow
the narrative here from him being from him his brother,
(33:26):
his brother. So his younger brother admitted to everything. Is
that right?
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Yeah, his younger brother admitted to everything. And as soon
as his younger brother admitted to everything he said.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
He started just like was it squawking like a parrot
or whatever? He just kept what Once he was out,
he was out? Yeah, okay, No, that's fine. I just
I wanted to I was confused in my head there
where they were still talking about his younger brother was
telling them that this happened, this happened, this happened, but actually,
John went no, I did this. Yep, Okay, I did this.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
I did this. That's where I washed my hands after
I did it. The trial of John Bell for the
wilful murder of Richard Taylor took place on the twenty
ninth of July eighteen thirty one at Maidstone Assizes, with
Justice Gasarly presiding.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
That's a good name. We've not come across.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Before, Judge Justice Gasarly.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
Yeah, that's yeah, and I remembered that one. I don't
think we've come across him before.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
No, we haven't. When the charge was read out, in
a slight reversal, John Bell pled not guilty.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
But he's already told them that he did it. Yeah,
And I don't mean to sound stupid here, but like.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Why he was probably aiming for manslaughter.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
He's or he's probably been told to do that.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Yeah, he will have. He will have received some legal
advice counsel as such.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
But I'm sure you're about to get onto this. But
do they go down our standard insanity play all that
kind of stuff in his defense?
Speaker 2 (35:20):
They tried to. Yes, it doesn't work.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
It's like a bog standard for pretty much everything we
talk about. It is.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Now at the trial Evans was heard from a devastated
Robert Taylor and from Richard's seven year old sister. Mister Lewington,
the sailor from HMS Warrior, told his part, as did
mister Cuthbert, the parish relief officer, also a line draper
from Rochester. Mister Railton testified that he had given John
(35:53):
Bell change for half a crown shortly after Richard Taylor
had gone missing. This was a huge sum of money
for any boy at the time, but even more unusual
for a boy who lived in one of Rochester's poorhouses.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Yep, yep.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
The most darning evidence, though, was the reading of his
brother James's confession and the testimony of Constable Patterson, who
was the officer that John himself had confessed to while
being escorted to Maidstone jail.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
I was going to say, like that, the most obvious
evidence to present in this case is the fact that
he told the police officer he did it. Yeah, surely,
that's just that's it at that point.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
Pretty much. Yeah, we're not at the point now where
you have to sort of sign your witness statement to
the police. If you say to a policeman it can
be entered his evidence.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Yeah, but it's a he said, she said, woman, if
there's no lightly Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
But but John Bell had given Constable Patterson a full
account of the crime well on his journey, and it
paints an even darker picture of the murder than we
already have. I mentioned earlier that this crime was motivated
by jealousy and malice and not just robbery, and this
is why John Bell told Constable Patterson, and the officer
(37:25):
then told the court how John had enticed Richard Taylor
off the main paths by claiming that there was something
amazing in the forest that he wanted to show him.
After leading the younger boy through numerous twists and turns,
and once they were far enough into the woods, Richard
had become distressed and upset that he no longer knew
(37:46):
where he was in the wood or how to find
his way back to the main paths. John said that
he had no idea how to get back either, and
this upset Richard further. Sitting down on the ground, Richard
began to cry. This display of what he saw as
cowardly behavior angered John Bell, and it was now that
(38:07):
he drew his knife and started toward Richard with murder
in his eyes. Richard saw the attack coming, and, assuming
that what John was after was the nine shillings he
had hidden in his mitten, offered the money to the
older boy, along with the small carving knife that his
father had given him and anything else he had on him,
if John would just let him go unharmed. John Bell
(38:30):
was unmoved, though, and proceeded to attack Richard, stabbing him
in the throat before slashing his jugular open and leaving
him to bleed to death on the ground while he
robbed him.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
I mean, I said earlier, the picture you painted was
quite disturbing, but you've won uped yourself there.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
It's hideous. This is way more than just robbery. Oh no,
he could have had the money, he could have had
the knife, he could have had everything.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
It's this, as we were saying before, there's malice with
like rage intent there.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Yeah. After the final evidence had been heard, the Judge,
Justice Gasserly explained to the jury that deciding the fate
of a fourteen year old boy, John Bird Bell would
require their full attention and should be given the utmost consideration. However,
having just heard Constable Patterson's testimony of the boy's own confession.
(39:31):
The jury deliberated for exactly zero minutes.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
In fact, wait, is that is this the shortest case ever?
Speaker 2 (39:44):
This is the shortest the jury deliberation ever, perfect zero minutes.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
They're not even get the log geting the cup of
tee a rich biscuit.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Then they didn't even feel the need to leave the bench.
The foreman, say Tim Place, stood up and delivered a
verdict of guilty, although they did, however, suggest that John
Bell might deserve mercy due to the conditions of his upbringing,
that is to say, being raised in relative destitution in
a poor house. Justice Gasarly, though, knew that the statutory
(40:22):
sentence for murder at the time, accepting please of insanity
was death, so he donned his black cap and sentenced
the fourteen year old boy to hang by the neck
until dead, after which, as was often the case, his
body would be given over for dissection.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
So eighteen thirties, eighteen thirty, eighteen forties, we're talking about, Yeah,
eighteen thirties, I can't think of I mean, that's a
very young execution order, very young.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
There are other young there are younger. It's you're talking
seventeen hundreds to go younger.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
Yeah, that's what I meant. But like in this time period, sentence.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
Like that just almost unheard of.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
Yeah, I would have thought so.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
John bird Bell had maintained an attitude of aloof and
almost childish disdain during the trial, frequently interrupting proceedings with
outbursts during witnesses testimonies, and apparently not really appreciating either
the severity of the crime or the potential sentence. The
only real emotion the boy showed was said to be
(41:40):
a single tear which he shed when he learned that
his body would be dissected. So he doesn't want to
give back at all, he's a proper hours well. Also,
it also means that he won't be buried in consecrated ground.
His body will be given over for a dissection, an
unceremoniously buried and unconsecrated ground.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
To a fourteen year old, would that have been important?
I mean, I guess he was reasonably mature with his
you know, murder plans and stuff like that, But like,
would the parish have been that important to it?
Speaker 2 (42:14):
The parish might not, But I think an idea of
the everlasting the after life was far more ingrained in
everyone back then. Certainly, growing up in a workhouse, religion
would have been a huge part of the.
Speaker 1 (42:34):
Boy's daily life. I suppose they probably did prayers and
things like that in the mornings, at breakfast and everything.
I don't know every day. Yeah, but to have that
process of thought to go, oh, they're going to kill me, fine,
but like at least burny me when I want to
be buried. Yeah, that's a mad statement for anyone, never
(42:56):
mind a fourteen year old, it is.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
But his childish bravado would last until he was returned
to his cell in Maidstone Jail, where he broke down
and wept. When his parents visited him before his execution,
he blamed them for his fate. John's father was actually
implicated in the concealment of the crime, but there was
insufficient evidence to charge him as an accessory. After the fact,
(43:21):
John himself requested that his brother James attend his execution
as an example and a lesson to the young boy.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
Okay, I mean this is getting really deep and troubling,
but okay.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
John bird Bell was hanged on August the first, near
Maidstone in front of a crowd of over eight thousand people,
which did include his brother Jans. It was reported that
he walked steadily up to the gallows and his last
words were, Lord, have mercy upon us. Pray good, Lord,
(43:58):
have mercy upon us. All the people before me take
warning by me, Lord, have mercy upon my poor soul.
At eleven thirty am, John bird Bell's neck was placed
in the noose. He was the youngest person executed in
the UK in the nineteenth century, and he was hanged
(44:19):
by the new drop method of a trapdoor. But this
shouldn't be mistaken with the long drop, which actually wouldn't
come into use for some years. The first person to
be hanged by the long drop I think was William
Horry in eighteen seventy something.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
I did know it was eighteen seventies, but I couldn't
have told you who.
Speaker 2 (44:42):
It was eighteen seventy two, I think William Horry. Following
John bird Bell's execution, his body was given over to
surgeons in Rochester for dissection, and so ended the sad
story of the crime of John bird Bell. I'm not
quite finished though. Due to his very young age, John
(45:05):
Bird's crime was sensational public news, and I've actually found
a lot of poems and songs written about him at
the time in the press, including one that was reportedly
written by John Bell himself while in his cell in
awaiting execution. So I'd like to read that one before
(45:26):
we wrap up.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
Please do. But before that, what was the brother found
guilty of anything at all?
Speaker 2 (45:34):
Nope?
Speaker 1 (45:34):
So he literally he obviously watched his brother's execution, but
wasn't found guilty of anything.
Speaker 2 (45:40):
Yeah, he wasn't found guilty of anything. All James Bell
had actually done was wait by a hedge about two
hundred yards away, watching for people on the path.
Speaker 1 (45:54):
So because he so he wasn't an accessory in any way,
because he hadn't physically done anything.
Speaker 2 (46:00):
Yeah, I mean he was an accessory. If that was
two grown men, he would have been charged as an accessory.
It was just because he was an eleven year old boy.
Speaker 1 (46:10):
Yeah, given his age, he was given more leeway.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
Yeah, one hundred percent. Now, before I read this poemo,
I should point out that, in my opinion, although it
was reported in the press, it's very unlikely that John
Bird Bell actually did write this. For me, the language
is all wrong for a fourteen year old boy raised
in a workhouse in the early nineteenth century. But I
(46:36):
think it still serves as a look at how the
crime was viewed at the time by both the media
and by the general public.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Because we've already said that he was jealous of Richard's
eloquence and things like that, So does that lean into
this Like you wouldn't have thought that this was written
by him.
Speaker 2 (46:56):
I wouldn't have thought that a fourteen year old boy
raised in a workhouse would have written this. It seems unlikely.
But here we go. Come children and parents too, and
listen to these lines which I have penned within my
cell where I suffer for my crimes and from my fate.
(47:21):
A warning, take and keep from evil ways, or if
in evil paths you tread, it will cut short your
days of crimes. I have guilty, been though my years
they are but few, and now I am condemned to
die for a murder. It is true. I knew Taylor
had to pass or through a lonely spot and from
(47:44):
the parish for his father nine shillings he had got
of which I thought to rob him and troth I
now unfold that he did make resistance with courage, stout
and bold. I took with me my brother to do
this dreadful fact, and stationed him close to the hedge
with directions how to act to see no one was
(48:08):
coming with me to interfere. Well, I did murder, tailor
for which runs many a tear. As he sat down,
I stabbed him in the neck on the left side,
then washed my hands all in a pond that stood
by the roadside. I made my brother swear he the
(48:29):
secret near would tell. But God above he seed the act,
and of it knew full well. When nine weeks were gone,
I thought this deed none ever would know, as none
had then the body found. Yet I was still in woe.
But God, who never lets murder pass without a punishment,
(48:50):
cause izard to discover it, as through the woods he went,
for which I was brought to trial and sentenced, as
you see, to die on Monday morning upon the fatal tree. Now,
all ye youths, both high and low, by me a
warning take and if you know you're doing ill your
(49:11):
bad ways, pray for sake or else, like me, too late,
you'll find distress and woe severe will overtake you in
your wickedness and stop your sad career.
Speaker 1 (49:25):
So first thing I'm going to interject with is he
didn't write that at all.
Speaker 2 (49:30):
No, Yeah, that is that was written I think by
a reporter who said that John bird Bell wrote it
to sell papers.
Speaker 1 (49:41):
And somebody who is skilled at writing wrote that. Very
well read, very well written. I don't see the fourteen
year old boy on death row. Death row is a
fucking silly word. I didn't mean that, you know what
I mean. He didn't write that and.
Speaker 2 (49:54):
Know exactly what you mean, and especially being workhouse educated.
At the risk of sounding terribly middle.
Speaker 1 (49:59):
Class, Yes, that's fair because like we've already acknowledged that
he was, if I mean, perceived lower class than than Richard,
but probably not that much in reality. But he already know.
Speaker 2 (50:18):
Richard was well spoken, that's what word Bell was not.
Speaker 1 (50:21):
That's what I mean. But John bard Bell already perceived
himself as the lower class, so there's no way he
would have had that in him.
Speaker 2 (50:31):
No, I doubt it.
Speaker 1 (50:32):
What's a lovely poem?
Speaker 2 (50:35):
Yeah, but a terrible story.
Speaker 1 (50:39):
I take that back, Not a lovely poem, A well
written horrible poem is what I meant. Yeah, really, but
you knew what me.
Speaker 2 (50:47):
I knew exactly what you meant, and a horrible story.
Youngest person ever executed in the nineteenth century.
Speaker 1 (50:54):
Well there you go. Well in the UK, in the UK,
hanged by a court of law on the United Kingdom, exactly,
very not you that case.
Speaker 2 (51:06):
I know.
Speaker 1 (51:08):
Why that one. I mean, okay, we'll get onto that
in a sound horrific I think it's probably the easiest
way about that, Like imagine said and like I said
it earlier, because you imagine the guilt and the father's
head and and and mind and for the rest of
his life sending his son out to go and do
the weekly task as such. Yeah, and I'm never coming
(51:32):
home again. I just can't comprehend the pain that that creates.
So I share for that, But the the callousness of
the crimes totally, Like, I don't get it. It's just
(51:53):
that that level of hatred that comes from someone different.
It's a weird thing, isn't it. Like I don't I know,
we don't suffer from it, obviously, but it's almost like
it's not xenophobia, but it's along those lines, really, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (52:09):
Yeah. As to why this case, it interested me for
a number of reasons, I've been looking into quite a
lot of child criminals. Okay, recently we've just started releasing
the Teacup Poisoner trilogy in four parts, and I've become
(52:32):
quite interested in what drives children, especially to commit crimes,
and the idea that you're born evil. I don't really
ascribe to, so child criminals interest me.
Speaker 1 (52:54):
We've said before we'll never do the nature nurture debate
on a podcast. There's no point in us doing that.
Neither of us are experts. We have our own opinions.
I'm absolutely with you. I don't think anybody is born evil.
I think that's a really no, it's a lazy, sloppy
thing to say about somebody. But yeah, I totally get
the intrigue that you get from that. But I do
(53:15):
find it weird that, like, and we can probably chase
this over episodes, that you get into a wee moment
of like doing poisoners, doing child It's weird that you
get into that, and I'm not surprised that, having done
one recently, that you went. I found other knowledge by
(53:36):
doing that and found it that way. Yeah, I hadn't
actually related it to the Teacup Poisoner there at all,
but it makes sense that you've gone child criminals. That's
a weird sentence in itself. But you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (53:49):
No, it's absolutely true, And in this case I didn't
mention it much because it's not pertinent to this story.
But John bird Bell did lead a really rough childhood.
He was physically abused by his father, as well as
growing up in a workhouse, which is an adverse childhood
(54:09):
experience in itself. So I still don't believe anyone's born evil,
but you can certainly become evil by the age of
thirteen fourteen.
Speaker 1 (54:19):
You can bake it right in there at an early age,
that's for sure. Yeah, societal issues more than anything else,
not one that I mean, you can correct me if
I'm wrong. But normally when we talk about people that
could not normally, but a lot of the times we
talk about people who have suffered from brain injury and
all that kind of stuff. But he was just your
(54:40):
normal boy.
Speaker 2 (54:43):
Yes, we do have to remember that adverse childhood experiences
don't have to just be physical. They can be mental.
He didn't sustain any sort of brain injury or notable
physical trauma as a child, but he did sustain years
of systemic physical abuse from his father and grew up
in a workhouse, which is.
Speaker 1 (55:06):
Rough in itself.
Speaker 2 (55:07):
Not that we're excusing what he did in any way, shape.
Speaker 1 (55:09):
Or form, No, not at all, But we're just almost
trying to relate it almost like that level of mental
abuse is huge there.
Speaker 2 (55:19):
Yeah, And you do often see violent criminals have violent
childhoods and feel the need to exercise the same sort
of power over others that they'd had exercised over them
(55:41):
during their trauma as a child. We talked about it
in the Teacup Poisoner episodes. We certainly talk a bit
about a god complex in that and oh a lot
about god complex in that one.
Speaker 1 (55:56):
Yeah. Do you feel like Bell has a bit of
that in him? Or is it just pure malice?
Speaker 2 (56:04):
I don't think Bird Bell has the same sort of
God complex that Graham Young had. I think with bird Bell,
it's more like, in order to make him feel less
(56:26):
weak and inferiors because of the way his dad made
him feel weak and inferior, he has to make other
people weaker than him. He has to inflict the same
sort of trauma on other people that was inflicted on him.
Speaker 1 (56:43):
Is it just we man syndrome a little bit? Yeah,
He's just why you.
Speaker 2 (56:49):
Are we men syndrome where you pick on people weirder
than you. Yeah, big man syndrome, big man syndrome.
Speaker 1 (56:56):
Yeah, fair enough. Well that was a horrific tale. Just
thank you very much for that.
Speaker 2 (57:03):
Yeah, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (57:05):
We don't be sorry. It's what we do, isn't it is.
Speaker 2 (57:09):
I'll make that the last child criminal for a while,
if you would, I'd appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (57:12):
Actually, thank you very much. We've had a few of
them recently, everything from June and Ivani right through to this.
None of them have been tales of happy rainbows. So no,
they haven't. I don't think we can tell the tale
of happy rainbows unless we can find a criminal rainbow.
Speaker 2 (57:30):
No, but I do think you'll enjoy the next rabbit
hole will be going down, which is going to be
the development of forensic science.
Speaker 1 (57:38):
I think very nice.
Speaker 2 (57:41):
I've got Spillsbury's autobiography. I've got a couple of other
great books that I'm going through.
Speaker 1 (57:47):
And I've enjoyed that tonight. It was interesting. We don't
say enjoyed, do we.
Speaker 2 (57:53):
No, it wasn't an enjoyable one.
Speaker 1 (57:55):
Oh it really wasn't. I still quite sad. Now I'm
going to see if.
Speaker 2 (58:00):
Occasionally there are enjoyable ones.
Speaker 1 (58:02):
Yes, very occasionally, very occasionally, I don't know, Like sometimes
I always come back to that My Peter Gibbs case
is the one that's just that's the one that rattles
around the empty space inside. I actually enjoyed that. I
know a man died, but he also went home my baer.
I'm gonna fly going fireplane. So you know, yeah, nobody
killed well, we don't know if anybody killed them with
(58:23):
us anyway, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (58:25):
Sometimes on the HMS readnot.
Speaker 1 (58:28):
I was was gonna say, and you've got your ome
ones where you sometimes go. I really enjoyed learning about that.
Speaker 2 (58:34):
I loved it. Yeah, and I'll get a picture up
on the website of Beck next to Seriah's wedding shoes.
Speaker 1 (58:41):
And write the story of the pissy shoes. Yeah, the
Bournemouth shoepur.
Speaker 2 (58:47):
She was more angry at me than the dog because
I thought it was hilarious.
Speaker 1 (58:52):
Don't tell her I found it funny. Then. Anyway, we
shall leave you as we always do, with a thank you,
love you by and I thank you, love you bye,
thank you fewbye.
Speaker 2 (59:08):
Heself I called you bye.
Popular Podcasts
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com