Shank's Pony.......

You Can Steal my Wife – But not my Horse.....

One of the most frustrating parts of police work is the fact that no matter how good the quality of the evidence in a case, the defendant, by lies in the form of perjury, tricks by clever Defense Lawyers or the naivety of some Juries, he/she is acquitted.

Some officers, in most cases young and inexperienced ones, take it personally and consider that they are being called liars.   In my case, once again in my early police service I was taught very wisely by an old experienced officer who kept me on the right track.   He merely repeated time and time again “Don’t worry Mike, he will come again”.

And so this little story surely goes to prove his point.......

This injustice, or may I say true justice, goes back to 10^th December 1679 at the Old Bailey, (Central Criminal Court) in London.   However, crime, murder and greed are as old as mankind itself which was proved when Cain killed Abel.

John Dell and Richard Dean stood in the dock charged with the Murder of Dell’s wife.   It was known that Dell had been having quarrels with her for many years.  The latest was when she would not sign over some estate which he could not sell without her consent.    One day he took her on horseback to Barnet, north of London from their home in Middlesex. 

The journey was made on some pretext or other.   In the evening, whilst making their return, they stopped on the edge of a small woodland copse.

Dell claimed that they had been set upon by three robbers who attempted to rob them and that when his wife screamed out, one of the robbers struck her a blow.   Dell believed that this had killed her.   He further claimed that they then began to attack him with their swords.

He was overcome by them and suffering some slight injuries to his arms and head.   He was later able to produce his clothing that had gashes in the hat and coat.    He claimed that he was then led into a field with his wife being dragged behind them.   He said that he was tied up and what little money he had - seven or eight shillings - was taken.   His horse was left to wander and his arms were tied behind his back with the reins and bridle.   After much struggling, he claimed to have untied his legs (but not his arms) and made his way to a house about half a mile away where he raised the alarm.

However, the man who met him at the house later recounted that the tied arms were so loosely done that he had no doubt that if he had wanted to, he could easily have freed himself.    Further, a man working in a nearby field to where the alleged attack took place, later gave evidence that he had heard only a single scream.

Fearing that something untoward had taken place, he called back loudly five or six times but heard no answer.   In fact Dell later hired this same man to take his wife’s body home in his cart, a distance of two or three miles.    The point about the single scream was put to Dell by the man no less than six times during the journey to whom the answer was each time confusing...................

In fact it was Dell who raised a search party and returned to the scene of the alleged attack and it was he who directed them to a bushy area where the body was hidden.   She had one wound to her head which the onlookers considered to have been caused by a scissors and not a weapon.   It is unclear why Richard Dean was also charged with the Murder but he was known to be an accomplice of Dell in many other matters and was unable to give a good account of his movements on the day of the death.

A full Jury trial was held at the Old Bailey, where due to a lack of direct evidence, they were both acquitted.  However, they were not released................

Later the same day, the pair of them again entered the Dock and in front of the same Judge and a new Jury they stood charged with a second Murder.   This was alleged to have been committed against Daniel Ball, Dell’s father-in-law and father of the dead wife.

He was eighty years old at the time of his death.    Dell had convinced his wife before her death that the aged man should come to live with them but there was evidence that Ball feared Dell and had spoken that his son-in-law only wanted his estate.

However, he did move to his daughter’s home and within a short period of months, he was dead.    He was placed in a coffin which it was proven that Dell had purchased prior to the death.   A coach was hired for thirty shillings with the driver instructed to come to the address at midnight to take it together with Dell and his rogue friend Dean, to London where they intended to have him interred in a cemetery there.

When the coach arrived in London in the Strand, they were stopped by the ‘Searchers’ whom I presume were some form of police of the time.   Dell was unwilling to permit the coffin to be opened and threatened to return to his home with the body unless it was allowed through.   He claimed that the body was too bloodied and unsightly.   At the insistence of the Searchers, the coffin was eventually opened and suspicions raised.

Partly because of the previous year’s death of his wife, they were arrested.    After enquiries were made they were both charged with Murder and appeared at the Old Bailey as I said.   However, once again, the Jury acquitted them of their second murder due to lack of evidence.

At this stage of the story, I will mention the term ‘Strawmen’.   These were men who were willing to commit perjury on behalf of a defendant for money.   They used to stand outside the Old Bailey and other such courts with long straws hanging from their mouths, where unscrupulous lawyers would hire them, give them the evidence required and produce them as ‘witnesses’.   Whether or not this is what happened with Dell and Dean is a supposition on my part but I honestly believe because of their previous behaviour, it was highly likely.

However, once again they were not released, as they both reappeared in the Dock again on the same day in front of the same judge and a third jury.  This time the indictment was ‘Stealing a mare’.   The facts of the matter were quite short and sweet.   A man and his wife from Hertfordshire bought the mare from Dean for twenty-five shillings.

His rogue friend Dell claimed that it was his and that Dean had been hired to sell her.   However, the true owner had quality evidence of ownership which helped to prove that Dean and Dell had been involved in the selling as a joint venture.   The Jury this time found them both Guilty and the Judge, probably tired of seeing them ‘get off with murder’ sentenced them both to be hanged.

Justice is blind ------------- with a little help from the Judge..............

------------Mike------------