The Arrest and time spent at Stafford Gaol:
The inquest on Cook ended with a verdict that William Palmer had wilfully murdered John Parsons Cook. Immediately officers were sent to arrest Palmer but when they arrived at his house they found that he was already under house arrest for being in debt. Palmer was ill but as soon as he was fit to travel he was sent by road to Stafford Gaol. A large crowd of people gathered outside Palmer's house in the hope of catching a glimpse of the prisoner before he was escorted to prison.

The Gateway to the Gaol was known as the Lodge which contained a room for the turnkeys (later referred to as warders now as officers); a reception room where the prisoners would be first received and examined; a warm and cold bath and an oven in which to fumigate prisoners clothes. Prisoners were hanged on a gallows erected on the roof of the Lodge until 1817 when the scaffold collapsed with all on it. From then on a portable gallows was used which was erected in front of the Lodge.

His arrival at Stafford Gaol:
As soon as he arrived at Stafford Gaol Palmer, who was still feeling extremely unwell, went straight to bed, his clothes were taken off him and another suit of clothes was made for him. Palmer refused to wear the new clothes and was very insistent that his own clothes be returned to him. This led to the suspicion that he had some poison secretly hidden in his clothes. The Prison Governor, Captain William Fulford, ordered that the clothes be meticulously searched for any hidden tablets or powder. When no substances were found, two weeks later, the clothes were returned to Palmer.

A view of the Gateway to Stafford Gaol from The Illustrated Times dated 14th June 1856 (the day of the hanging) The Newspaper said
"EVEN Stafford Jail itself never contemplated, perhaps, the unhappy interest which surrounds it.
Almost at all hours of the twenty-four groups of earnest gossipers collect before its walls, and discuss the demerits of the convict lying in some mysterious cell. The thoughts of thousands at a greater distance continually revert to this Palmer prison-house; to assist their imagination, we present a faithful portraiture of the building."

Stafford Gaol by Night
from the Illustrated Times dated February 2nd 1856

His attempted suicide:
Palmer remained in his bed and refused to eat and would only drink small amounts of water. Today we would call his actions 'going on hunger strike'. On the sixth day the governor again visited Palmer and gave him an ultimatum. he said that unless he ate his soup he would call several of his turnkeys and they would hold him down and 'force-feed' him. Palmer, being a medical man realised just how painful this would be, as it involved a tube being forcibly inserted into the mouth down to the throat and using a 'stomach pump' to force the liquid food into the prisoner's stomach. Palmer was given five minutes to agree to eat his soup before the dramatic action would be taken. Palmer backed down and ate his bowl soup and from then on ate his meals normally. The newspapers reported this episode as "Palmer's Attempted Suicide" and "His Voluntary Starvation".

Transferred to London:
On Sunday 4th May 1856 William Palmer was taken, by Mr. Mountford, the deputy-governor of the County Gaol at Stafford and one of the turnkeys, to London. They caught the 6.26 a.m. train from Stafford.