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Talbot
Inn, Anson Street, where the bodies of Annie and Walter were examined,
(not to be confused with the Talbot Arms where Cook died). Illustrated
Times 2nd February 1856
From the Illustrated Life and Career of William Palmer of Rugeley
1856
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Gambling
on Walter's Life
William argued that, the way Walter drank, he couldn't possibly last ten
years, so, as a gambling man, he offered Walter £400 straight away
if he would let him insure his life.
| The
Solicitors' and General |
£13,000 |
In
December 1854, less than three months after Palmer had collect £13,000
insurance after his wife's death, William tried to insure Walter's life
with six different insurance companies for a grand total of £82,000
without telling Walter how much he was to be insured for. One company
offered to insure Walter for £13,000 but only if Walter lived for
at least five years but William was not interested.
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| The
Prince of Wales |
£13,000 |
| The
Universal |
£13,000 |
| The
Indisputable |
£14,000 |
| The
Athenaeum |
£14,000 |
| The
Gresham |
£15,000 |
| Total |
£82,000 |
In
the end William Palmer employed a man called Tom Walkenden to keep Walter
sober long enough to sign the forms and fool the insurance company's doctor
that he was fit and healthy.
On
April 5th 1855 Mr. Waddell, surgeon of Stafford pronounced Walter to be
"healthy, robust and temperate" and William was finally able
to insure Walter's life for £14,000 with the Prince of Wales Insurance
Company. William Palmer paid the first premium of £710, 13 shillings
and 4 pence. Walter did not get the £400 he had originally been promised
but William did give him £60 and promised him unlimited credit to
get drink from a local innkeeper.
Walter
Palmer died on August 16th August 1855. William Palmer's own diary records
that on the 16th August, "Went to see Walter, who was very ill";
and "Walter Palmer died at half-past two, p.m.". Like Palmers
wife before him, Walter died after just one life insurance premium had
been paid by William Palmer. Mr. Lloyd, the landlord at the Grand Junction
Inn Stafford reported that within an hour William Palmer's thoughts left
his brother and turned to his love of "the turf" when he asked
Lloyd to send a telegram to the Clerk of the Course at Shrewsbury - "Please
tell me who has won the Ludlow Stakes".
The
Inquest on Walter was started at the Talbot Inn, which stood on the
corner of Anson Street and Wolseley Road before being demolished many years
later so that the road could be widened to allow through traffic.
After
Annie's coffin had been opened and the body "viewed" it was the
turn of Walter's coffin. Unfortunately he had been buried in a sealed lead
coffin. The outer wood coffin was removed and a hole cut into the lid of
the lead coffin that encased the body. Immediately noxious gases escaped
from the coffin which were so strong that it made most of those present
vomit and several of the jury were still feeling sickly up to four days
later.
With
the lead coffin removed the corpse presented a hideous sight. The face
and cheeks were terribly swollen and limbs much distended and described
as "a mass of corruption, dropsy and gangrene".
Dr.
Monkton had an almost impossible task of making a post mortem on Walter.
The inquests of Annie and Walter were then promptly adjourned much to the
relief of the coroner and jury.
The
smell from the opening of Walter's coffin persisted for months and some
say even years. They removed the wallpaper and sanded the floorboards in
an attempt to rid them of the lingering smell. The publican of the Talbot
Inn complained bitterly that it had ruined his trade and eventually the
inn closed down. Later, before its demolition, the building was taken over
by the army and used as a store for the equipment used in the army training
exercises that took place on Cannock Chase during the latter part of the
Nineteenth Century.
On Monday
14th January 1856 the inquest on Walter was opened and immediately adjourned
to the 15th to await Dr. Taylor's findings then finally to 23rd January
when a verdict of willful murder was returned. The cases for the willful
murder of John Parsons Cook, Annie Palmer and Walter Palmer were brought
before a grand jury at Stafford Assizes in March 1856. The jury considered
that Palmer had a case to answer for the deaths of John Parsons Cook and
Annie Palmer but found the case not proven in the death of Walter. Dr. Taylor
originally thought the cause of Walter's death to be poisoning by prussic
acid but later changed to agree with the other six doctors who said 'apoplexy'.
We
will never know if Walter was poisoned or drank himself to death.
The
Illustrated Times dated February 2nd 1856 gave the following account:
THE
LANDLORD OF THE TALBOT INN AT RUGELEY
Mr.
John Williss, the landlord of the Talbot Inn, where the bodies of Mrs.
William Palmer and Walter were opened, is a stout, jolly-looking man,
who is trying to appear unhappy and who talks of ruin, because commercial
travellers have of late taken a dislike to his house. We found him
sitting in his bar, with a fat child between his knees, and sighing
and drinking ale by turns, whilst his wife - a pretty little woman,
with a baby in her arms, was endeavouring to reason him out of his
despondency.
There was a gun over the fireplace, and
he kept his eyes fixed on it like a crow. He occasionally thrust his
hand into his brown velvet waistcoat, and glanced round at the rows
of ale mugs and barrels of spirits, as though he was calculating what
they would sell for, if the worst came to the worst. When a customer
entered and called for ale, he rose to draw it with an air of resignation,
and it was difficult to tell whether he or the beer-engine was groaning.
The fat child was munching an apple, and nearly choked itself; and
as Mr. Williss extracted the fruit from its mouth, he muttered something
about it's being perhaps better to die young before it had come to
want.
Three commercial travellers with plenty
of luggage, would restore Mr. Williss to happiness. There is one good
thing; Mrs. Williss doesn't seem at all anxious on her husband's account,
but appears to know that their sorrows will soon pass away. Mr. Williss
made the subjoined communication to us:-
Yes sir, I'm the landlord of the Talbot
Inn - not the Talbot Arms - that's old Masters as is the landlord of
that, but I'm Williss.
Some time after the murder of Cook, and
while Palmer was under arrest with sheriff's officers, it was determined
to exhume the bodies of Mr. Walter Palmer and Mrs. Palmer. I knew they
were going to do so, because two police officers stayed here all night.
About seven in the morning, when we were in bed, on a bright frosty
morning (it was very bright, added Mr. Williss), one of the policemen,
by the name of Chesham who lodged here, came to our room, and says
he, "Here you must get up, they are going to bring these bodies
into the house; Mr. Bergen says they are to come here." I told
him there was an outhouse and coachhouse where he could take 'em. Then
Bergen told me they was to come here, and that he had a letter from
the Secretary of State, saying they were to go into the Talbot Inn.
We have had the coachhouse all cleared out on purpose; but Bergen says
it's too cold there, the doctors can't manage their work; they must
come here because the Secretary of State says so. I told him we could
warm up the coachhouse but he wouldn't. They brought the corpses here.
We were obliged to put 'em into the commercial-room, because that was
the only place where the passage would let the coffins enter. Mrs.
Palmer was not so bad, but Walter Palmer was shocking. It's a blessing
he was taken away the same night. Only fancy, twenty-three jurymen,
and I among the number, for I was a juryman, the coroner, four police-officers,
and lookers-on in that little room, as is only about five yards by
three. When the lid was lifted up the stench was awful. Captain Whitgreave
took his stick and bobbed it through the window to let in the air (it's
a beautiful ventilated room, too); some of the jurymen was sick. I
don't know as ever I smelt anything like it, it was uncommon bad.
In the commercial-room it seemed to soak
into everything. It was against the walls, and in the paint, and in
the looking glass even. We were obliged to have the passage took down
(and it near killed the man as worked), and the wood-work painted,
and the ceiling whitewashed. I never see such a thing; it was as if
the things had been soaked in a liquor, and took it up in 'em. Of course,
the boards where the stuff dropped from the coffin was all done for,
and had to be taken up and burned. Ah! It was a nasty business.
The affair has been as good as £200
or £300 out of my pocket. Ah! I can't say the loss, I don't know
it yet. Commercial gentlemen that used to come here before, and have
done, some of them, for 20 years, won't come to the house now. One
of them, only the other day, said to me (he takes a glass of brandy
and water just for friendship sake), "I won't go into the house,
and I won't look at the room; perhaps in a twelvemonth I may."
I used generally to have four or five, and often more commercial gentlemen
in a week. Now they don't come. Worse than that, they have taken away
the "rent meeting." We live under Lord Lichfield, and the
tenants used to meet in my house to pay their rents. Now this year,
they let me provide the dinner, but they would not come after all,
but took what we had provided from here to the Talbot Arms to be cooked.
I was brought to this house in arms. My father and mother had it. We're
the Talbot Inn. What's called the Talbot Arms, used to be the Crown
formerly. They didn't alter it out of opposition, but this is a fact.
They held under Lord Talbot, and I under Lord Lichfield, so they thought
they ought to change.
There is some talk about getting up a
dinner at my house as a recompense for what I've put up with. I can't
say if it'll come off or not; perhaps as I'm in bad luck it won't;
but I hope to Heaven it will, for I'm particular worried about this
exhuming business, and wants to see somebody or other in the house.
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Palmer
tries to trick Walter's widow:
The day after Walter had died William Palmer went to Liverpool to tell
Walter's estranged wife about the death. She naturally wondered why she
had not been told that Walter had been so ill. She wanted to go to see
his body but was told that the coffin had already been sealed.
After
his death on August 16th 1855 Walter was buried in the Palmer Family vault
which is in St. Augustine's Churchyard on the north-eastern side of the
church. Once Walter was buried and Dr. Day had supplied a death certificate
William Palmer wanted to claim the insurance money. However the insurance
company withheld payment. Palmer wrote to Walter's widow, Agnes (who was
then lodging at Edith Lodge, Graham Road, Great Malvern, Worcestershire)
asking her to pay £85 he loaned Walter who had said his wife would
repay, plus a mysterious £40 and a further bills totalling £200.
Agnes replied that Walter had told her that William had insured his life
for £1,000 and promised him £500 but that her husband had only
been paid a few pound. In those circumstances she, having received no money
from her husband in all their married life, felt that she should not be
responsible for his debts. It is obvious that neither Walter nor his wife
realised how much insurance was taken out on Walter's life. Palmer sent
his friend and family solicitor Jerry Smith to get Walter's widow to sign
a paper surrendering any interest in the life policy. She however wished
her solicitor to see the papers and although Smith agreed he took the papers
away with him.
Inspectors
Field and Simpson
The Prince of Wales Insurance Company who had already paid out £13,000
for the death of his wife were suspicious when Palmer claimed a further
£13,000 for the death of his brother Walter. Two Inspectors, Field
and Simpson, sent to investigate a proposed insurance of a George
Bates, decided to also investigate Walter's death.
The
insurance companies refused to pay the insurance money and this increased
William Palmer's financial worries.
Did
Walter drink himself to death or was he poisoned by William Palmer in the
hope of collecting the insurance?
"Boots"
at the Junction Inn poisoned?
One of the witnesses that Inspector Field interviewed was Tom Myatt the
"boots" (a man who polishes the boots of residents) at the Grand
Junction Hotel in Stafford. Palmer, finding that the inspectors had spoken
to Myatt and wanting to know what had been said bought him his favourite
drink brandy. Myatt claims that Palmer bought him a brandy and Palmer mixed
it with water. Myatt later claimed that the drink didn't taste funny but
that he was later "took bad" and that he was ill for three or
four days. Was he just a simple man inventing a story and enjoying the
attention gained by claiming to be a 'victim' of the by then famous Palmer
or was he really poisoned?
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Introduction
