£74 LON 
to fuppofe they had been difeovered, as they made off 
without taking any of the property ; and in their hurry 
they left behind them the inftrument with which they had 
perpetrated the fatal deeds. It is defended as an iron¬ 
headed mallet, ftich as is ufed by carpenters. It remains 
a matter of conjecture, whether the villains rulhed in at 
the door while, Mr. Man* was fhutting'up the fliop, or got 
in the back way. At any rate, it feems evident, that 
their object, in the firft inftance, was to deftroy the whole 
of the family; and that the fervant owed her life entirely 
to the accident of being out on an errand. Air. and Mrs, 
Marr were a young couple, had been married about eigh¬ 
teen months, and were refpefted by the neighbourhood. 
On the 19th of the fame month, (while the above mur¬ 
ders were frefh in the minds of the neighbours, and while 
patroles and police-officers were more than ufual on the 
alert,) between eleven and twelve o’clock at night, an¬ 
other feene of fangninary atrocity was a-ffed near the fame 
place, in RatciifF-highway, equalling in barbarity the 
murders of Mr. Marr and family. Three perfons, all con- 
fiderably upwards of fifty years of age, were butchered by 
fotne ruffians yet unknown. The following particulars 
are the fubftance of what has tranfpired with refpeit to 
this frefh iaffiance of ferocity. Mr. Wiliiamfon and his 
wife kept the King’s Arms public-houfe, in New Gravel- 
lane; and the inmates of their houfe confided of an old 
woman, who collected pots and waited in the tap-room ; 
* little girl about fourteen years old, their grand-daugh¬ 
ter ; and a man named John Turner, their lodger. A 
little before eleven at night, Ttimer came home ; and, af¬ 
ter wifhing his landlord and landlady a good night, went 
up ftairs to bed. Mr. Wiliiamfon was then preparing to 
fhut up his houfe. Turner, almoft immediately after he 
got into bed, fell into a found fleep, in which he conti¬ 
nued for about half an hour, when he was awakened by 
a noife below (fairs. He liftened a few moments, and 
heard the fervant-maid crying out “ We are all murdered.” 
He Hole down ftairs undreffed, and cautioufly looked 
through the taproom-door, which had a glafs window in 
it. The firft objeft that be faw, was a man drefled in a 
drab (baggy bear-(kin coat, (looping over the body of 
Mrs. Wiliiamfon, which was lying at the fire-fide. He 
could not fee what the man was doing, but he heard the 
jingling of money, and fuppdfed he was rifling her pockets. 
His ears were then affailed by the deep fighs of a perfon 
in the agonies of death. Terrified beyond defeription, 
he ran up ftairs to the top of the houfe, with a view to 
make his efcape. In his fright he could not find the trap¬ 
door in the roof; he therefore returned to his own room, 
threw up the window, and, tying the (beets of his bed to¬ 
gether, and fattening them to the bed-pofts, he defeended 
fafely to the ground, with the affiftance of the watchman, 
who, happening to pafs at'that inftant by the houfe, re¬ 
ceived him in his arms. The neighbourhood was then 
immediately alarmed. It was yet an early hour, not 
twelve, and feveral people foon aflembled round the houfe. 
The door was knocked at, but, no anfwer being made, 
was broke open with an iron crow. Upon entering the 
tap-room, the bodies of Mrs. Wiliiamfon and the maid 
(Bridget Harrington) were found befmeared with blood, 
with their heads towards the fire-place. The head of the 
latter was almoft fevered from her body, and the fkuil it- 
felf fraftured in the molt frightful manner, the brains 
protruding. Mrs. Wiliiamfon had alfo her throat cut, 
and her head very much fhattered. Thofe who entered 
then went down ftairs, and juft in the cellar they found 
the body of Mr. Wiliiamfon lying lifelefs, with a long iron 
bar under his body : his throat was dreadfully cut on the 
right fide: the wound appeared to have been made in the 
front of the neck by fome ftabbing-inftrument, and after¬ 
wards enlarged whilft the inftrument remained in the firft- 
incifion. His hands appeared to be dreadfully hacked 
and cut, one of his thumbs being completely fevered from 
his left hand ; his right leg received a compound frac¬ 
ture, the bones of it being to be feen through the ttock- 
D O N. 
ing. From his general appearance, it *a$ evident that he 
had made a vigorous refiftance. The iron bar, found un¬ 
der his body, was ftained with blood ; and it appeared to 
have been wrenched from a window in the cellar. The 
watchman, accompanied by the others, then went up ftairs 
to afeertain whether any other perfon had fallen a victim 
of the affuffins; but they found no one except the grand¬ 
daughter of Mr. Wiliiamfon, who had been in a profound 
ileep all the time that the murders were committing. 
We have to add to this narrative, that the horror and 
alarm excited throughout the metropolis by this butchery, 
fo foon following that of Mr. Mark's family, were beyond 
defeription, every houfe almoft dreading the approach of 
night, left it ihould bring a murderer with it. 'The dif- 
covery of the perpetrators engaged all the aftivity of the 
police; and at length one Williams was'apprehended 
upon ffrong fufpicion, which he confirmed by hanging 
himfclf in prifo’n. No other difeovery was made; but 
realon was found to conclude that the favages were not 
more than two or three in number, and that Williams 
was in.loubtedly one of them. In confequence of this 
idea, t was thought proper to make a public fpeftacle of 
this felf-convicted, fclf-executed, culprit. On the 30th 
of December, therefore, at midnight, the body of this 
wretch was removed from the home of correction, Cold- 
Bafh-fields, to the watch-houfe, near Ratcliff-highway; 
and next morning,.at about t.en o’clock, he was placed on 
a platform, erected fix feet above a very high cart, drawn 
by one horfe. The platform was compofed of rough deals 
battened together, raifed confiderably at the head, which 
elevated the corpfe: a board was fixed acrofs the lower 
end, (landing up about fix inches, to prevent the body 
from flipping off. On this platform the body was laid ; 
it had on a clean white Ihirt, very neatly frilled, quite 
open at the neck, and without a neckke.rchief or hat, but 
the hair neatly combed, and the face clean waflied. The 
countenance looked healthful and ruddy; but the hands 
and the lower part of the arms were of a deep purple, 
nearly black. The arms were quite expofed, the fnirt 
being tacked up to the (boulders: the lower part of the 
body was covered with a pair of clean blue trowfers, and 
brown worfted (lockings, but no (hoes. The feet were 
towards the horfe ; on the right leg was fixed the iron 
Williams had on when he was committed to prifon. The 
fatal mall was placed upright by the left fide of his head, 
and the ripping-chifel, or crow-bar, about three feet long, 
on the other fide. About ten o’clock the proceflion, at¬ 
tended by the head conllable and headboroughs of the 
diftridr, and about 300 conftables and extra-conftables, 
moft of them with drawn cutlafles, began to move, and 
continued at a very flow pace until they came oppolite 
the houfe of the unfortunate Marr, in Ratcliff-highway, 
where they flopped for about a quarter of an hour. By 
the (baking of the cart the head of Williams had got turned 
to one fide, and looked from the houfe where the murder 
was committed ; but, before the cart left the place, a per¬ 
fon afeended the platform, and placed the face of the 
corpfe directly oppolite the feene of atrocity. The pro- 
ceffion went down Old Gravel-lane, along Wapping High- 
ftreet, entered New Gravel-lane by Wapping-wall, and 
continued (lowly to approach the (pot where the fecond 
murder was perpetrated ; on reaching which, it Hood for 
another quarter of an hour, and then proceeded, again 
entering Ratcliff-highway, and parting along it until it 
came to Cannon-ftreet, where it turned up; and, on 
reaching the top, where the New Road erodes, and the 
Cannon-ftreet road begins, a large hole being prepared, 
the cart (topped. After a paufe of about ten minutes, 
the body was thrown into its infamous grave, amidft the 
acclamations of thoufands of fpedtators. The (lake which 
the law requires to be driven through the corpfe had been 
placed, in the proceflion, under the head of Williams, by 
way of pillow; and, after he was conligned to the earth, 
it was handed down from the platform, and was driven 
through the body by means of the mall.with which the 
murders 
