Word: palmers
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Like a somewhat expanded "Annals of Crime" in the New Yorker magazine, They Hanged My Saintly Billy explores in great detail the circumstances surrounding a spectacular criminal career. Mr. Graves has chosen the story of Dr. William Palmer, who was accused of doing in fourteen people, the majority by poison, and who was publicly hanged in 1856 after being convicted of poisoning John Parsons Cook, a fellow aficionado of horse-racing...
...Graves seems convinced of Palmer's innocence of this particular crime, although there is little doubt that the doctor saw to it that his alcoholic brother drank himself quickly to death after insuring his life for a considerable sum. Palmer also got several girls in the family way, and there is good reason to suppose he doped race horses, robbed some of his fellow sportsmen, and was generally heedless of most conventional responsibilities...
...flagrant injustice of William Palmer's trial would have been enough to make almost anyone sympathize. Of the three judges, two, including the Lord Chief Justice who presided, were set against Palmer from the start, and Mr. Baron Alderson--who was a personal enemy of Palmer's barrister--interfered in the trial with sarcastic comments on the evidence and counsel's efforts. The Lord Chief Justice showed open prejudice against the defending counsel, and even misdirected the jury...
...life and death of Dr. William Palmer is a sordid, shabby story of a man of natural ability who was never more than a step ahead of his creditors or his latest female conquest, but Graves has achieved the maximum of variety and color by making up accounts of people who knew Palmer and who tell their stories to the invisible narrator. Further, he has written in a remarkable imitation of Victorian style: "If the girl anticipated marriage by granting him what he asked, Palmer at once cooled towards her, as too giddy to be his wife...
...Englishmen. Just before the end of the second mile, little Clark [H.B. of Harvard], who had been pluckily sticking with the leaders, dropped on the track in a faint. Smith of Oxford was soon forced to retire owing to cramps, and the last mile was fought between Workman and Palmer (Y). Workman outran Palmer in the last 1/3 mile, to win amid the wildest imaginable enthusiasm...