Trial of Ward, The Greenwich Pensioner, For the Murder of John Bailey.
"He Thought the Prisoner Insane" [Broadside]. [Trial]. Ward, [James] [b. 1788 or 1789], Defendant. Trial of Ward, The Greenwich Pensioner, For the Murder of John Bailey. London: Printed by G. Smeeton, [1834?]. 9-3/4" x 7-1/2" (25 x 19 cm) broadside mounted to 12-1/4" x 9-1/2" (31 x 24.3 cm) backing board, text in single column below headline. Moderate toning, lower corners lacking, slight creasing to upper left corner. Rare. $1,750. * Ward was accused of stabbing Bailey, his roommate at Greenwich Hospital (a workhouse-like residential facility for retired seamen). A hospital doctor testified that Ward was under the influence of a severe fever at the time of the murder, and according to the testimony this broadside records, it almost certainly altered his mental state. When he "was asked how the knife was so clean...He said, 'why, I licked it clean with my tongue.'" The jury was "quite convinced" by this and other accounts of conversations with Ward and found that he had "committed the act while in a state of insanity." OCLC locates 1 copy of this broadside (Newberry Library). No further copies located by Library Hub or by us in institutional catalogues.
Price: $1,750.00
Book number 82951