The Man Who Was Jekyll and Hyde (17 page)

There were just short of 100 witnesses for the prosecution, while those standing up in Brodie’s defence numbered a mere twenty-five. Packed as it was with characters, curiosity, opinions, facts, sharp legal combat and an intense interest that still captivates the people of Edinburgh and beyond, the trial lasted a mere twenty-one hours after entering early Thursday morning then taking a few hours’ break before seeing the jury’s verdict delivered at 1 p.m.

‘Intense interest’ will always be a subjective term for whoever uses it, of course, and in selecting and commenting on several aspects of the trial – without recording the entire trial verbatim – this writer hopes readers will feel its essential flavour has been imparted.

Did anyone see the Brodie gang robbing the Excise Office? Not quite. While the project faltered because of the unexpected return to the office of Excise Deputy Solicitor James Bonnar, a hunched figure in a long, dark coat was not recognised. But the incident prompted Brodie to make a sharp exit with slim pickings. The other gang members, John Brown, George Smith and Andrew Ainslie, also got away, and as news of the burglary at Chessels Court spread around the city, it seemed unlikely that any of them would be caught – until Brown decided to confess to Sheriff Clerk William Middleton almost a week later. He offered information on all the gang’s crimes in return for the advertised reward and a King’s Pardon, which, under English law, would wipe clean all his past criminal records. At first he named only Ainslie and Smith as his accomplices. But it was on hearing this, and perhaps expecting his name to arise at any moment, that Brodie made his great, if short-lived, escape from justice.

Questioned at the trial, the following people could not put names to the shadowy figures who broke so crassly into their usually well-ordered head-down routine lives on the night of 5 March 1788:

James Bonnar
, deputy-solicitor of Excise: I recollect having occasion to call at the Excise Office at about half-past eight in the evening, and as I thought it was probable that there might be still some person in the office, I went straight forward to the door without calling for the key, and finding the door on the latch, I opened it and went in. Just as I entered, a man, who appeared to be dressed in a black coat and cocked hat, stepped out. He seemed to be in a hurry, and I stepped aside to give way to him. He was a square-built man, and was rather taller than me. I took no suspicion, thinking it was some of the people belonging to the office, detained later than usual. I went upstairs to the solicitor’s office, and into the room in which I usually write. I remained there about ten minutes, came down again, and then went away. I saw no person either in the entry or the court as I came out.

William Mackay
, guard at the Excise Office: I went to the office at the usual hour, which was a little before ten o’clock at night. I found one of the leaves of the outer door open, and the passage door and the door of the cashier’s room also open; and upon making this discovery I went to Mr Dundas, the housekeeper’s, and inquired of the maid who had been last at the office, as the doors were open. The maid answered John Duncan, the last witness, had left it about a quarter after eight o’clock. Mr Dundas’s son, hearing me make this inquiry, asked what was the matter. When I told him that the door was broke open, he said, ‘Then, something worse is done.’ Immediately Mr and Mrs Dundas and the whole family went into the office with me and examined the cashier’s room; we found all the desks and presses broke open, and the coulter of a plough, and two iron wedges, lying in the room; and we likewise found a spur in the hall, with part of the leather of it torn. Mr Dundas immediately sent me for Mr Alexander Thomson, the accountant. I found Mr Thomson, and he returned with me to the Office.

Alexander Thomson
, accountant of Excise: I remember that the Excise Office was broke into on Wednesday, the 5th of March last. When I left the office at the usual hour that night, about eight o’clock, I locked the door of the cashier’s room before I left, and carried the key away with me. I saw John Duncan, the doorkeeper, in the hall as I came out. I left in two concealed drawers below the desk about £600 sterling, and in the desk itself £15 16s. 3d., being two-thirds of the proceeds of a seizure sent from Greenock, to be divided amongst three people. About ten o’clock the same evening the office porter, or watchman, came to me and informed me that the Excise Office had been broken into.

I immediately repaired to the office, and found Mr Dundas, the housekeeper, and Mr Pearson, the secretary, there; and, along with them, I examined the premises. The outer door and the passage door appeared to have been opened without violence, but the door of the cashier’s room seemed to have been forced with a lever or other instrument; the door of a small press in the room appeared likewise to have been forced open, and a few shillings, and some stamps for receipts that were in it, carried off. The key of my desk, which I usually kept in this place, had likewise been taken out, and the desk opened with it. The £15 odds, which I had left in the desk, were gone, and also a receipt for £7 18s. 2d., but the concealed drawers, in which the £600 was contained, were untouched. These drawers cannot be opened without first opening the desk, and the keyhole is concealed by a slip of wood, which might escape a slight observer. Accordingly it had remained untouched, although the key of it lay in the desk. Behind the door there was left the coulter of a plough and two iron wedges.

Laurence Dundas
, housekeeper of the Excise Office: There was a practice, previous to the time when, the Excise Office was broke into, of locking the door betwixt eight and nine o’clock at night, and lodging the key in my house, and of putting a watch upon it at ten o’clock. I remember that upon Wednesday, the 5th of March last, the door was locked at the usual hour, and the key left by John Duncan at my house. A little before ten o’clock that night, William Mackay, the porter employed to watch the office, came to my house and gave information that the office had been broke open. I immediately went to the office, and found the outer door, the passage door, and the door of the cashier’s room, all open. This last-mentioned door seemed to have been forced with some instrument. Within the room I found the coulter of a plough and two iron wedges … Every drawer in the room, except the money drawers, seemed to have been forced open. I immediately sent for Mr Thomson, the accountant, and Mr Pearson, the secretary, and both immediately came to the office. Mr Thomson told me he had about £17 in his desk, which he supposed was all gone, but he hoped that the money drawers were safe. The key of the money drawers was found amongst others lying in the desk.

Janet Baxter
, servant to Adam Pearson, assistant secretary of the Excise: I was out upon a message about eight o’clock that night and, returning homewards, I met an acquaintance, with whom I conversed for a little in the entry to Chessels Buildings, in which my master lived. I then went down the close, and on my way down I saw a man, dressed in a whitish great-coat and slouch hat, leaning over the rails at the entry to the court, and, judging him to be a light or suspicious person, I was afraid of him, and ran into my master’s house.

So far, the evidence led against Brodie and Smith was mostly circumstantial. As the Excise officer Bonnar had not been able to identify the fleeing figure as Brodie – although he knew him – no observation had actually placed the city councillor at the scene. All three of Brodie’s gang had now confessed – and although his co-accused Smith had withdrawn his confession, the gang leader’s fate could very well depend now on the admissibility of evidence from Brown and Ainslie.

The admissibility of certain persons’ evidence was to test the court’s legal brains and patience to the limit, especially in view of bargains made with Brown and Ainslie, who, having initially held his tongue in reluctance to incriminate Brodie, had been given the choice of testifying against him or hanging. ‘No man could withstand such a temptation,’ said the Dean of Faculty Henry Erskine, ‘and it is impossible that the court can receive the testimony of a witness in such circumstances.’

But unsurprisingly, despite such strong defence objections to the deal – finally overruled by Braxfield – Ainslie became a Crown witness and was called to speak.

One not allowed to speak was Brown’s wife Mary, not so much because of her relationship with him but because of a misspelling of her name on the witness sheet.

Brown himself, however, also got the green light despite the defence position that corroborative evidence from him should not be allowed because he was ‘infamous’ under Scots law, being a known criminal and so not permitted to bear witness. However, the prosecution had obtained a King’s Pardon, which, under English law, absolved him of all previous wrongdoings.

These decisions were quietly enraging John Clerk, the young defence counsel (for Smith), who had clearly resolved to keep his powder dry before creating an almighty explosion towards the end of proceedings.

In the meantime, however, the other two ‘absolved’ members of Brodie’s gang stood to give evidence that could only be seen to involve and damn their erstwhile boss. Such as:

Andrew Ainslie:
I am acquainted with both William Brodie and George Smith, the prisoners at the bar, and also with John Brown alias Humphry Moore. I remember that the Excise Office was broke into upon Wednesday, the 5th of March last. I knew before that that it was to be broken into, but how long I cannot tell. Brown and the prisoners and I frequently talked of it before, and Brown and I went often to the Excise Office in the evenings in order to observe at what hour the people left it, and in consequence of repeated observations we discovered that the door was usually locked about eight o’clock and that there were two men, an old and a younger man, who came night about to watch the office about ten o’clock. Afterwards Brown and I went out one afternoon to a house at Duddingston, where we drank a bottle of porter, and saw a woman whom I took to be the landlady. We then went to a field in the neighbourhood, from which we took the coulter of a plough and two iron wedges, which we carried to the Salisbury Crags and hid there. At this time there was a black dog in company with us. We had fixed on Wednesday, the 5th of March, for committing the said robbery, and allowed the coulter to remain in Salisbury Crags until about six o’clock of the evening of that day, when Brown and I, it being then dusk, went out and brought the coulter of the plough to the house of the prisoner, George Smith, on purpose to use it in breaking into the Excise Office.

We found Smith at home, and we expected Mr Brodie to join us and to accompany us to the Excise Office. Brodie did not come until a good while after, when he joined us in the room above-stairs in Smith’s house. Mr Brodie was at this time dressed in a light-coloured great-coat, with black clothes below (in which I had often seen him before), and a cocked hat. When he came in he had a pistol in his hand, and was singing a verse of what I understood to be a flash song. By a flash song I mean a highwayman’s song. We spoke together concerning the Excise Office; and it was settled upon that I should go before to the Excise Office and get within the rails and observe when the people went out. I went there accordingly a little before eight o’clock, carrying the coulter of the plough with me, and waited till I saw the porter come out with a light and lock the outer door. In a short while thereafter Smith came to me and asked if the people were all gone, and when 1 informed him that they were gone out Smith then went forward and opened the door with a key, which, I had heard him say, he had previously made for it, and went into the office. In about five minutes thereafter Brodie came down the close, and when I told him that Smith had gone in, but that Brown was not yet come, he went up the close again towards the street, and returned in a little with Brown, who said he had been dogging the old man who watched the office in order to see where he went, and that he had gone home.

Brown then asked me whether or not I had ‘Great Samuel’ – by which he meant the coulter. I told him I had, and gave it him through the rails, and he and Brodie then went down towards the door of the office and went in, as I supposed.

I had no arms myself, excepting a stick, but Smith had three loaded pistols. Brown two, and Brodie one; at least, I saw Brodie, when he came into Smith’s house, have one in his hand. It had been previously settled amongst us, before leaving Smith’s house, that Brodie was to stand in the inside of the outer door, and that Brown and Smith were to go into the office. I was to remain without to watch, and in case of danger, to give an alarm to Brodie, which Brodie was to communicate to Brown and Smith. The signal of alarm agreed upon was to be given by me in this manner – a single whistle if one man appeared, so that they might be prepared to secure him; but if more than one man, or any appearance of danger, I was to give three whistles, in order that those within might make their escape by the door or by the back windows, as they thought best. I had an ivory whistle prepared for the purpose, which was given me by Mr Brodie in Smith’s house in the afternoon.

I took my station within the rail and leaned down, so that no person either going in or coming out could see me. Some short while after Brodie and Brown went into the office, a man came running down the close and went in also. I gave no alarm, for before I had time to think what I should do another man came immediately running out at the door and went up the court. In a very little afterwards, to my great surprise, a second man came out from the office. I got up and looked at him through the rails, and perceived that he was none of my three companions. I had not seen the other man who came out first so distinctly, owing to my lying down by the side of the parapet wall on which the rail is placed, in order that I might not be observed. I was afraid that we were discovered; and, as soon as the second man had gone up the close, I gave the alarm by three whistles as the agreed-on signal of retreat and ran up the close myself. I went down St John’s Street and came round opposite to the back of the Excise Office, thinking to meet my companions coming out by the back way, having escaped from the windows. I remained there for some little time, and, not meeting with them, I then went directly to Smith’s house. Finding none of them there, and Mrs Smith telling me that they were not yet come in, I went back to the Excise Office by the street, went down the close, saw the door open, and, finding everything quiet, I returned to Smith’s, where I saw him and Brown. They accused me of not having given the alarm as I promised, and said that when they came out they found that Brodie had gone from his place. I told them what I had observed, and that I had given the alarm. I remained in Smith’s only a few minutes and I did not see Brodie again that night.