The Wicked Boy (40 page)

Walker had frequently been permitted. . .
Ward, in
Psychiatry and Criminal Responsibility in England 1843–1939
, notes that medical witnesses were meant to testify only to the facts on which they based their opinions of a prisoner's state of mind and not to the opinions themselves, but observes that this rule was honoured largely in the breach by the late 1880s.

a
‘
hysterical
'
woman. . .
According to the
Dictionary of Psychological Medicine
(ed. Daniel Tuke, 1892), hysteria was characterised by an ‘undue prominence of feelings uncontrolled by intellect' and was often attributed to ‘dammed-up sexual emotions'.

‘
bromism
'
. . .
In
The Diagnosis of Psychosis
(2011), Rudolf N. Cardinal and Edward T. Bullmore report that high doses of bromide, which was prescribed in the late nineteenth century as a sedative and anti-epileptic, can cause a neurotoxic condition in which the patient may become psychotic.

The last witness for the defence. . .
For methods of attendance officers, see Philpott,
London at School
and David Rubinstein,
School Attendance in London 1870–1904: A Social History
(1969).

Since 1882 the law had stipulated. . .
In 1882 Queen Victoria objected to the fact that Roderick Maclean, who had shot at her with a pistol, was found ‘not guilty by reason of insanity', as the insanity verdict was then phrased. As a result, the wording of the verdict was changed to ‘guilty but insane'. While Sherwood's argument might have had some merit before 1883, an insane defendant was now technically guilty of a crime.

‘
Star
'
. . .
17 September 1895.

‘
Lloyd's Weekly
'
. . .
22 September 1895.

a strong recommendation to mercy. . .
Juries had successfully pleaded for mercy on account of a defendant's age in the trial of a twelve-year-old boy who had killed his grandfather with poison in 1847,
and in the trial of a sixteen-year-old who had killed a fellow apprentice in 1867. In both cases, the death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

Edis was keen to make clear. . .
On 20 September 1895, Harry Edis wrote to the
London Daily News
to reiterate the jury's position: ‘you say that Fox gets the benefit of the contention raised by counsel – that the insane can do no wrong, consequently there can be no accessory after the fact. Now, in fairness to Fox, I think it necessary to state that the verdict was not guilty upon the evidence.'

CHAPTER 12: BOX HIM UP

‘
Broadmoor!
 '. . .
From ‘Christmas Day at Broadmoor: an Ex-Warder's Story' by R. J. Tucknor,
Reynolds's Newspaper
, 20 December 1896.

newspapers and journals. . .
Those quoted in this chapter include the
Star
of 17 September,
The
Times
,
St James
'
s Gazette
,
London Daily News
,
Pall Mall Gazette, Evening News
and
Daily
Chronicle
of 18 September, the
Saturday Review, Lancet
and
Spectator
of 21 September, and the
News of the World
of 22 September 1895.

The
‘
Journal of Mental Science
'
. . .
In January 1896.

Others pointed out. . .
On 5 October 1895, the
Graphic
noted that ‘The “penny dreadful” scare, one notices with relief, appears to be slightly abating. . . The cheap romance of blood has really proved sometimes on a closer inspection to be not so very much more sanguinary than some of the modern classics of adventure.'

The Duchess of Rutland. . .
Evening Telegraph
, 3 December 1895.

The
‘
Child
'
s Guardian
'
. . .
See Monica Flegel,
Conceptualizing Cruelty to Children in Nineteenth-
Century England: Literature, Representation and the NSPCC
(2009), which refers to the Coombes case.

‘
Was he
,
too
,
insane?
'
. . .
The journal seemed to ridicule the idea that both boys were mad, but the phenomenon of
folie à deux
, a type of madness described in the
Journal of Mental Science
in April 1895, could conceivably have afflicted Robert and Nattie. This was a form of shared insanity that relied on the two sufferers having a similar predisposition and a deep and protracted intimacy – an affinity that was possible between siblings. It usually manifested itself in a shared persecutory paranoia that had some plausibility, as the Coombes boys' terror of their mother might have done if her punishments were severe.

In a booklet. . .
Quoted in Behlmer,
Child Abuse and Moral Reform in England
. According to Behlmer, of more than 10,000 families investigated by the NSPCC between 1889 and 1891, only about 400 had a weekly income below 20/-. More than 3,000 had an average family income of 27/-, well above the average weekly wage of 21/-.
This indicated that abuse was by no means confined to very poor households. ‘The motive of cruelty is often the cruel person's own self-loathing,' observed an NSPCC report. ‘Generally speaking, the faults with which children are credited by cruel people are the illusions of bad minds. Hating the child, hateful things are seen in it. The devil in
them
sees a devil in the
child.
'

The
‘
Illustrated Police News
'
. . .
On 27 July and 3 August 1895.

the
‘
Times
'
critic J. F. Nisbet. . .
In
The Human Machine
(1899).

Pierre Janet. . .
Quoted in Nelson,
Precocious Children and Childish Adults
.

Frederic Myers. . .
See his essay ‘The Subliminal Consciousness' in
Proceedings of the Society for
Psychical Research,
1892.

PART IV: THE MURDERERS' PARADISE

CHAPTER 13: THOSE THAT KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO

Broadmoor asylum. . .
The Broadmoor archives are held at the Berkshire Record Office, Reading, Berkshire (BRO). For the layout, rules and routines at the asylum, see
Rules for the Guidance of Officers, Attendants, and Servants of Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum
(1869); Mark Stevens,
Broadmoor Revealed: Victorian Crime and the Lunatic Asylum
(2013) and
Life in the Victorian Asylum: the World of Nineteenth Century Mental Health Care
(2014); and the Superintendent's annual reports 1895–1912, BRO: D/H14/A2/1/1.

‘
Hampshire Telegraph
'
. . .
28 September 1895.

His occupation. . .
See Admission Registers, 1863–1900, BRO: D/H14/D1/1.

the sun shone. . .
See
London Standard
, 27 September 1895.

an undulating landscape. . .
See George Griffith,
Sidelights on Convict Life
(1903) and ‘Warmark',
Guilty but Insane: A Broadmoor Autobiography
(1931).

‘
When questioned as to the murder. . .
' Note in Robert Coombes's file, BRO: D/H14/D2/2/1/1671, dated 24 September 1895. Under the current protocol between the Berkshire Record Office and the West London Mental Health Trust, Robert's case file is closed until 2042 (160 years after his birth), but the Trust allowed the BRO to disclose some of its contents.

Broadmoor was built in the early 1860s. . .
For the history of the asylum, see Harvey Gordon,
Broadmoor
(2012); Stevens,
Broadmoor
Revealed
; and Ralph Partridge,
Broadmoor: A
History of Criminal Lunacy and its Problems
(1953).

the institution now held. . .
Figures from the Superintendent's annual report for 1895 in BRO: D/H14/A2/1/1.

joined in the admissions ward. . .
From Admission Registers, 1863–1900, BRO: D/H14/D1/1.

Henry Jackson. . .
See trial at OBSP; and Ward,
Psychiatry and Criminal Responsibility in England
1843–1939
.

Carmello Mussy. . .
See his case file, BRO: D/H14/D2/2/1/1674, and his trial at OBSP.

‘
Sheffield Independent
'
. . .
19 September 1895.

housed in single chambers. . .
In a meeting at Broadmoor reported in the
Journal of Mental Science
of April 1901, both the superintendent and his predecessor argued against the dormitory system and in favour of single rooms for intractable and well-behaved patients alike.

An attendant drew the bolts. . .
See ‘Warmark',
Guilty but Insane
.

A few attendants kept watch. . .
See Frederick Dolman's article about Broadmoor in
Cassell
'
s
Magazine
of February 1899.

The allotments were planted. . .
See G. W. Steevens,
Things Seen: Impressions of Men, Cities, and
Books
(1900).

Thomas Henry Townsend. . .
Quoted in John Edward Allen,
Inside Broadmoor
(1953).

A typical dinner. . .
See Superintendent's annual reports in BRO: D/H14/A2/1/1.

the attendants had snipped out any articles. . .
See Frederick Dolman's piece in
Cassell
'
s Magazine
of February 1899.

‘
Jude the Obscure
'
. . .
See Hayden Church, ‘The Strange Case of Dr Minor: II',
The Strand,
January 1916.

Throughout the night. . .
See ‘A Visit to Broadmoor: a Day among Murderers',
Pall Mall Gazette,
17 February 1886.

an outspoken opponent of criminal anthropology. . .
In Nicolson's inaugural address as president of the Medico-Psychological Society, delivered in July 1895 and published in the
Journal of Mental
Science
in October.

‘
an insane man. . .
' and ‘
I prefer to train up. . .
' See Nicolson's evidence of 6 December 1894 in Departmental Committee on Prisons'
Report
and
Minutes of Evidence
, PP, C7702 (1895).

Some of the patients. . .
See Charles Arthur Mercier,
The Attendant
'
s Companion: The Manual of the
Duties of Attendants in Lunatic Asylums
(1892).

no mechanical restraints. . .
See ‘Broadmoor Asylum and Its Inmates' in
The Green Bag: an
Entertaining Magazine for Lawyers
(1893).

The attendants at Broadmoor. . .
Information on staff at Broadmoor from the Defaulters Book, 1867–1922 (BRO: D/H14/B1/3/1/3); Order Book: Attendants, 1863–1900 (BRO: D/H14/A2/1/7/1); Register of Staff Appointments, 1862–1920 (BRO: D/14/B2/1/1); Staff Payments, 1863–1973 (BRO: D/H14/B3/1/1/3 and BRO: D/14/B3/1/1/4); and the Superintendent's annual reports in BRO: D/H14/A2/1/1. Details of the staff's ages, origins and families are chiefly from census returns; Broadmoor patients are included in the returns, too, though from 1901 they are identified only by their initials.

He would remind visitors. . .
Such as Frederick Dolman, whose article about Broadmoor was published in
Cassell
'
s
in February 1899.

the mental condition of Oscar Wilde. . .
See Harford Montgomery Hyde,
Oscar Wilde: the Aftermath
(1963).

George Steevens. . .
See Steevens,
Things Seen
; the chapter on Broadmoor was first published as ‘During Her Majesty's Pleasure' in the
Daily Mail
, 24 November 1897.

Robert Coombes was the youngest inmate. . .
According to Gordon's
Broadmoor
, one boy under sixteen had been admitted in the 1860s, one in the 1870s and one in the 1880s. Of the three, two had been convicted of arson. The ten-year-old arsonist who arrived in 1885 (who had turned twenty by the time of Robert's arrival) became the longest-serving inmate of Broadmoor, remaining there until his death in 1962.

Nathaniel Currah. . .
See BRO: D/H14/D2/2/1/1442; TNA: CRIM1/321; and articles in
London Standard
, 24 June 1889,
Western Times
, 25 June 1889, and the
Era
, 29 June 1889. His examination by the alienist Lyttelton Forbes Winslow is described in Winslow's
Mad Humanity: Its Forms Apparent and Obscure
(1898). Though Sims does not name him, he describes their encounter in
Cassell
'
s Saturday Journal
, reprinted in the
Otago Witness
of 10 December 1902 as ‘Life Sketches in Sunshine and Shadow: Broadmoor'. Currah died in Broadmoor in 1915.