by Maidhc Dain
John Griffin was the next neighbour to arrive. Stacey asked him to go to the body with him so that they could go through Sly’s pockets. They searched his waistcoat pocket first looking for the watch, but not even the chain was there. They went through the rest of his pockets but they found nothing. No doubt it would have been difficult for them as Lucinda had ordered Dempsey to go through his pockets and she gave him the watch, as if it were a present, before she went to look for her neighbours’ help. Lucinda told them it appeared that someone had followed him from the fair.
‘Maybe,’ she suggested, ‘it was somebody who saw him getting money from a buyer as payment for the two horses he sold.’
It was a good, believable story to put before the police and the judge.
Lucinda asked Ben Stacey to go to the barracks in Bilboa to report the tragedy to the police and request that they come without delay. She said it would not be right to move the body from the place where the murder happened.
Lucinda expected that maybe it would be her son, Thomas Singleton, who would come as it was his mother’s husband who had been murdered but he went to higher authority. Captain Battersby told him not to go near the house or the body until he himself was with him, and, even then, not to have anything to do with the case because of his relationship with the family. Because it was Sunday, it was some time after lunch when the police arrived at the scene. Captain Battersby and Thomas Singleton were the first to arrive along with a constable named Ernest Hudson. Thomas ran to his mother and hugged her. She told him the story that she and Dempsey had made up.
‘Ah, Mam,’ he advised her, ‘you will have to tell your story to one of the other constables. I can’t have hand, act or part in the case.’
Captain Battersby and Ernest Hudson examined the place where Sly’s body lay and they examined the body as well even though the doctor was due later to perform a post-mortem.
Minister John Doyne arrived and he sympathised with Lucinda and the neighbours, most of whom were at the scene by now and each one had their own opinion about what had happened. Captain Battersby and Constable Ernest Hudson spent more than an hour examining the scene of the crime.
When the doctor arrived and had examined the body he spoke to the captain.
‘It would appear,’ he informed him, ‘that the person who murdered this man was no more than a yard from him. His moustache is singed by the gunpowder.’
The captain approached Constable Hudson. ‘What did his wife tell you,’ he questioned him, ‘that a horseman murdered him?’
‘Yes, sir,’ the policeman answered.
The captain looked at Lucinda and walked towards her. As soon as he drew near her, she took a few steps back and stood near Dempsey.
‘You reported,’ he began, ‘that a horseman came into the haggard and fired a shot from a gun. How far from your husband was he when he fired that shot?’
Lucinda took a few seconds before she answered as she knew well that the captain had a reason for asking a question like that.
‘Oh,’ she replied, ‘I suppose he was nine or ten yards from him.’
The captain looked at Lucinda suspiciously.
‘Did your husband ever have a gun?’ he continued.
‘Oh, ah … I don’t know,’ she replied somewhat apprehensively.
Her son was present when she made that answer.
He looked directly at the captain.
‘He had a handgun he got a few years ago when he evicted the Brennans,’ he informed him. ‘They swore he would be found dead in a ditch.’
‘There was no gun by the body when I asked Ben Stacey and John Griffin to search his pockets,’ Lucinda offered. ‘He sold a pair of horses at the fair but, if he did, that money was missing along with his pocket watch.’
Dempsey was only a couple of yards from them and when he heard mention of the pocket watch he grew afraid. He told Lucinda that he would fill a bag of turf in the haggard for the night’s fire. The captain gave him permission to do so but ordered him to come back without delay. Constable Ernest Hudson told Catherine Landricken, a neighbour of the Sly’s, to go with Dempsey and help him with the turf. She followed Dempsey. He was ahead of her for a while. There were seven stacks of oats in the haggard. When Dempsey was going past the seventh stack, he took the watch from his pocket, lifted the bottom of a sheaf in the middle of the stack and hid the watch in it. Catherine Landricken saw him tidying the sheaf and she knew that he had hidden something there.
Captain Battersby ordered Lucinda and some of the neighbours into the house as he couldn’t continue with his investigations because of the large crowd that was congregating. Many had travelled some distance out of curiosity and there were newspaper reporters there too. The captain knew that rumours would spread without foundation from such a gathering.
‘All I want in the house,’ he told them, ‘are those who were present here at first this morning.’
Although Thomas Singleton had no part to play in the investigation, he went into the house with the others as it was his mother who was being questioned by the captain.
‘If you don’t know that your husband had a gun,’ the captain addressed Lucinda, ‘we will have to search the house and sheds.’
On hearing this, Singleton spoke.
‘He had a gun,’ he said, ‘and I know that he wasn’t carrying it last night as I had a drink with him.’
He told the captain that Walter took off his coat while he was drinking with him and that he had mentioned that the gun was at home. Singleton had always been concerned that somebody would steal the gun from his coat.
‘Where in the house do you think he would hide it?’ the captain asked.
Singleton looked at his mother.
‘It was in a wooden box he bought with the gun,’ he offered. ‘Look under the bed.’
Lucinda turned the colour of death and she almost fell to the ground.
Captain Battersby was looking at Lucinda and he became suspicious when he saw Dempsey standing beside her and propping her up. He told Constable Hudson to go to the room and look under the bed. Hudson had gone only a minute when he spoke from the room. He had found the wooden box. He gave it to the captain.
‘There is a key for this. Have you any idea, my good woman, where your husband used to keep it?’ he continued, knowing that Lucinda was under pressure.
‘I know nothing about a key,’ she answered boldly.
The captain was growing impatient by this time. He knew that Lucinda was becoming anxious and the servant boy was no better. He looked from person to person around the kitchen.
‘The neighbours can go home now,’ he said. ‘You will be called to the barracks in a few days to make your statements about this morning’s events. Go now and thank you for your help on this tragic occasion.’
Even though they would have preferred to see what was to come, the neighbours went out the door in ones and twos.
When there was nobody left in the kitchen but Lucinda Sly, John Dempsey, Singleton, Constable Hudson and himself, Captain Battersby looked straight at Lucinda.
‘Give me the key, my good woman,’ he demanded.
‘Look,’ Singleton offered, ‘I have a key to the box in the barracks in Bilboa. Walter Sly gave it to me when he bought the gun.’
‘I would say that Lucinda has a key,’ the captain said taking hold of Lucinda and searching her.
He took a small key out of Lucinda’s apron pocket and gave it to Hudson.
‘Try this,’ he said with a satisfied grin on his face.
Hudson put the key in the lock and opened the box.
‘Examine the gun and see if it has been fired recently,’ the captain ordered.
‘It isn’t long since this gun was fired,’ Hudson replied, ‘and whoever put the bullet back into the gun didn’t do it properly.’
‘That is what I need,’ the captain declared.
He knew immediately that it was one of the two people who lived in the house who had murdered Walter Sly.
‘We will have to finish this investigation in the police barracks as this case is very clear and an attorney will have to be present before we can proceed any further,’ the captain said.
In the following few days the police collected all the evidence they needed in order to charge a person, or persons, with the murder of Walter Sly. They waited until the funeral was over on the Tuesday, 11 November, before they arrested anybody for the crime.
Lucinda Sly and John Dempsey were walking out of the graveyard when two policemen in plain clothes came up to them. They identified themselves outside the graveyard gate and directed them to a coach that was waiting. The crowd stood outside the graveyard staring at Lucinda and Dempsey being escorted into the coach. They were taken to Carlow town where they were charged with the murder of Walter Sly and locked up in two cells.
In the weeks that followed the murder, every kind of rumour was doing the rounds of the neighbouring parishes. Nothing like this had happened in Carlow in living memory. Everybody had their own version and the story grew with the telling until it was said that Lucinda was a witch who lured her simple servant boy into helping her to murder Walter Sly.
The Crown was not satisfied that the police had a strong enough case yet. A day didn’t pass that Captain Battersby didn’t visit Lucinda in her cell to break her so that the police would have a clear case to put before the judge.
One day he said to Lucinda, ‘John Dempsey has admitted that you two murdered your husband. We have enough evidence to charge both you and Dempsey. As well as that he has said that the two of you had been planning the deed for a month and you were only waiting for the right moment. He admitted that Sly came home from the fair drunk and that one of you hit him on the head. Then, in case he wasn’t dead, you put a bullet in his brain with his own gun. You should admit it to me here, then before the minister that you did the deed. God will forgive you and you will go straight up to heaven. John Dempsey has confessed to the priest. His soul is clean before God. Do the same thing and the two of you will be together in heaven.’
But Lucinda was taking no notice of him. Battersby understood eventually that she had lost her mind because the policeman who was guarding her told him that she spent most of the day talking gibberish to herself.
Even the day before the trial began, the minister visited her but she paid no attention to him only to tell him that Walter Sly was a blackguard. ‘Yes, go home and do what your husband tells you,’ she said. Then she turned her face to the wall.
When Captain Battersby had finished with Lucinda, he questioned John Dempsey again. He admitted that he and Lucinda had killed Sly with his own gun. He wanted to beg God’s forgiveness so that he would go to heaven. He had said the same thing, word for word, to the priest who visited him. He even made his confession to prepare his soul to go before God.
By the time the Crown was ready to try the case, the poor woman had already been tried and hanged by the people.
Chapter Eleven
The Crown fixed the date for the trial of Lucinda Sly and John Dempsey for 16 March, 1835. It was to be held in Deighton Hall in Carlow town. From the day they were arrested it was the event most spoken of among the common people since the coming of Cromwell. It was written about in the national papers and it was the topic of conversation at all the fairs and outside the churches both Catholic and Protestant all over Ireland with every farmer, tailor and tinker adding to it. It was no wonder, then, that early on the morning of 16 March all the roads leading to Carlow town were black with people, some of them on foot, more on horseback and the rich people in coaches, all of them traveling to Deighton Hall to see the witch and the servant boy who murdered a poor farmer cruelly and without pity. Since the murder took place four months earlier there were so many rumours going about that it would have been difficult to separate the truth from the lies that were told about the couple by windbags who had nothing better to do.
At eleven o’clock on the morning of 16 March, the clerk opened the doors of Deighton Hall for the trial of Lucinda and Dempsey. The space outside the hall was overflowing with ordinary people from all over.
As soon as the officers of the court and the judge were inside the courtroom, the constable who was standing at the door let in some of the crowd. When he thought that enough people were inside, he closed the door.
When the judge was seated, the clerk of the court read the charges that were to be brought against Lucinda Sly and John Dempsey and the attorneys questioned the members of the Grand Jury and the Petit Jury. When both sides were satisfied, every member of the jury swore on the Bible that they would listen carefully and give a verdict without favour. The Petit Jury was put into its own box. Landlords and wealthy farmers who were well known among the important people of Carlow sat on both juries. All of them were men and there wasn’t one Catholic among them.
The trial of Lucinda Sly and John Dempsey would be a different matter in the eyes of the Crown. Lucinda was a Protestant and Dempsey was a Catholic. In the eyes of the common people of Carlow, Lucinda was a kind of witch but this was not said officially. The case that the Crown was to put before the court was that Lucinda Sly and John Dempsey had conspired to murder Walter Sly and that they had had sexual relations while she was married to Sly. This was very serious at that time particularly when it resulted in murder. The Crown would put the case before the court that they conspired to murder Walter Sly and that they planned to live together afterwards.
The judge spoke to the jurors before the prisoners were brought in. He told them to listen carefully to the evidence, not to talk to anybody but through the bench; if they weren’t clear about a question or answer, they were to let him know and he would seek clarification.
The two prisoners were brought into the court. The crowd who were in the courtroom began to scream and shout at them. The judge brought down his gavel on the bench and threatened to clear the court if the crowd did not stop shouting.
‘Everybody who comes before the court has a right to a fair trial,’ he said in annoyance. ‘A person is not guilty until a guilty verdict has been brought before the judge.’
Lucinda was trembling in her shoes, she was as white as a sheet and she looked as if she were about to faint. Even though Dempsey was afraid, he didn’t show it as much as Lucinda. They both swore on the Bible that they would tell the truth. Dempsey walked to his seat. Lucinda sat in the chair beside him with her head down.
The attorney, Seeds was to put the case for the Crown and defending Lucinda and Dempsey was their attorney, Job L. Campion – both Protestants. Dempsey assumed that he wouldn’t be treated fairly as he was a Catholic. The Penal Laws were still in force.
The court clerk stated that everything was in order and that the trial could proceed.
Frances Campbell was the first witness. She told the court about Saturday, 18 November, 1834. She said that she left the Carlow Fair with Walter Sly and a neighbour named Ned Radwell. The three were on horseback. When the attorney for the Crown questioned her as to whether Walter Sly was drunk on that night, she replied that both Sly and Radwell had had a lot to drink but that was not unusual. This always happened with men on fair days, she said. She further testified that on the road home the three of them stopped in Bilboa and went into a tavern to have a drink before they parted and went their separate ways. In the tavern Sly was talking to a man named Thomas Singleton, Lucinda’s son by her first marriage, and he introduced him to Radwell and herself. When the attorney for the Crown asked her what kind of man Walter Sly was, she had no hesitation in answering:
‘He was a contrary, unscrupulous, bold man who would tear the head from an enemy or anybody who tried to separate him from his property; a person who was not too contented in his mind but, that said, he was always mannerly towards me. He often told me that he had a few enemies, in particular the Brennans, a family he evicted from the land they had rented from him.’
The counsel for the defence had only one question for her.
‘
Is it true,’ he demanded, ‘that there once was more than friendship between you?’
She jumped to her feet.
‘There was nothing between Walter Sly and me,’ she insisted, ‘only that we had to travel the same road home from the fair. I am a married woman and a smart alec from the city like you will not destroy my reputation.’
She demanded that the attorney withdraw his remark, which he had to do as he was only going on hearsay. She finished her statement:
‘When Walter and I parted that night he was ready to go home to Oldleighlin.’
She was discharged from the witness box not too happy in her mind.
According to Dr Thomas Rawson, who was in the box after Frances Campbell, it was he who examined the body of Walter Sly in Oldleighlin on Sunday, 9 November, 1834. He testified that a bullet had been fired at Sly’s head and that it had come out at the other side. He let the court know that the person who fired the shot would need to have been very close to Sly and that the bullet was the cause of his death even though there were a few other marks on his head as well. Campion did not cross-examine him. Following a few other questions from the attorney for the Crown, the doctor was discharged from the witness box.
Ben Stacey, the Slys’ nearest neighbour in Oldleighlin, was called next. He wasn’t too happy with the long walk from his chair at the back of the courtroom up to the witness box beside the judge. He was sworn in. Apart from Lucinda Sly and John Dempsey, he was the first to have seen Walter Sly’s body. Seeds asked him to tell the court about that morning’s events in his own words.
He began: ‘I saw the body five or six yards from the stable door and the door of the house was six or seven yards on the other side. Lucinda Sly told me that she had heard her husband’s horse coming into the haggard and, shortly after that, she heard another horse coming after him at speed. She heard a shot and a thud as if something heavy had hit the ground. Then a couple of shots were fired at the door and anybody who would come outside the house before morning was threatened with death.’