- panying the deceased on the road towards the Land's
End. It is only necessary to add that he was convicted and hanged; and it is not the least satisfactory part of this case to state, that on the evening previous to his execution he confessed to the author, that all the circumstances of the case occurred precisely as we have stated, that he strangled his victim with a pocket handkerchief, but that from the difficulty of completing the act, he was compelled to press his knees upon his chest. In the year 1763, a person of the name of Beddingfield was found lying near his bed, with his face on the floor, and with one hand round his neck. It was argued that he had probably fallen out of bed in a fit of apoplexy, and that the pressure of his own hand had occasioned the marks that were visible on his throat; and a verdict was returned in conformity with such an opinion. Circumstances,[1] however, arose which excited a strong suspicion against the wife and a man-servant named Ringe, and they were accordingly charged with the murder, tried at Bury St. Edmonds, and condemned. Before execution the man confessed that he had strangled the deceased, having seized him while asleep by the throat, with his left hand. Whether the wounds observed in the body were necessarily of a mortal nature, or sufficiently severe to have caused immediate death?—It will be generally impossible to solve this problemn without the aid of dissection, for although such injuries may appear extensive, we have already in the course of the present inquiries shewn the fallacies to which such indications are exposed, (see our chapter on wounds, vol. ii, page
- ↑ "Genuine trial of Margery Beddingfield and Richard Ringe, for petty treason and murder. London 1762."
