Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from A Collection Reports Celebrated Trials, Vol. 1: Civil and Criminal, Edited, With Introductions and Notes
Nothing was seen of Thornton after this for some time; but Mary Ashford was traced to her friend's, Hannah Cox's', house in Erdington, alone, where she changed her clothes. She left Cox's at about fourteen minutes past four in the morning, and went up Bell Lane; and was last seen alive going in the direction of the harrowed field where the foot steps were found, at about eighteen minutes past four. She had then some way to go to the spot where her body was afterwards found in a pit of water; and in all probability she could not reach the pit until half-past four at the earliest. Her body was discovered in the pit about half-past six. The theory of the prosecution was, that Thornton waylaid Mary Ashford on her way home from Cox's, and assaulted her: that she fainted; and that he then threw her body into the pit. In support of this it was sought to prove, from the footmarks in the field, that Thornton had chased, and had ultimately overtaken the deceased, and then violated her, not far from the pit. There was undoubtedly the impress of a human figure on the grass near the pit, and blood was traced from it, without any footmarks, close up to the edge of the pit. It was inferred from this that Thornton had carried Mary Ashford in his arms, and had then thrown her into the water. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
