Brief Outline of the “Rugeley’s Name” Story
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| Brief Outline of the “Rugeley’s Name” Story:
Adopted from the book, “The Rugeley Poisoner” by Dave Lewis. There is another lovely tale, unfortunately not true, that comes from the Palmer case. A story started, and was passed down from generation to generation, suggesting that the inhabitants of Rugeley were extremely unhappy by the bad reports about Rugeley in the newspapers before and during Palmer’s Trial. The newspapers wrote several articles suggesting that Rugeley was not a nice place. The Rugeley townsfolk believed that Rugeley’s name was now known throughout the world and would be forever linked to the murders committed of the infamous Dr. William Palmer. So angry were the Rugeley people that it was decided to send a group of their top men down to London to ask Parliament to have the name of their town changed. The story was that, after listening to their complaints, the Prime Minister smiled and agreed instantly saying, “Of course! Why not name it after me?” Unfortunately the then Prime Minister was called Lord Palmerston and the last name that Rugeley would wish to be called was Palmerstown! A lovely story; but that is what it is, only a story not based upon fact! There is evidence from the World War I that even then, more than fifty years after the trial, Rugeley was still famous. Troops based on Cannock Chase arriving at Rugeley’s railway station commented upon this being the home of “The Poisoner”. ****************************************** Brief Outline of the Palmer Story On June 14th 1856 at 8.00 a.m. William Palmer was hanged at Stafford for murdering his friend and racing companion John Parsons Cook. A crowd of 30,000 turned up to see the ending of a scandalous story that had fascinated and shocked the nation for the previous 6 months. Palmer disappointed the huge crowd by not making a “death speech” and, when the bolt on the gallows was drawn, dying almost instantly with only a slight twitch. The scandal had started when a Coroners jury found Palmer, a country doctor, guilty of poisoning Cook by strychnine. Palmer was then arrested and put into Stafford Gaol. Once he was arrested the gossips had a field day and started to remember other deaths. The newspapers enjoyed far more freedom in 1856 than today and printed all the stories christening the suspicious deaths as “The Rugeley Tragedies”. Soon Palmer was under suspicion of poisoning his wife and his brother. The newspapers reported that the Home Secretary had ordered their bodies to be exhumed (dug up) and examined. The gossips and the newspapers accused him of even more murders, for example the deaths of four of his five children, his mother-in-law, his Uncle Joseph, and Leonard Bladen to name but a few. Palmer was only tried for one murder and was hanged in spite of the fact that no strychnine was found in Cook’s body. After his execution an effigy of Palmer stood in Madame Tussaud’s Chamber of Horrors for 127 years accused by the gossips of poisoning up to fifteen people. Was he really a mass murderer or was he a victim of the newspapers that reported idle gossip? A Letter to Lord Palmerston – Yellow GroupUse the planning frame below to plan your letter to Lord Palmerston to request that Rugeley’s name is changed because of the disgrace brought upon the town by the murders committed by Dr. William Palmer. Write down the key words or phrases that you want to use in each paragraph.
A Letter to Lord Palmerston – Red GroupUse the planning frame below write a letter to Lord Palmerston to ask that Rugeley’s name is changed because of the disgrace brought upon the town by the murders committed by Dr. William Palmer. Where there are two words in italics pick the correct word.
A Letter to Lord Palmerston – Blue GroupUse the planning frame below write a letter to Lord Palmerston to ask that Rugeley’s name is changed because of the disgrace brought upon the town by the murders committed by Dr. William Palmer. Where there is a box pick the correct word pick the correct word from the box below.
Words to put into the spaces in the letter: change think new world terrible hearing agree agree read link our hope unhappy all name |