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A classic cut-throat case which
involved the suicide/homicide debate predate even
Jack The Ripper, and is a rare example of lucid forensic analysis in the
seventeenth century.
At the end of June 1683, Arthur Capel, Earl of Essex was arrested on a charge of
high treason, accused of conspiring to assassinate King Charles II and the Duke
of York as part of the Rye House Plot. Prior to his trial Essex was, according
to custom, confined to the Tower of London. On 13 July his servant, Paul Bromeny,
found Essex dead in the lavatory adjoining his bed-chamber, lying in a pool of
blood. Beside him lay on open razor and subsequent examination showed his throat
to have been so savagely slashed that it had almost decapitated him. As he was
one of the most prominent men of his day, this was clearly a huge embarrassment
to Essex's Whig cause, and political dynamite that he should be found apparently
a victim of his own hand - a clear admission, his opponents crowed, of
treacherous guilt. The politics need not concern us here, but there was bound to
be a counter-accusation by Essex's loyal followers that he had been assassinated
in such a manner as to make it look like suicide. The following pamphlet,
explaining the reasons, was published in 1689:
'MURDER WILL OUT: or, a clear and full Discovery that the EARL of ESSEX did not
MURDER himself, but was MURDERED by others; both by undeniable Circumstances,
and positive Proofs.
[ After providing ample evidence that Essex had, far from contemplating
self-destruction, taken many steps to preserve himself against murder - like
having his food and drink prepared by his own followers - the tract then
outlines the proofs that the Earl could not have taken his own life ]
1. Because it was impossible that he at one Cut (as the verdict saith) could cut
four Inches in Depth, and eight in Length, because none could manage his Hand to
guide a Razor so to do at once, viz. from the left Side of the Neck-bone to the
right.
2. Because it is impossible that with that French razor, which was but four
Inches and an Half long, and Without a Tongue (necessitating taking two Inches
and an Half at least in his Hand) that he could, with two Inches of such an
Instrument, cut four or five Inches in Depth, and eight or nine in Length.
3. Because it is impossible in Nature that when he had cut the left Jugular and
Windpipe to the Neck-bone, which let out so much of the Blood and Vitals, that
he should have neither Life nor Strength to proceed to cut the other also, as
all skilful surgeons and Anatomists can demonstrate.
4. Because it was utterly impossible that after he had locked himself into the
Closet, he could so cut his Throat as it was, and then open the Closet door, and
fling the bloody Razor out of the Chamber window at such a distance from the
closet, and then get the Razor up again and keep it in his Hand (as some) or
fling it by him (as others) and all this after he was dead, for he instantly
died saith the Inquest, and none but himself in the Room say their Witnesses,
therefore it was impossible he could with that Razor so murder himself. And that
the bloody Razor was flung out of the Chamber window is made good by no less
than ten Witnesses.
Thus you have some Grounds and Reasons (from the Improbability and Impossibility
of the Thing) to clear his Innocency from the horrid Fact so impudently charged
upon him, and consequently the Guilt of others, and which may be sufficient to
all wise Men to detect the Murder...'
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