Volume III
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THEODORE GARDELLE An Artist, who was executed in the Haymarket, 4th of April, 1761, for murdering a Woman man of education and talents in his profession, the fine art of painting. He was born at Geneva, a city which is famed for giving birth to great men, in both the arts and sciences. He chose the miniature style of painting, and, having acquired its first rudiments, went to Paris, where he gained great proficiency in the art. He then returned to his native place and practised his profession for some years, with credit and emolument; but, it appears, unhappy in his domestic concerns, he repaired to London, and took lodgings at Mrs King's, in Leicester Fields, in the year 176. Some time afterwards, for the benefit of purer air, he removed to Knightsbridge, but finding that place too far from his business he returned to his former residence, where he pursued his business until the fatal cause arose which brought him to an ignominious death. On Thursday, the 19th of February, 1761, in the morn- ing, the maid got up about seven o'clock and opened the fore parlour windows. There was a fore parlour and a back parlour; both had a door into the passage from the street door, and there was also a door out of one into the other : the back parlour was Mrs King's bedchamber, and the door which entered it from the passage was secured on the inside by a drop-bolt, and could not be opened on the outside when locked, though the drop-bolt was not down, because on the outside there was no keyhole. The door into the fore parlour was also secured on the inside by Mrs King when she went to bed, and the door of the fore parlour into the passage was left open. When the maid had entered the fore parlour by this door and opened the windows she went to the passage door of the back parlour, where Mrs King was in bed, and knocked, in order to get the key of the street door, which Mrs King took at night into her room. Mrs King drew up the bolt and the maid went in. She took the key of the street door, which she saw lying upon the table by a looking-glass, and her mistress then shut the passage door and dropped the bolt, and ordered the maid to open the door that communicated with the fore parlour, which she did, and went out. She then kindled the fire in the fore parlour, that it might be ready when her mistress arose, and about eight o'clock went up into Gardelle's room, where she found him in a red-and-green nightgown, at work. He gave her two letters, a snuff-box and a guinea, and desired her to deliver the letters, one of which was directed to one Mozier, in the Haymarket, and the other to a person who kept a snuff-shop at the next door, and to bring him from thence a pennyworth of snuff. The girl took the messages, and went again to her mis- tress, telling her what Gardelle had desired her to do; to which her mistress replied: " Nanny, you can't go, for there is nobody to answer the street door." The girl being willing to oblige Gardelle, or being for some reason desirous to go out, answered that Mr Gardelle would come down and sit in the parlour till she came back. She then went again to Gardelle and told him what objection her mistress had made, and what she had said to remove it. Gardelle then said he would come down, as she had proposed, and he did come down accordingly. The girl immediately went on his errand, and left him in the parlour, shutting the street door after her, and taking the key to let herself in when she came back. Immediately after the girl had gone out, Mrs King, hearing the tread of somebody in the parlour, called out, " Who is there? " and at the same time opened her chamber door. Gardelle was at a table, very near the door, having just then taken up a book that lay upon it, which happened to be a French grammar. He had some time before drawn Mrs King's picture, which she wanted to have made very handsome, and had teased him so much about it that the effect was just contrary. It happened, unfortunately, that the first thing she said to him, when she saw it was he whom she had heard walk- ing about in the room, was something reproachful about this picture. Gardelle was provoked at the insult, and, as he spoke English very imperfectly, he, for want of a less improper expression, told her, with some warmth, that she was an impertinent woman. This threw her into a transport of rage, and she gave him a violent blow with her fist on the breast -- so violent, that he said he would not have thought such a blow could have been given by a woman. As soon as the blow was struck she drew a little back, and at the same instant he laid his hand on her shoulder and pushed her from him, rather in contempt than anger, or with a design to hurt her ; but her foot happening to catch in the floor- cloth she fell backwards, and her head came with great force against the corner of the bedstead. The blood imme- diately gushed from her mouth, not in a continued stream, but as if by different strokes of a pump. He instantly ran to her and stooped to raise her, expressing his concern at the accident; but she pushed him away, and threatened, though in a feeble and interrupted voice, to punish him for what he had done. He was exceedingly terrified at the thought of being condemned for a criminal act upon her accusation, and again attempted to assist her, by raising her up, as the blood still gushed from her mouth in great quantities; but she still exerted all her strength to keep him off, and still cried out, mixing threats with her screams. He then seized an ivory comb with a sharp taper point continued from the back, for adjusting the curls of her hair, which lay upon her toilet, and threatened her in his turn to prevent her crying out; but she still continuing to cry out, though with a voice still fainter and fainter, he struck her with this instrument, probably in the throat, upon which the blood flowed from her mouth in yet greater quantities, and her voice was quite stopped. He then drew the bedclothes over her) to prevent her blood from spreading on the floor, and to hide her from his sight. He stood some time motionless by her, and then fell down by her side in a swoon. When he came to himself be perceived the maid had come in. He therefore went out of the room without examining the body to see if the unhappy wretch was quite dead, and his confusion was then so great that he staggered against the wainscot and hit his head, so that a bump was raised over his eye. By means of a ruse Gardelle got rid of the maid, by saying that her mistress had discharged her. She left the house, and the murder was not discovered until the following Saturday week, when a constable and some others went to the house, where they found Gardelle, and charged him with the murder. He denied it, but soon after dropped down in a swoon. When he recovered, they demanded the key of Mrs King's chamber; but he said she had taken it with her to the country. The constable therefore got in at the window and opened the door that communicated with the parlour, and they all went in. They found that there had been a fire in the garret, and some fragments of bones, half consumed, were found in the chimney. To this force of evidence Gardelle at length gave way, and confessed the fact. He was sent to New Prison, where he attempted to destroy himself by swallowing some opium, which he had by him as a remedy for the toothache. When he found that the opium did not produce the effect he desired, he swallowed halfpence to the number of twelve. On the 2nd of March he was brought to Newgate, and diligently watched, to prevent any further attempts upon his life. On Thursday, the 2nd of April, he was tried at the Old Bailey ; and, in his defence, he insisted only that he had no malice to the deceased, and that her death was the consequence of the fall. He was convicted, and sentenced to be executed on Saturday, the 4th. He was executed, amidst the shouts and hisses of an indignant populace, in the Haymarket, near Panton Street, to which he was led past Mrs King's house, where the cart made a stop, and at which he just gave a look. His body was hung in chains upon Hounslow Heath. |