Cambridgeshire Murders by Alison Bruce Page A

times on the arms, and where I could, to prevent him rising up again. I then heard the dog bark very vehemently at the door, I went to see if any person was coming; there being nobody there, I went back to Mr. Waterhouse again, and he had risen up on his legs. I then hit him another hard blow on the head, and knocked him into the tub. I then ran out at the garden door and left him. I ran down the close of grass leading to Great Stukeley.
    After Heddings had completed and signed his testimony Slade was asked whether he had anything to say in response. He replied, ‘No, your honour; but he has told some false tales: I did not say a word of what he says on the Wednesday night. He wants to hang me without judge or jury, damn him, he should have been hanged years ago himself.’
    Before Slade was returned to prison he was questioned about a clasp knife that the prison keeper, Mr Cole, had found in his possession. The knife appeared to have some reddish-brown stains on it which Slade was asked to explain: ‘They a’’n’t blood, nor aught like it,’ he answered.
    The cross-examination of Heddings continued, and in the course of all the testimony relating to the series of thefts, a man named Lansdale Wright was found to have purchased a variety of stolen items from Joshua Slade. On the evidence of Maria Sharpe, Mr Waterhouse’s former housekeeper, they were identified as items taken from the rectory. Therefore, while William Heddings was far from the most reliable of witnesses, his account of Slade’s confession seemed to tie in with the evidence pointing to Slade being guilty. At the very least, it corresponded with the theft from Waterhouse.
    The circumstances surrounding Slade’s connections to both Waterhouse and Heddings supported this. He was born on 14 January 1809 in Great Stukeley and was one of nine children. His first known meeting with Joshua Waterhouse was on 18 December 1824 when he travelled to Huntingdon to watch the hanging of a Somersham arsonist, Thomas Savage. As he approached Huntingdon, the 15-year-old old Slade happened to meet Joshua Waterhouse, and the two of them watched the execution together.
    Later Slade had worked as a labourer for, among others, Mr Waterhouse. Then from November 1826 he laboured for a Little Stukeley farmer named Mr Hall. He was dismissed by Mr Hall in May 1827 after being found responsible for a petty theft. This was not the first time he had been caught stealing and he had no further regular employment, just odd days of casual work in the weeks leading up Waterhouse’s death.
    By this time Slade had already become close to his neighbour William Heddings. Working as a team, often with John Slade as an accomplice, they were eventually found to be responsible for a large spate of local night-time thefts, particularly those involving the rustling of livestock. The villagers of Little Stukeley had often witnessed them returning with stolen property but had kept their silence for fear of reprisals.
    Heddings was a more experienced criminal. He was also an adept lock-picker and passed this skill on to Slade.
    In the weeks leading up the assizes the rectory became a curiosity and was visited by many people. On Monday 30 July a huge crowd gathered in the market place to await the start of the trial. Of all the cases heard that day, only the dismissal of charges against Slade’s parents and Lansdale Wright were in any way connected with the Waterhouse murder. At exactly 9 a.m. the following morning Lord Chief Baron Alexander entered the packed courtroom and Slade was brought before him. The charges were read out and when asked to plead Slade replied ‘not guilty’.
    There were six key points on which the prosecution based its case: the blood stains on Slade’s clothes; the blood stains on Slade’s knife and Sykes’s bill (see page 36); the footprints found at the rectory and in the tunnel; witnesses identifying Slade by his