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Murderous Mapp: Transcribed sourcesBelow is a transcription of some of the key witness statements as they were made at the original trial. These could be used as part of a role play or a dramatic re-enactment of the trial. You could also use the all sources in their original form, as they were printed in the Shrewsbury Chronicle. Or use the links below each transcription to see the original source, and questions about it, in the context of other evidence. Ann Davies said: I am the wife of John Davies, of Longden. I knew the deceased. She was in the habit of coming to our house. She came at twelve o'clock. She left with a girl named Morgan to go to chapel. She asked me to pin a brooch into her dress, which I did. The brooch produced is the one I pinned in the deceased's shawl. I said to her, "What a smart brooch you have got." She said, "Yes, it is my mother's: not my own mother's, but my step-mother's." at the top of the Long-lane. I saw John Mapp standing close to the turnpike-road, and a little girl about 5 yards off. I asked the girl if she was coming my way, and she said, "Only to the next house, where Mr. Whitfield lives." Prisoner said she lives near to me. We went down the Long lane, and Mary Hartshorn along the turnpike road to the right. I went down the Long-lane as far as the turning to Mr. Whitfield's. I then went my way, and they went further down the lane when I left. I wished them good night. She had on a black straw hat. by the holly bush to eat his luncheon. While I was eating my luncheon I was looking into the holly bush for a whip-stick, and I found a straw hat pushed into the holly bush. I pulled it out, and saw that it was covered with blood. It was almost flat. The hat produced is the one. It was fresh blood. Prisoner was close by me when I found the hat. I said, "I wonder what brings this here?" He said, "I don't know, I am sure." I said, "get over to the hedge, and see if anything is there in the ditch, for the one that's had a blow like this is sure to be dead." Mapp looked over the hedge and into the ditch, saying there was nothing there. Mapp then said, "Take it (the hat) and bury it; put it in the furrow under the plough." I then throw it down On Monday, 23rd December, I saw the hat. It was shown to me by Mary Hartshorn and another woman. I then went in search of the girl. I then went away up the lane and over the field where Mapp was spreading the manure. I crossed the fence into another field, and over other fences till I came to a little patch where there was a hovel. I saw a mark of something have been dragged along, and in the hovel I found the body. The hovel was open Went with Superintendent Caswell to the place. Found with him traces of blood near the holly bush. Caswell raked some manure off the ground near the gate, and we found marks of blood beneath it. His mother showed me his clothes, in a bundle. In the coat pocket I found the brooch produced. It was a brown coat, and was worn by the prisoner. Prisoner's mother gave me the clothes. The prisoner said something to me at the police station, Shrewsbury, about the clothes. I pointed out the blood on the trousers (produced). They were common cord trousers, and the spots are still visible. Prisoner said, "That is blood from my nose." On removing the shawl I found a wound five inches long, which extended from right to left. There were three other wounds on the throat, all terminating at the ear. There appeared to be five cuts commencing at the left side and one of the cuts extended, without intermission, to the right side of the neck. The windpipe was cut through, and some of the smaller blood vessels severed, and they would occasion great loss of blood. Sergeant Evan Jones said: On Tuesday, the 24th December, I went to the prisoner's house and found the knife produced there. It was on the dresser. when I took it outside the door I noticed some slight traces of blood on it, inside the haft. The marks were recent. |
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