Prisoner Name: Girolamo Capello, aged 30. Court and Date of Trial: Lancaster Summer...

HO 18/60/37

1841

Prisoner Name: Girolamo Capello, aged 30.

Court and Date of Trial: Lancaster Summer Assizes, August 1841.

Crime: Murder.

Initial Sentence: Death.

Outcome: Pardon on condition of transportation for life.

Petitions and letters: Petition from merchants and residents of Liverpool seeking mitigation of the sentence on the grounds that the prisoner did not intend to kill Antonio Toscani but only to cause injury by pouring boiling porridge on him. Had he intended to kill he could have used the dagger he always carried. With 223 signatures including jurors, magistrates and aldermen of Liverpool, the consuls of Austria, France and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

Letter to Lord Chief Justice Denman accompanying the petition from Joseph Charles Berger, one of the jury.

Lord Denman’s notes of witness statements at the trial, with his comment that merciful consideration of the prisoner’s good character was recommended but he pronounced sentence of death. Lord Denman’s report on the case, commenting on Mr Thomas’ evidence on the temperature of the porridge and if there was intention to kill, he explained to the jury that if the intention was only to injure but death resulted, it was murder. The evidence was translated into Italian or from Italian into English, there was no misunderstanding. He can see no reason for mercy but will be glad to hear that the Secretary of State does so.

Letter from William John Thomas giving his opinion that Capello cannot have intended to kill and that none of the Italians in the house took the matter seriously at the time. He warned the master of the lodging house that moving Toscani to the infirmary might prove fatal. Comments that Capello may have been able to put his hand into the porridge without feeling it to be hot but the solidification of the porridge would cause the ‘transmutation of latent into free caloric’.

Letter from William John Thomas [to Lord Denman] giving his reasons for thinking that the porridge was not boiling when Capello poured it onto Toscani and explaining why it may still cause scalding as it solidifies.

Letter in German addressed to Prince Esterhazy, Austrian Ambassador, regarding Capello’s case, from [G Brusch], Austrian Consul, Liverpool.

Note by J C G Graham [Secretary of State for the Home Department] that sentence of death may be remitted because the intention to murder seems doubtful and no motive was put forward at trial.

Letter [in French] from [Baron Koller, Austrian Chargé d’Affaires].

60/37

Public Record(s)

Open Document, Open Description

Topics

Trade and commerce

Europe and Russia

Food and drink

Pardons

Crime