Page:Particular account of the murder of Mr Thos. Weare, the trial of John Thurtell and Joseph Hunt and the execution of J. Thurtell.pdf/13

 his own house. Here he met John Thurtell, by whose directions he went back for Hunt, and brought him up to the cottage in the gig. The presumption therefore is, that the murder, and the whole scheme for carrying it into effect, was planned (and was to be executed) by Thurtell and Hunt conjointly. Owing, however, to Hunt being later than the appointed time, which again was owing to stopping and drinking on the road, Thurtell performed the whole deed himiself. How it was executed, is not exactly known. From the state of the body, there is reason to believe that the first assault was firing a pistol at Mr Wear’s head, and the cheek-bone turned the ball inside; that afterwards his scull was fractured by repeated punches with the muzzle of a pistol; and that, finally, his throat was cut, while he was lying on and grasping his assailant. But whether the first assault was made on Mr Weare when in the gig, or he had been induced first of all to alight, is not exactly ascertained. After he was murdered, Thurtell dragged the corpse through a hedge, and left it lying there till the arrival of Probert and Hunt, when all the three went down the lane and removed it, carrying it, and