Henry Perry

Henry Perry was convicted of the murder of 48-year-old Walter Cornish, 43-year-old Alice Cornish, 15-year-old Alice Cornish and 6-year-old Marie Cornish and sentenced to death.

He battered them to death at 13 Stukeley Road, Forest Gate, London on 28 April 1919.

Henry Perry was described as a 'slater', but had been convicted 15 times since 1894, and in 1904 he got 3 years' penal servitude for stealing a bicycle, in 1907, 5 years' for shopbreaking and in 1912 5 years' for stealing lead. It was noted that between 1904 and 1916 that he had spent no less than 11½ years in penal servitude.

He was an illegitimate child and it wasn't known who his father was nor whether he had any whole blood brothers or sisters.

When he was about 6-years-old his mother married a hawker and they travelled about the country together. His mother died around 1913.

He was released from his last sentence of penal servitude in November 1916 after which he enlisted in the Suffolk Regiment and was sent to Egypt and then to Palestine where he fell into the hands of the Turks. He said that he had been sent out to fetch water and had lost his way. He said that he had been shot in the leg by a Bedouin Arab and then taken by stages to Constantinople, describing a course of ill-treatment by the Turks.

He was released and sent home after the Armistice, and arrived in England on 26 February 1919.

Owing to the various stories of the Corps given by him to which he belonged, he was sent to several depots and eventually his proper Regiment was established.

About a week before 19 April 1919, he presented himself at the house of Walter Cornish and Alice Cornish of 13 Stukeley Road, Forest Gate, as Alice Cornish's nephew, Alice Cornish being a sister of his step-father, the hawker, who was by that time himself deceased.

Walter Cornish and Alice Cornish took him in and kept him for a week, but in the meantime, Alice Cornish heard from Henry Perry's half brothers and sisters about what a bad lot he was and on 19 April 1919 they turned him out.

Sometime after that, between 19 and 26 April 1919, Henry Perrybroke into a school near Romford and stole £3-19-6 in cash and several small articles, some of which were later found on him when he was arrested.

On Monday 28 April 1919, probably about 2pm, Henry Perry passed 13 Stukeley Road, and Alice Cornish, who had been alone at the time, asked him in and gave him some dinner.

However, Henry Perry said that whilst they were talking that Alice Cornish called the woman to whom he had been engaged to be married, a bad name, and that he lost his temper, and hit Alice Cornish on the head with the knob of a poker. He said that he then carried her to an out-house in the back garden, and, as she made a noise, he struck her again on the head with a pickaxe.

He then went back into the house, and seeing a carving fork in the kitchen drawer, he went back and plunged the fork into Alice Cornish's throat, where it was later found sticking.

He then cut off her finger and took her wedding ring, which he later gave to another woman that night.

After killing Alice Cornish he covered her body up completely with a large amount of boards and lumber, and went back to the house.

Either then, or afterwards, he rummaged about and stole what money he could find, two half-sovereigns from Alice Cornish's purse, and several Treasury notes and some silver that he found elsewhere.

It was noted that there had also been a bank book and some jewellery that had been hidden away, but that that had escaped his notice.

About 3.50pm, Marie Cornish came back from school.

Henry Perry met her in the passage and hit her on the head with a hammer or the butt end of an axe, and nearly chopped her head off with the axe, cutting the throat back to the spine. He then flung her body down the cellar steps where it was later found.

Shortly after, Walter Cornish's sister called at 13 Stukeley Road and asked where Alice Cornish was and Henry Perry told her that she was out and Walter Cornish's sister went away.

After that, Alice Cornish came home from school and Henry Perry served her in the same way as he had Marie Cornish and threw her body just inside the cellar door which he then locked and kept the key.

It seemed that he then washed up the blood, as a pail of blood and water was found.

Later Walter Cornish came in and asked where his wife was, and Henry Perry told him that she was out. Walter Cornish then expostulated with Henry Perry for being there and threatened to put the police on to him.

Walter Cornish then started to cook a piece of bacon on the gas ring for his tea and then Henry Perry hit him on the head with the butt end of a hatchet, but Walter Cornish managed to escape out of the back door and climbed over the fence and got help from a neighbour who took him to the hospital where he died about 23 hours later.

Henry Perry then ran out of the house and was seen by two people running down the street with blood on his hands and his dress rather dishevelled and his puttees coming down.

Then, according to his own story, he went to the docks where he bought a suit of mufti, and tied up his uniform and threw it into the River Thames.

He then gambled with some sailors and on the 1 May, with a sailor, he broke into a school at North Woolwich and there stole 10/- in cash.

He was later arrested on suspicion in the street on 2 May  and easily identified as the man wanted.

After his arrest he made a long and detailed, and entirely voluntary statement, apparently accurately describing his movements since he was taken prisoner by the Turks, and certainly describing accurately the manner in which he killed Alice Cornish and her two daughters and fatally wounding Walter Cornish. It was noted that point by point his narrative of the tragedy was verified in every detail.

At the trial, his only defence was insanity and his case was taken up by mental experts and, apparently by the medical profession in general, as a test case on which to fight the legal definition of ‘insanity’ as laid down in the MacNaughton case.

Three Harley Street experts interviewed Henry Perry, and from what he told them with regard to his family and prison history, and their observation of his symptoms, they expressed the strongest opinion that he was insane and irresponsible, both then, and at the time of the crime.

Their evidence was further supplemented at appeal by a fourth doctor who said that in his opinion that Henry Perry was, and had been for some time, suffering from aural hallucinations. However, it was noted that that observation appeared to be founded upon what Henry Perry had told him, namely that he had heard voices telling him to do it. However, it was further noted that so far as could be gathered, Henry Perry had never actually said that he had heard a voice urging him to kill Alice Cornish or her daughters.

It was also determined that Henry Perry had suffered from epilepsy and that that epilepsy was probably produced by a shrapnel wound, for which the fourth doctor found a scar on the left side of Henry Perry’s head in a position that would affect the aural nerves, injury to which, the fourth doctor claimed often led to homicidal mania.

However, it was additionally noted that that scar in particular was noted as having been on the side of Henry Perry’s head, according to his prison records, as far back as 1902.

It was further noted that Henry Perry had told the medical men that for two days he had had no recollection at all and that it appeared that the fourth doctor had accounted for the fact that he had made a detailed and correct statement on 2 May 1919, four days after the murders by stating that the murders would have been committed whilst Henry Perry had been in a subconscious epileptoid condition and that on emerging from that condition  that he would have no recollection of what he had done whilst under that influence.

However, the doctor went on to say that on another attack recurring and him resuming an epileptoid condition that he would then have recollection of what had happened in the last attack. He then said that when Henry Perry had made his statement to the police on 3 May 1919 that he had in fact been in a post-epileptic condition.

The police report noted that the fourth doctor was closely cross-examined on that theory and that not unnaturally, had some difficulty in maintaining his balance. It was noted that, for instance, that it was difficult to explain why, in the early part of his statement, Henry Perry had been able to quite clearly describe things that had happened to him during the previous nine months whilst he was returning from Palestine to the UK via Constantinople, Taranto and Bordighera.

It was noted that Henry Perry’s counsel sought to explain that difficulty by a theory of dual mentality that apparently allowed an epileptic person to carry on two complete and, as it were, parallel trains of thought and action, which, even as regards the epileptic, thoughts and acts, were purposeful and consecutive.

The doctor explained it by saying that while in a subconscious condition that the patient would be able to remember not only what had occurred in previous similar conditions, but also what had happened in conscious periods, but that the converse could not be true, that being that whilst conscious, that he could not remember what had happened in a sub-conscious period.

However, the court also heard from the deputy medical officer at Brixton who had had Henry Perry under close observation and had had four long conversations with him about the crime, and who concluded that he was of the clear opinion that Henry Perry had been sane when he committed the murders.

However, further examination of Henry Perry’s prison medical history disclosed the fact that in August 1909, whilst in Dartmoor, Henry Perry had complained about prisoners annoying him and tampering with his food, spreading soap over it for butter.

Several other entries were also disclosed:

• 19 August 1909: Apparently had a fit yesterday, found in dazed condition beside his bed. This morning complained of people talking to him all night.
• 20 August 1909: Again found in morning with face abraded, says he fell off the bed in a fit last night.
• 21 August 1909: Had another fit last night lasting about 2 minutes.
• 23 August 1909: Still dull and pupils rather dilated. Slept well. Pulse slow, 55.
• 17 September 1909: Feels better now. No further fit.
• 10 November 1909: Now well and cheerful, has behaved well in association and shown no signs of mental trouble.

However, no further trace of any mental disorder could be traced in his prison history, with the phrase, ‘In good health and of sound mind’, constantly appearing in reports.

It was noted that the medical men were rather severely cross-examined at the Old Bailey, on the grounds that their opinions were entirely based upon what  Henry Perry had chosen to tell them.

However, at his appeal, the judge noted that whilst the evidence of the doctors was impressive, that the evidence only established the fact that Henry Perry might have suffered from epilepsy at the time and that it did not establish to their satisfaction that the murders were committed by him whilst he was in an epileptic condition.

The Lord Chief Justice said:

‘I hope I am making myself clear to you. What I say is in my mind on this point is that really the point in this case, as it seems to me, is whether there is any evidence that at the time this man was suffering from an epileptic attack. We have got to remember what the Doctors said, which is based very largely on what the man said to them. That has got to be taken into account. That really, you know, is the crux of this case, otherwise it will be a dangerous thing if a man could come forward and say, ‘Oh, I once had an epileptic fit, or twice had an epileptic fit, and anything that happened must be put down to these epileptic fits’. You cannot argue that. We have got to decide whether the man was insane in the sense in which the law has laid down as a test at the time. That must depend on whether there was evidence that he was suffering from an epileptic attack during the hours that he committed this crime’.

As such, his appeal was dismissed.

However, although his appeal was dismissed, it was noted that the Secretary of State still had the power to order a medical inquiry into the condition of Henry Perry.

Several cases were noted as relevant with regards to any suggestion of a respite. They were:

1. George Alfort Jones, 1906: Killed his aunt with a rolling pin. The judge similarly noted that it would be dangerous to treat epileptics as though they were not responsible. His sentence was respited and commuted.
2. Willie Greaves, 1907: He placed his 2-year-old daughter on an open grate over a hot fire after she messed herself and then threw her on to the floor and smoked as she lay there in agony. He was sentenced to death, but respited on the grounds that he might have an epileptic fit on the scaffold.
3. Henry Thompson, 1910: Strangled his wife whilst under the influence of drink. There was evidence of three epileptic fits in the previous year, one of which occurred in prison 12 days before his trial. However, his sentence was not interfered with, with the Secretary of State stipulating that if he were to have a fit on the scaffold or within 24-hours of his execution then the execution was to be called off. However, nothing of the sort occurred and he was executed.
4. Gilbert Oswald Smith, 1912: Cut his wife’s throat with a razor. One witness said that he had had a fit just over four years earlier. No interference.

The police report concluded however, that they had no doubt that Henry Perry had been sane when he committed the murders and should be hanged. The report stated that Henry Perry was a ruffian of very low type and had been properly described by his half-sister when she gave evidence at his appeal, by stating:

‘I have never heard of any insanity in the family, nor of any of our relatives having been in a lunatic asylum. I am convinced that Harry is not insane. He has always been a vicious brute. He has a cruel temper and would stop at nothing to gain his own ends’.

Henry Perry was convicted at the Old Bailey on Tuesday 27 May 1919.

His appeal was heard on 23 June 1919 and dismissed on 24 June 1919.

He was executed at Pentonville on 10 July 1919.