Originally published in The Newgate Calendar (W. Clowes) vol.II (1812).
Was executed for murder; and came to life again while preparing for dissection in Surgeon's Hall.
We are not acquainted with the particulars of this man's crime and trial, but think the following short account worthy of insertion, on account of the remarkable circumstance of his restoration to life after execution.
This man met a better fate than a criminal in a similar situation in Germany. THe body of a notorious malefactor was stretched out upon the table, before the body of German surgeons, for dissection. The operator, in placing it in the proper position, felt life in it; whereupon he thus addressed his brethren of the faculty, assembled to witness the operation:
"I am pretty certain, Gentlemen, from the warmth of the subject, and the flexibility of limbs, that by a proper degree of attention and care, the vital heat would return, and life, in consequence take place. But, when it is considered what a rascal we should again have among us, that he was hanged for so cruel a murder, and, that should we restore him to life, he would kill somebody else.—I say, gentlemen, all these things considered, it is my opinion, that we had better proceed in the dissection." Whether this harangue, or the fear of being disappointed in so sumptuous a surgical banquet as a dissection, operated on their consciences, we cannot tell; but certain it is, they nodded accordance; and the operator, on the signal, plunged his knife into the breast of the culprit, thereby at once precluding all dread of future assassinations—all hopes of future repentance.
William Duell was convicted of occasioning the death of Sarah Griffin, at Acton, by robbing and ill-treating her, and having suffered the sentence of the law, Nov 24, 1740, at Tyburn, with Thomas Clock, Wm. Meers, Margery Stanton, and Eleanor Munoman, (who had been convicted of several burglaries and felonies,) he was brought to Surgeon's Hall, to be dissected: but after he was stripped and laid on the board, and one of the servants was washing him in order to cut him up, he perceived life in him, and found his breath to come quicker and quicker, on which a surgeon bled him, and in two hours he was able to sit up in his chair. In the evening he was again committed to Newgate, and his sentence which might have been again inflicted was changed to transportation.