The Trial of Reginald Sydney Buckfield

Out of Print

Edited with a Foreword and a Note on Crime and Insanity

Buckfield was in the witness stand for almost one day. He was the only witness called for the defence. The jury took exactly an hour to find him guilty of murder. Buckfield had nothing to say.

Assuming the black cap, the judge told him: “The jury upon most ample evidence have found you guilty of a singularly cruel crime. No doubt, as is usual an investigation will be made by the proper authorities as to whether there is any medical explanation of your act.

“In the meantime, it is my duty to pass on you the only sentence known to the law for such an offence — that you be taken from this place to a lawful prison and then to a place of execution and there be hanged by your neck until you are dead and your body should be buried afterwards within the precincts of the prison. And may the Lord have mercy on your soul.”