Nice 'Day' for a white wedding

[A.P. Wolf]

In 1882 Henry Day was sentenced to five years hard for presenting and firing a loaded revolver at a group of 'unfortunates' and their punters in a Whitechapel pub, the 'Blue Anchor' in Cable Street. The single shot took out the eye of an Irishman and almost killed him.
All of the witnesses avowed that they had never seen Day before, and had no quarrel with him.
In his defence Day claimed that two of the 'unfortunates' had robbed him before, and that he was determined to 'make sure that it never happened again'.
Give this guy five years in prison, and then release him in late 1887, and you have a man with a serious determination to kill 'unfortunates', but perhaps not with a revolver this time.

[Robert Linford]

I'm sure folks kept an eye out for him, AP.

[Howard Brown]

He only got 5 years for putting a man's eye out with a revolver?

I'd think he'd walk the straight and narrow,counting his blessings after such a limp sentence.

But,I think he should be kept in mind as A.P. infers. Thanks as usual,A.P....for adding another name to the list.:kiss:

[A.P. Wolf]

Thanks Robert and How
there was just something about the way Day carried out his attack. He entered the pub, closed the door behind him and then leaned back on it so nobody could get out, and then pulled his loaded revolver out and aimed it at the 'unfortunates'.
The Irishman, either very drunk or brave, walked towards him, and got shot. But I had the feeling that if the Irishman had not done that, Day would have fired all six shots into the 'unfortunates' and slaughtered the lot.
The revolver was six chambered and fully loaded.
Justice Hawkins was most reluctant to sentence Day, as he was a gentleman with good references, but even Hawkins had to admit that shutting the folks in the pub and then attempting to shoot them with a weapon, fully loaded for the occasion was a very serious offence.
Day should have been HMP'd.

[Howard Brown]

A.P.

I agree with you...that had the Irishman not stepped into the way of that bullet, Day would have shot as many as possible...totally premeditated attempted murder...and a crime that would have seen Day hung by the cojones had this occurred in the West End of town at some snooty establishment like the Chez Linford or somewhere like that.

As an aside, its been alarming to read of the light sentencing handed out to men where it comes to assault and battery,attempted murder,and even cases of mutilation towards women and men...especially since I started transcribing Philadelphia archival material. You know of this stuff, but when you read it again down the line, it still makes you shake your head in bewilderment.