The Suicide of Pigott

[Robert St Devil]

8 March 1889

La Union Catolica
FOREIGN NEWS
[Some parties believe that] it is not true that Mr. Pigott committed suicide in Madrid.
The Gaulois was first not to believe that Pigott committed suicide; but now, it turns out that neither does the House of London.
Here is the telegraph sent from London to the Petit Journal, Paris:
"It is not believed in the House that Pigott committed suicide in Madrid as the Agencies telegraphed it."
The Times and all of M. Parnell's enemies may have an interest in not giving credit to the news; but they will have no choice but to believe it, especially when those denying it have an interview with Mr. Quinn upon his return to London.

El Imparcial
The Autopsy of Pigott
Yesterday the distinguished medical examiner, Mr. Alonso Martinez, conducted the autopsy on the corpse of Pigott, which is still in the judicial deposit of the South; therefore, the news published by almost all of our colleagues concerning the autopsy is inaccurate.
According to Mr. Alonso Martínez, the autopsy has revealed that Pigott was in an excellent state of health. His heart, his lungs and his stomach were healthy. In the latter, there was no trace of Pigott indulging in the abuse of alcoholic beverages.
As the autopsy was brief, the forensic doctor was not able to practice a detailed study of the brain.
It may be said, with phrenological consideration, the brain is very well developed, and there is a great abundance of circumvolutions, which proves Pigott was endowed with great intelligence, and overall, the sagacity that has always distinguished him.
The damage done by the projectile was terrible. These are the details:
The bullet penetrated the upper part of the palatine veil [roof of the mouth, palate], destroying the base of the skull, and consequently the basilar apophysis, the cerebellum in its anterior part and in one of its two lobes, and finally, the two occipital or posterior lobes of the brain, having its exit orifice through the occipital vertex, further fracturing the two parietals.
Pigott's remains will probably be buried in the Cemetery of the East

[Simon Wood]

Thank you again, Robert. Great stuff.

[Robert St Devil]

11 March 1889

El Imparcial
The last notes of the story of Pigott published by the English press are extremely pitiful.
Mr. Davitt, an Irish deputy and one of the victims of Pigott's forgeries, has visited Pigott’s house. There, he learned how Pigott decided to undertake a life of betrayal and forgery, which he ended tragically in a room of the Hotel de Embajadores.
Pigott's wife had died and the family was in the most appalling misery. The widower had no money to bury his wife. That was when Houston, the representative of the Times, arrived, playing the role of tempter and offering to Pigott abundance and even luxury, as long as he betrayed his Parnellist friends and sold the secrets and documents of the party to the Times. Pigott succumbed.
Such a pitiful story has not, however, moved the English, and by this time the most popular couplet in London is a kind of romance which refers in a satirical tone of the life and deeds of Pigott, describing him as the greatest deceiver and impostor of the century, and ends with this verse:

And when the police arrived
Pigott said to the inspector:
“Let me get my hat.”
And instead, killed himself.
And so ended his life
cheating the police.

[Robert St Devil]

6 April 1889

Madrid Comico
It seems that the owner of the Hotel de Embajadores, where the infamous Pigott committed suicide, had claimed an indemnity of 17,000 pesetas from the British embassy for the damages that the event had caused to his establishment.
Of course! the Government of England dismissed the claim, believing it was not justified.
But the claimant had a response; in a humble tone, he said:
"I thought I was dealing with English gentlemen, not the Chinese."

[Robert St Devil]

26 April 1889

La Epoca
Through its representative in Madrid, the Government of S.M.B. has thanked the Spanish police, who were involved in the apprehension of Mr. Pigott, and especially the worthy judge of the South, Mr. Saavedra y Parejo.

[Robert St Devil]

The Suicide of Pigott

La Ilustracion (Barcelona), 24 March 1889

Richard Pigott In Madrid, March 1st

[Robert St Devil]

Online resources for The Suicide of Pigott (including news articles provided in this thread and others):

http://bdh.bne.es/bnesearch/Search.do?lengua=&field2Op=AND&text=pigott&sort=anho&field1val=&showYearItems=&numfields=3&fechaHdesde=1889&field3Op=AND&completeText=on&fechaHhasta=1889&field3val=&field3=todos&fechaHsearchtype=0&field2=todos&field1Op=AND&fechaHen=&exact=on&advanced=true&textH=&field1=todos&field2val=&doctype=Prensa+y+Revistas&pageNumber=1&pageSize=45&language=es

Special thanks to David Barrat, Simon Wood, Debra Arif and Gabriela with the Biblioteca Nacional de Espana

[Simon Wood]

Hi Robert St Devil,

And very special thanks to you for all your hard work.

Thank you.

Regards,

Simon

[David Orsam]

Yes, thank you Robert. Great work.

[David Orsam]

And no, I don't think Pigott's grave was neat and tidy. How would I know? It was the fact it was impossible to find that was neat and tidy.

Well aside from the fact that there is no evidence that Pigott's grave was, in fact, ever "impossible to find" because you only quoted from a 1904 book which conjectured that "in a few years" it would be impossible for a person searching for it to find it.

Why you think it would be "neat and tidy" for Pigott's grave in Spain to be impossible to find more than 15 years after his suicide I simply have no idea. Who would even have been searching for it in or after 1904 and what do you think would have happened if they had found it?

Do you think someone was worried about an unofficial exhumation of the body or something in 1904? And then they thought, "We've nearly got away with this, in just a few more years, after 15 years of waiting anxiously, finally no-one will ever be able to find this grave!".

And you think that is "neat and tidy"?

[David Orsam]

Hi David,

The confidential communications you discovered told you what Scotland Yard, the Home Office and the Foreign Office were doing to try and capture Pigott and bring him back to England.

You said:

"We have been told what Scotland Yard, the Home Office and the Foreign Office were doing to try and capture Pigott and bring him back to England."

So that was wrong. All you are now trying to pretend you said was that, "The documents tell us what Scotland Yard, the Home Office and the Foreign Office were doing to try and capture Pigott and bring him back to England".

And so they do Simon, they do tell us that. Well not you perhaps, because you've probably never seen them, but that's what they say for anyone who cares to read them.

And you believed what you read because you're that sort of fellow, whereas I have lots of questions I want answered.

No, Simon, I believe it because it is confidential internal correspondence - and organisations such as governments do not normally lie to themselves. Furthermore, it all makes perfect sense and is corroborated by all the other evidence. There is not a single reason to doubt any of it.

Furthermore, I already answered your question from #5 in this thread, based on documentary evidence, but you seemed to refuse to accept it, preferring your overactive imagination instead.

[Simon Wood]

Hi David,

For goodness sake, take a Librium and chill out.

You know perfectly well what I meant.

Regards,

Simon

[David Orsam]

Hi David,

For goodness sake, take a Librium and chill out.

I don't want to do that Simon or, like you, I might start completely forgetting things that I have written in my published books.

You know perfectly well what I meant.

Take it from me Simon, I hardly ever have any idea what you mean about anything.

[Simon Wood]

Hi David,

That's cuz you're too literal.

Plenty of other people understand just fine.

Regards,

Simon

[David Orsam]

Hi David,

That's cuz you're too literal.

I don't think so Simon.

I mean, let's take the death of Pigott.

From what you said earlier in this thread (#33) one would naturally conclude that you believe that the British government ordered Pigott's murder and, from your fabricated claim in your book that two Scotland Yard detectives arrived in Madrid at the same time as Pigott's death, one would have imagined that you believed they were the assassins.

Yet you've told me that you don't believe the British government murdered Pigott and you've denied alleging that those two Scotland Yard detectives were responsible.

So who do you think was responsible for Pigott's death?

I don't think my failure to know what you actually mean on this topic has anything whatsoever to do with me being "too literal" but everything to do with you being too vague.