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Posted by Grumpyfred (U2228930) on Monday, 31st January 2011
When Spencer Percival entered the history books by becoming the only British Prime Minister to be murdered in office, his murderer, (A Liverpool man) was arrested tried and executed in seven days. Even for the times, that seemed to be rather undue haste. Was there a reason for it (Apart from him being like me, from Liverpool LOL)
John Bellingham, the murderer, confessed on the spot. Not much cause for delays and appeals.
Still a bit quick though. Perhaps done as a warning to deter any other attempts on PMs Strangely, unlike Guy Fawkes who failed, you would be hard pressed to find many people who could tell you the name of who was killed and who did the killing.
And of course, the other failed British Prime Ministerial assassin, Daniel M'Naghten, is remembered by lawyers since the M'Naghten rules developed for his trial were used for over a hundred years in considering pleas of "not guilty by reason of insanity" in England, Wales, the British Commonwealth and the USA
M'Naghten attempted to kill Robert Peel, the PM, but killed Peel's secretary, Edward Drummond (a civil servant) by mistake.
Is there any truth in the story that Victoria insisted on having "not guilty by reason of insanity" changed to "guilty but insane" after Oxford's assassination attempt on her?
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