3-053-731 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Trial of the bank forgers at the Old Bailey, 1873. Central Criminal Court in London '...during the trial of the four Americans, Austin Biron Bidwell, alias Frederick Albert Warren, alias Charles Johnson Horton; George Macdonnell, George Bidwell, and Edwin Noyes, or Edwin Noyes Hills. These four young men...have been convicted of forging and fraudulently uttering foreign bills of exchange at the West-end branch of the Bank of England to an enormous amount. Their trial...[was heard] before Mr. Justice Archibald...The prisoners were assisted by counsel, but two of the accused, Macdonnell and George Bidwell, also made speeches to the jury on their own behalf. An attempt was made...to separate the case of Noyes from that of the other three, by representing him as the mere servant of Austin Bidwell, and as ignorant of the fraudulent practices in which they were engaged. But the jury, after a few minutes' deliberation, found them all guilty, and Mr. Justice Archibald sentenced each of them to penal servitude for life...Macdonnell is the one with a pen in his hand, leaning forward to talk with his counsel; the two brothers Bidwell sit one on each side of Macdonnell; and Edwin Noyes is next to the elder Bidwell. Two prison warders are seated behind'. From "Illustrated London News", 1873.