Note…some readers may get upset as this court case unfolds. Be forewarned. Of all the Home Child cases
I have read, and there have been many, this is the worst. It seems many journalists agree for the case is
mentioned often. No other journalists seems to used the court records though. For good reason.
EPISODE 399: THE SHORT AND HORRIFIC LIFE OF GEORGE EVERITT GREEN, HOME CHILD , PART THREE
alan skeoch
August 2021
The condition of George Green when he arrived at Miss Findlay’s farm was critical to the case.
If the testimony of the stage drive was competent then Miss Findlay could not be held responsible
for his death. He was mentally and physically ill. James Jeffery, blacksmith apprentice in Kemble, was called to the witness stand.
JAMES JEFFERY. SWORN. EXAMINED BY DEFNSE ATTORNEY TUCKER ND CROSS EXAMINED BY ATTORNEY MACKAY
FOR HE PROSECUTION.
QUESTION: MR. MACKAY: You told us the first time you saw George Green he appeared to be healthy and straight?
ANSWER: JAMES JEFFERY: Yes sir
He was not all twisted and tangled up, like Mr. Johnson said?
Not that I noticed.
Then you didn’t see him again until the end of September (one month before George Green’s death)
Would you say he was thinner?
I think he was a little, sir
He did not look as plump and healthy looking.
No
Did he look as if he had been weakened down from some cause?
Yes, sir.
HIs face was not clean and not as good a colour, is that right?
When you saw him first he had a pretty good colour….was a healthy boy?….mannerly? polite? kind and docile?
…he did not seem impudent…inclined to be bashful.
Yes sir.i
Did you ever see anything in him that would indicate he was a saucy or impudent boy?
I never saw anything.
Did you see the boy’s trunk or valise?
Yes I did..not very long ago.
Did you see it in the stage that day?
No sir, not that day.
Do you know the difference between a Home trunk and a valise?
Lately I do sir
What is a Home boy’s trunk.
A wooden box, sir.
Not leather like a valise at all?
No sir.
What size would the trunk be?
I would judge about 26” across, 30” long and 18” deep.
Then Mr. Johnston is not right when he says it is a valise?
That wooden box is not a valise…I’m sure of that.
NOTE: Why is this debate between a valise and trunk important. What point is Mr. MacKay trying to establish?
The jury had a great deal of difficulty since witnesses tended to contradict each other. Some witnesses were
lying. But why? Mr. Johnson testified that George Green was an imbecile…a museum piece. On the other
hand James Jeffery, a Home boy working in Kemble, testified that George was ‘very healthy looking’ when he arrived
in May but by September he wa ‘rather thinner (and had) no conversation in him’.
Subsequent testimony by Alexander Amos, a nearby farmer, suggested starvation when George Green came ‘for a
basket of green leaves’ in August. Mr. Guido, another neighbour testified George wore boos while others said he
was barefoot. All agreed he was bareheaded much of the time which accounted for the peculiar marks on
his head. Sunburn. On the other hand the prosecutor witnesses believed the mark on the head and body
indicated George had been struck several times. Who could the jury believe.?
Farmers Guido and Horne were called to move the body from his bed to two boards. Mr. Guido’s testimony was
in sharp contrast to the medical doctor who was called at the same time. (both Guido and Guidi names are used for
the farmer)
MR. JOSEPH GUIDI, SWORN, QUESTIONED BY MR TUCKER.
(Joseph Guidi or Guido had the farm to the west side of the Findlay farm)
QUESTION: Had the boys’ physical appearance changed from the time he was first seen in June until the
time he was seen again in the middle of October?
ANSWER: No, with the exception that he looked cold, I could not see any difference as far as physical condition.
Did you ever see him alive again?
No, this was the last time.
Did you ever see him dead?
Yes
What day was that?
Sunday morning…he was in his bed. I was over helping remove him from the bed he died in.
Who assisted you?
Mr. Horne
What condition was that bed?
Well…middling fair
What do you mean by that?
Possibly I have seen cleaner and I have seen dirtier clothes, I would just call them in between.
What was the atmosphere in that room?
It didn’t smell very pleasant, I suppose on account of the corpse…but it was a good deal the smell as in
a farm house where the were boiling turnips for the pigs. I didn’t smell anything until we moved the corpse.
What was the condition of the floor of the upstairs?
I didn’t see anything out of the way on the floor.
It is said by one witness there was old harness and rags it was generally dirty.
There was no harness that I noticed.
What was his physical appearance Sunday Nov. 10 as compared with when you first saw him in June?
The body looked quite natural to me with the exception of the scars on his nose and face.
The condition of the room was described by Dr. Cameron in quite the opposite manner. The room was so indescribably
filthy that the doctor had never in his whole practice, even in the slums of Glasgow, seen such a room where a
human being was expected to live. George Green was found curled up in the fetal position, in the centre of a
nest in a straw tick. Around the nest was a hardened ring of excrement. The smell was overpowering . The
Findlay bedroom was the dirtiest, most unwholesome living quarters Dr. Cameron had ever seen…and caused him
recurring nightmares ever since. To Dr. Cameron the marks on the boys’ body suggested terrible abuse;
DOCTOR SCOTT, EXAMINED BY MR. MACKAY
(Another medical opinion solicited)
QUESTION: MR. MACKAY: Suppose the boy was used in this way: struck with a broom handle, with a manure fork handle,
kicked around, punched with fist when he was down, hit with slipper and that he had been repeatedly thrashed in that
way throughout the months of July, August, September, October … and also compelled to sleep in a filthy room…
Would all that accelerate death?
ANSWER, DR. SCOTT: Yes
TESTIMONY OF DR WILLIAM G. DOW
QUESTION BY MR. MACKAY You are a practising physician of how many years?
ANSWER BY DR. DOW: Nearly ten years
You went down to the Findlay farm on 11th November with coroner Cameron?
I did
You held a post mortem examination I believe?
Yes
Did you see the bed in that room?
I did
Give me the condition of the Bed in which he died or was said to have died.
We found the room very dirty, a good deal of old rubbish. On the bed was a blanket, part of which looked like it
had been in the stable.
Was there any clean clothing at all?
Not what would call clean.
Give me the condition of the bed in detail.
It was an old fashioned posted bed with board in front and a straw tick opened down the middle showing straw which was short, very
filthy and semi-solid, very filthy…no spring.
What kind of filth?
Well. the only way I could describe it wa as being a place where possibly a pig might have lain for a week or longer.
What kind of filth? Human?
Yes, Might have been there for weeks.
Did any part of that bed show any signs of having been made up in recent times?
None whatever
What about the atmosphere.
Stifling.
Note: Readers might be asking themselves if this case of abuse could get any worse. It can and does.
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