Mummified arm of law reaches out to museum (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Mummified arm of law reaches out to museum

The gruesome mummified arm of murderer George Carpenter is checked before beginning its journey to London's Docklands (17621/7)THE gruesome mummified left arm of Wiltshire murderer George Carpenter has waved goodbye to Marlborough Police Station where it's been stored for decades.

On Tuesday Marlborough area police commander Insp Jerry Dawson formally presented the arm to London undertaker John Harris for a National Funeral Museum he is opening in the capital's Docklands.

Marlborough funeral director David Hunter, who arranged for the relic to be given its new home, attended the brief ceremony at the police station.

The withered limb has been kept in a purpose-built wooden box at the police station ever since 1938 when it was handed over to the force for safekeeping.

Carpenter, 21, and George Ruddock, 20, were convicted in 1813 of the murder of farmer William Webb and his maidservant Mary Gibbons at Roddenbury, near Longleat, in December 1812.

They were tried in Salisbury Assizes and sentenced to death and taken to Warminster where they were publicly hanged on a gallows on the downs.

The bodies were taken to Salisbury where they were given to surgeons for dissection.

The mummified left arm of George Carpenter passed into the possession of Bath surgeon Charles Kindersley and in 1938 it was presented to Wiltshire police.

After receiving the mummified arm from Insp Dawson, Mr Harris said: "I am honoured to be taking on this very historical, unusual and somewhat gruesome reminder of what went on all those years ago on a dark winter's night in Wiltshire.

"It will be an interesting addition to the museum."