But at Lincoln, Travis was acquitted. There had been no discovery of any clothes. Rumour has it that his mother had destroyed them, and one report even claims that she wore her guilty son’s clothes under her own during the course of the investigation, just to be sure that there was no possibility of discovery. Astonishingly, he walked free.
Now there comes a stunning twist to the tale: not long after this Travis was drinking at the George when he had a shock: there had been a witness that night. As they sat in the public house, the newspaper out to be read around the table recounting the tale of Travis’s release, a bricklayer called Bill Fell spoke out that in fact he could have claimed the huge reward of £100. He had been in the very same field where the killing took place and had seen everything. Fell had rowed with his wife and taken off into the night. Ultimately, he lay by a haystack in the murder field. The puzzle is why he had not come forward before, and the only explanation would be that he had something to hide, perhaps a liaison of some kind.
This turn of events made Travis tell a different tale, and it was elaborate. He could not be tried again for the offence, but he was tried for robbery. Now Travis told the most unlikely story that they had been ‘acting the goat’ and that it all got out of hand, ending with Travis swinging a punch at his friend, forgetting that he had his knife in his hand and was about to clip a cigar. Obviously, a one-stroke swing at a face could hardly result in multiple facial wounds and a deep gash across a major artery. The only excuse for this given was that if he wounded him more, it would look as though he had been attacked by a footpad. The place where all this happened is very hard to find now; the Greyhound is no longer at Blyborough, which is now only a farm and a few houses.
The town was not a good choice for such an offence: Kirton at that time had a House of Correction and the town was remarkably well organised in that respect, taking the whole business of penology very seriously, even to the extent of installing a tread-wheel and providing a surgeon and a string of carefully chosen governors.
Lady Luck smiled on Travis again; he was sentenced to transportation. But this was not to last for long. He died on board ship, just a few days into the voyage towards Australia.