had had anything to do with Harrison's disappearance, but John continued to say that they were guilty, claiming they had dumped his body in a millpond. The pond was dredged, but no body was found. Trials The first court hearings dealt with charges linked to a plot to steal money from William Harrison. Despite his mother and brother pleading not guilty, John Perry's testimony convinced the jury based on the following: John seemed to have no apparent reason to be lying about the matter. John claimed that he was the one who suggested the robbery to Richard. John told the court that Joan and Richard had already stolen £140 from William Harrison's house the previous year (). John had lied about being attacked by robbers a few weeks before Harrison's disappearance. The defendants had all changed their pleas to guilty, because as first time offenders they were granted a free pardon under the Indemnity and Oblivion Act of 1660. Writer Linda Stratmann states that this was a bad piece of advice by the lawyers for the defendants. However, at the time, the judge refused to prosecute the three for murder as there was no body. In Spring 1661 the court reconvened to hear the charge of murder and, because of the earlier guilty plea to the robbery, they were now considered to be criminals. This time John Perry joined his mother and brother in pleading not guilty in the killing of William Harrison. The servant claimed that his original testimony had been false by reason of insanity. Nevertheless, the jury found all three of the Perrys guilty and they were sentenced to death. The three Perrys were hanged together on Broadway Hill in Gloucestershire, and Broadway Tower now stands on the site of their hanging. On the scaffold Richard and John reiterated that they were entirely innocent of killing William Harrison. As their mother was also suspected of being a witch, she was executed first in case she had cast a spell on her sons which was preventing them from confessing. Return of William Harrison In 1662, Harrison returned to England aboard a ship from Lisbon. He claimed that he had been abducted, wounded, had his pockets stuffed with money and been spirited away on horses from England via Deal port in Kent, transferred to a Turkish ship and sold into slavery in the Ottoman Empire. Harrison said that after