Murderous Monday - Men Who Kill - John Henry George Lee - The Man They Couldn't Hang

On 23rd February 1885 at Exeter Goal, John Henry George Lee went to the gallows, conivicted of the murder of Miss Emma Ann Whitehead Keyse.  James Berry the executioner had earlier checked the scaffold and trapdoor and found them to be in good working order.  However when the time came to drop John into eternity, the trapdoor failed.

John Henry George Lee was born at 1 Elm Cottage Abbotskerswell, Devon on 15th August 1864 to John Lee, and agricultural labourer and his wife Mary Stevens (sometimes Stephens).

On the 1871 Census, six year old John can be found living with his parents, elder sister Amelia Mary and grandfather John Lee, at Tree Cottage in Abbotskerwell, Devon.  John's mother Mary had a child from a previous relationship with a man named Harris.  Elizabeth Harris, John's half sister was brought up by her maternal grandparent William and Betsy Stevens.

John's sister Amelia Mary entered the employment of Miss Keyes at The Glen, Babbacombe, Torquay and at the age of 15 John followed her.  However in 1879, against his parents wishes John joined the Royal Navy.

On the 1881 Census John can be found stationed on the training ship the Implacable at Devonport under Captain Thomas S Jackson.  Later he served on the training ship Liberty.  Unfortunately John's naval career was cut short after he contacted pneumonia and was invalided out of service in 1882.  John went back into domestic service and towards the end of 1882 was employed by Colonel Edward Brownlow, however only six months later John was accused of stealing from his employer.  John was arrested and later found guilty and sentenced to six months imprisonment at Exeter Gaol  After serving his sentence, John returned to his old job as gardener at The Glen in Babbacombe.  By this time John's half sister Elizabeth Harris was working at The Glen as a cook.

For reasons not quite clear Miss Keyse became disappoints in the quality of John's work and docked his pay from 2s 6d a week to just 2s.  This is not have the desired affect as John decided that for less pay he would do less work.  Eventually Miss Keyse gave John notice to quit his employment at The Glen.

Three weeks later on 15th November 1884 fire broke out at The Glen.  Elizabeth Harris awoke the the smell of burning, he roused two other servants in the house, Jane and Eliza Neck.  John was apparently already awake and helped lead the woman to safety, during this rescue, John left a bloody hand print on Elizabeth's nightdress.

Coastguards and local fishermen helped douse the flames.   It was then discovered that three fires had been set in different locations, Miss Keyse bedroom, the drawing room and the dining room where they discovered the dead body of Emma Keyse laid out on the sofa.  She had been bludgeoned with a heavy object on the left side of her head her throat had also been cut with a knife, so deeply that the neck bones were notched.  The window of the dinning room was broken, something John admitted doing to 'let the smoke out of the house'.  Further investigation of the property revealed a large pool of blood in the hall by the stairs.  An oil can containing paraffin used to start the fires was found to be covered in blood.   Also a towel, knife and pair of trousers belonging to John were found in his quarters, all stained with blood and smelling of paraffin.

John was arrested and charged with the murder of Miss Keyse, he was sent to trial on 2nd February 1885.  He pleaded not guilty and protested his innocence throughout the three day proceedings.  At the trail Elizabeth Harris testified that John had made several threats against Emma Keyse's life and had threatened to burn the house down, especially after Miss Keyse reduced his wages.  The jury only took forty minutes to find John guilty, he was sentenced to death.

On 23rd February 1885 John walked from the condemned cell to the gallows.  Three times he stood in place, thee times the rope was adjusted around his neck and three times the lever was thrown.  Each time the trapdoor failed to open.  John was returned to his cell as a stay of execution was ordered to allow time for the Home Secretary to be contacted.  John's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. 

The Guardian reported on 24th February 1885,

"The scene which occurred at Exeter Goal yesterday morning will go far to justify those who have long urged the need for some alteration and improvement in the manner of conducting executions in this country.  Without going into revolting details, it is sufficient to say that three unsuccessful attempts were made to carry out the sentence which have been pronounced upon John Lee for th notorious murder at Babbicombe [sic].

After the third failed attempt the miserable man was taken back to the prison and the execution postponed, with the view of affording the Sheriff time to communicate with the Home Secretary.  In spite of the peculiar atrocity of his crime, it is impossible not to feel some pity for the man, who was thus doomed to undergo three a great part - perhaps the greater part - of that penalty of which the law had condemned him to suffer once; and it will be learned without surprise that the convict has been respited."

John was sent to Plymouth Convict Prison to serve out his sentence.  He appears as an inmate there on both the 1891 and the 1901 Census.  John was eventually released from prison on 18th December 1907

On 22 January 1909 John married Jessie Augusta Widger Bulled.  They had two children together, John Aubrey Maurice born in 1910 in Newcastle Upon Tyne and Eveline Victoria May born in 1911. 

Just before the birth of his daughter John abandoned pregnant Jessie and his son John in the Lambeth Workhouse and left for America with barmaid Adelina Gibbs.  Together they arrived in the United States on 28th February 1911 on the Prinz Friedrich Wilhelm.  They lived in Milwakuee until John's death on 19th March 1945 aged 81 years.  Adelina passed away on 9th January 1969.

It's not known what happened to Jessie and John Jr, but Eveline later married in 1939

Murderous Monday - Men Who Kill - William Hussell - The Angry Butcher

On the 19th November 1877 William Hussell met his maker at the end of William Marwood's rope for the wilful murder of his wife, Mary Hussell.

William Hussell was born in 1839 in Eastdown, Devon to John Hussell, a coachman, and his wife Mary Ackland.

In 1851, 12 year old William is a scholar living with his parents at Watermouth Cottage in Ilfracombe, Devon.  In 1861, 21 year old william is lodging with the Mouse family in the High Street, Ilfracombe, Devon.  Unfortunately William's occupation listed on the census return is too worn to read.  At some point between 1861 and 1870, William becomes a butcher, setting up shop at Butcher's Row in Barnstaple

In 1870 in Bideford, Devon William marries Mary Bellew.  In 1871 the newly married couple are living in Newport Road, Barnstaple where William is now described as a master butcher.  The couple's first child, a daughter Mary Ann is born in 1872, followed by William Charles Bewell in 1875, Thomas Bellew in 1876 and baby Edith in 1877.

By 1877 the family had moved to their present house at Diamond Street, where they employed a maid by the name of Emily Dockery.

By all accounts William liked his drink and as a consequence, Mary bore the brunt of his drunken rages.  On the evening of 5th October 1877 William was much the worse for drink, even so he and his wife Mary worked together at their shop on Butcher's Row until 8:30pm.  At the end of the evening William returned home to Sander Cottages in Diamond Road, however, having argued with William previously that day, Mary was afraid to return with him. 

14 year old Emily Dockerty was the sole witness to the events that unfolded in Sander's Cottage that night.  She testified in court that,

"He returned home between 8 and 9 that evening, he was not sober, my mistress was not at home.

When Prisoner came home two of the Children were in bed and the baby was in the Cradle. I then put the eldest Child to bed, and by Prisoners order went to the Market to fetch my Mistress leaving him in the kitchen. I did not find her at the Shop but on my return home I found her in the Court outside the front Door. Prisoner was inside where I had left him on a chair. The baby was crying and the deceased asked me to go and fetch it to her. I took it out into the Court to her.

Prisoner came into the Court and asked her to come in, she replied "I am afraid to go in William as I fear you will hurt me." He said " I will not hurt you". He then pushed her into the kitchen, as he was pushing her in he said "You dirty [unclear] you shall never go outside this door again alive." She went through the kitchen into the back kitchen and sat on the stairs that lead to the bedroom and gave the baby the breast. Prisoner then asked me to make him some Tea, whilst I was doing so and he was sitting on the Chair at the table I heard him say "I will wait until the Clock strikes" he then took a knife (now produced) out of the pocket of his Coat. He held it up in his right hand and said to deceased who was still in the back kitchen "I have got it ready for you", at the time he said this he could see her from where he was sitting in the Chair. She said "You can't do it, my mother's prayers will be answered for me." I don't take any notice of what you say and when I look at the baby I feel happy." He then returned the knife to his pocket. A few minutes afterwards he took it out again and holding it up said to deceased "It is what I kill the Pigs with." He again put it into his pocket, almost immediately he took it out a third time and walked into the back kitchen towards deceased with the knife in his right hand. I heard her say "I will scream murder if you touch me." I then ran out being very much frightened and went to Mrs. Sanders's house which is four or five doors off.

As I was running down the Court towards Mrs. Sanders's house I heard my Mistress scream "Murder." I returned to the house having been absent about a minute and a half, I met the prisoner walking down the Court he said "I have finished her." I went into the Prisoner's house, deceased was lying in the back kitchen on the floor on her face. I saw blood on the floor. The knife was lying on the floor beside her I heard the baby crying but could not see it. It was under her. I said to her "Mrs. Hussell can I do anything for you." She made no reply and did not move. I then went to tell Mrs. Sanders. While I was at Mrs. Sanders's Mrs. Giddy called to me. I went up the Court, and found her standing just outside Prisoner's Door. She asked me to fetch the Baby, I told her I could not do so. Mrs. Giddy then went in and brought it out to me. There was a quantity of blood on its Night dress and its Arms.

During the time I lived with Prisoner and deceased, Prisoner drank a great deal and very often came home tipsy. I have very often heard him threaten to kill his Wife. On Monday night before her death (1st October) he came home to have his supper, he was very tipsy, he then began to abuse the deceased and said he would finish her.

The Deceased used to find fault with the Prisoner for his intemperate habits and for not attending to his business. She was a hardworking industrious Woman and very temperate. The Prisoner was not in the habit of killing Cattle at home and knives or butcher's tools were not kept there and none of the Butcher's work was done in Sander's Court. I never saw the knife now produced in the house in Sander's Court until the Prisoner took it out of his Pocket on Friday night."

It must have been an extremely frightening experience for poor Emily.

Mary had been attacked by her husband whilst she sat on the stairs breastfeeding Edith, the medical evidence supported this has Dr. Andrew Fernie testified,

"I am a Surgeon and live at Barnstaple. On Friday night 5th October instant I was called by Police Constable Thomas Downing at Eleven o'clock P.M. and proceeded with him to the Prisoner's house. Superintendent Longhurst was there when I arrived. I found the body of the deceased on the floor partly in the front and partly in the back kitchen. Her face was covered blood. She was quite dead, but warm. There was a great deal of blood in her mouth and throat, there was a large quantity of blood in the back kitchen.

On Saturday the sixth instant by direction of the Coroner I made a post mortem examination of the body in which I was assisted by Mr. Jackson. I found the following incised wounds on the body. One on the upper part of the right breast which had penetrated very deeply into the flesh into a large blood vessel below the collar bone. A wound on the lower part of the same breast which had passed between the ribs and into the Chest, close to, but not wounding the lung and liver. A wound on the back of the left blade bone not very deep. A wound on the back of the left upper arm, and a wound on the left side of the face which passed very deeply down to the lower jaw, from hence across the mouth and through the palate on the right side, which had opened a large blood vessel there, and caused a great deal of hemorrhage (sic). I opened the body and found the organs all healthy. There were 2 bruises on the right breast and 2 on the right side of the face.

The body looked blanched as if a great deal of blood had flown from it. I am of the opinion that the deceased's death was caused from loss of blood occasioned by the wounds which I have described. The wounds are of such a character as might be caused by such a knife which the Superintendent of Police has produced. The wound which was on the left cheek and which took a downward course was a fatal one. Having regard to the course of this wound I think the deceased was struck by some person standing at a higher level than she was."

William was convicted of murder and sentenced to hang.  On 19th November 1877  William walked to the scaffold with a firm step, but broke down and cried bitterly before he was dropped into oblivion.

But what became of William and Mary's children.  Thomas Bewell Hussell was first taken in by his mother's sister, Ann Clarke and husband George Clarke, then later by his mother's brother, Thomas Bewell and wife Alice Maria.  Where he is still living in 1911.

Mary, William and Edith were sent to The New Orphans Houses in Bristol, where they all appear on the 1881 Census, strangely though Mary Ann is listed as Sarah Ann.  Edith is still living at the home for orphans in 1891.  In 1899 Mary Ann Hussell marries Arthur Ernest Britton in Bideford, Devon.

 In 1901 Edith is visiting her sister Mary Ann and husband Arthur at their home in Glamorgan.

Murderous Monday - Men Who Kill - William Frederick Horry - Wife Killer

On 1st April 1872, William Frederick (Fred) Horry met his maker at the end of William Marwood's rope.  He was also the first of William Marwood executions and the first at Lincoln Castle using the more human 'long drop' method.

William Frederick Horry was born in the December if 1843 to William Horry, a brewer and his wife Elizabeth Bland.  On the 1851 Census, 7 years old William, then known as Fred is living with his parents and two younger siblings in Lincolnshire.  In 1861 the now 17 year old William is an assistant brewer with his father.

In 1867 in Staffordshire William married his future wife Jane, the couple then took over the running of The George Hotel in Burslem Staffordshire.  But not everything was well in the Horry household.  William began to drink and became abusive towards Jane, believing her to be having an affair.  So much so that by the September if 1871 the couple had become estranged.  Jane had taken their three children and gone to live with William's parents in Boston Lincolnshire.  William continued to visit his family but his behaviour became so violent that William's one father banned him from the home.

William was unable to maintain The George Hotel and sold the business before moving to Nottingham.  In the January of 1872 William pleaded once more with his wife for her and their children to return to him, being unsuccessful he travelled back to Nottingham and purchased a revolver.

William then returned to Boston, and gained entry into his father's house where he lay in wait for Jane, shooting her dead as she entered the dining room.  William then then calmly handed the revolver to his stunned brother Thomas, saying -

“You have no notion, Tom, how I loved that woman, but I could not stand the jealousy.”

William then stayed at the home awaiting his arrest.  At his trial on 31st March William pleaded insanity, but the prosecution was successful in it's argument that the crime had been premeditated.  William was found guilty of the murder of his wife and sentenced to death.  He showed no interest in appealing his conviction and was executed the next day at Lincoln Castle by William Marwood.

William is buried in Lucy Tower in Lincoln Castle were a simple stone baring his initials and death of death mark his final resting place.

Supporters of William erected a granite obelisk in his and Jane's honour at St John the Baptist Churchyard in Burslem, Staffordshire.

Murderous Monday - Men Who Kill - George Henry Lamson - Dr. Death - The Wimbledon Poisoner

On 28th April 1882 George Henry Lamson met his maker at the end of William Marwood's rope at Wandsworth Prison for the murder of his disabled brother-in-law Percy Malcolm John.


George Lamson was born in New York city in the United States of America to William C Lamson, a clergyman and his wife Julia.  At some point before the 1870's George travelled with his parents and siblings to England.  He can be found aged 18 living with his family at Sydney Lodge on the 1871 Census, his occupations is described as a medical student.  After George graduated from medical school he volunteered as a surgeon in Eastern Europe before returning to England.

In 1878 Dr Lamson married Kate George John in the Isle of Wight.  On the 1881 Census Dr Lamson can be found listed as Henry G, physician surgeon, living in Cambridge Road in Christchurch, Bournemouth.  Kate is visiting her sister Margaret and brother-in-law William Greenhill Chapman, along with her baby daughter Agnes in 1881.

Percy John, who had a deformity of the spine which resulted in partial paralyse, was boarding at Blenheim House School, Wimbledon in 1881.

On his return to England Dr Lamson had become addicted to morphine, his addiction had eaten away at his assets.  Deep in debt Dr Lamson could see no way out other than murder.  Desperate to bring the finances of his wife's family under his control, George decided to murder his 18 year old brother-in-law Percy John.  On 3rd December 1881 Dr Lamson visited Percy at his school lodgings where together they had tea and Dundee cake.  Dr Lamson was then able to convince Percy to take some pills laced with aconite, a poison derived from the plant Monkshood.  That night Percy suffered serious stomach cramps and died shortly after.  Suspicion soon fell on Dr Lamson, who had suddenly departed to Paris.  Soon the newspapers had picked up on the story of poor Percy's death, which prompted Dr Lamson to return to England to protest his innocence.  Dr Lamson had been taught during his medical student days that aconite was undetectable, however forensic science had progressed since then.

An examination was made of Percy's vomit, stomach fluids and urine.  All were found to contain aconite, as were the pills Dr Lamson had given Percy, which were found in Percy's room after his death.  Dr Lamson was brought before magistrates at The Old Bailey in the February 1882.  It took the jury only 25 minutes to convict him of the wilful murder of Percy John, a sentence of death was passed.  When asked if he had anything to say, Dr Lamson simply stated, "merely to protest my innocence before God."

Dr Lamson's execution date was set for the 4th April 1882, but this was delayed due to the intervention of the US president and Dr Lamson's family and Friends in New York, who wished to provide evidence of insanity in Dr Lamson's family.  The New York Times reported -

"Dr Lamson's American Friends.

Efforts To Obtain A Reprieve On The Ground Of Hereditary Insanity.

The case of Dr, George Henry Lamson, who was convicted in London, England, on the 13th Inst (February 13th 1882), on the charge of causing the death of his brother-in-law, Percy Malcolm John, by giving him poison, has aroused a deep feeling of sympathy among Americans, not only in this city, but else-where.

Young Dr. Lamson was arrested in December last, on the specific charge of having wilfully poisoned his wife's brother by giving him aconitine pills at Blenheim House School, Wimbledon.  Percy John was only 19 years of age and suffered from a serious affection of the spine.  The friends of Dr. Lamson have been more or less-firm in the conviction that the prisoner is insane, and since the close of the trial evidence is accumulating rapidly to show that insanity hereditary in Lamson's family.

An investigation of the records of the Bloomingdale Asylum for the Insane, was made and it was found that the Rev. William Lamson's mother, maternal uncle and sister died in that institution."

The evidence of the supposed hereditary insanity was considered not to be strong enough to change the sentence passed and Dr Lamson was hung for his crime.

George Lamson's father William was to later write to the London newspapers stating that all of George's debts could have been cleared and medical attention given for his addictions, possibly preventing the murder of Percy, if George had only said the word.  I am sure that came as little comfort to Percy's family.

Murderous Monday - Women Who Kill - Florence Maybrick - The Flypaper Poisoner, Miscarriage of Justice?

Florence Maybrick was born Florance Chandler on 3rd September 1862 in Mobile County Alabama to John Chandler, a banking partner and Caroline Holbrook.

After her father's death and her mother's remarriage to Baron Adolph von Roques, Florence travelled with her family to Liverpool in England.  It was aboard ship that she met her future husband, James Maybrick, a cotton broker 24 years her senior.  They were soon married on 27 July 1881 at St James Church, Picidilly, London.

Unfortunately their marriage was an unhappy one.  James had several mistresses and was obsessed with his health, to the point of self administering arsenic and strychnine.  Florence had lovers of her own, one is believed to have been local businessman Alfred Brierley and even James's own brother, Edwin.  After a violent argument with James regarding her faithfulness, James threatened to divorce Florence.

Florence was in the habit of buying flypapers and soaking them in water to extract the arsenic as a beauty treatment.  Florence bought some flypaper from a local chemist in the April of 1889.  On 27th of that month James Maybrick was taken ill.  At first it was thought that James has accidentally self administered a double dose of strychnine, doctors treated him for a stomach complaint but James's condition deteriorated.  Florance wrote a compromising letter to Alfred, which was intercepted by the family nanny, Alice Yapp and passed onto James's brothers. 

On 11th May 1889 James Maybrick died at his home in Liverpool.  His brothers were immediately suspicious and arranged for his body to be examined.  The post mortem found small traces of arsenic throughout James's body, but not in quantities sufficient to kill a person.  It was also unclear as to whether James had been poisoned or had administered the arsenic himself.  Yet Florence was arrested for her husband's murder.  The Liverpool Echo reported -

"Florence Maybrick has been arrested on suspicion of murdering her husband James Maybrick, her children are being cared for by their godmother, Mrs Jannion at Gateacre."

Florence stool trial at St George's Hall, Liverpool, were she was convicted of her husband's murder and sentenced to death.  A public outcry followed, the was then concluded that while Florence had administered the arsenic to her husband with the intent to murder, there was reasonable doubt as to whether the amount of arsenic was the cause of death.  Florence's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

Florence was first held in the Female Convict Prison in Woking, Guildford, where she appears aged 27 on the 1891 Census.  Later Florence was transferred to the Female Convict Prison and House of Correction on Bierton Road in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, Where she appears aged 37 on the 1901 Census.

Florence was finally released in 1904 after having spent 14 years in custody.  She returned to the United States where towards the end of her life she became a recluse.  Florence died at home in her three room cabin in Gaylordsville, Connecticut on 23rd October 1941.


It seems perhaps the courts where preoccupied with punishing Florence for her suspected adultery, rather than the actual death of her husband as the evidence against her was thin to say the least.  A doctor and chemist both testified to James having self administered and purchased arsenic for his personal use.  Many Victorian men believed arsenic to be a tonic and aphrodisiac.  Florence had very little to gain from James's death and would have been finanically better off if she had legally separated from James.  Maybe the thought of divorce and the resulting ruin in Victorian society drove her to desperate measures.  Found in Florence's possessions after her death was a tattered family bible, pressed between it's pages was a ageing piece of paper with instructions on how to soak flypaper to obtain arsenic for use as a beauty treatment.

Murderous Monday - Men Who Kill - John Hannah - The Armley Murder

On Saturday 27th December 1856 at York Castle, John Hannah a tailor from Manchester, met his maker at the end of Thomas Askern's rope for the wilful murder of his common law wife Jane Banham.

John Hannah was born sometime in 1836 in Ireland to William Hannah, a tailor and his wife Lelia.  John was one of nine children born to his parents.  On the 1851 Census, 15 year old John can be found living with his parents and siblings at 11 Warriners Buildings, Bishopsgate, Manchester.

At some time after March 1851 John started a relationship with Jane Banham, a married woman ten years his senior.  Jane Banham, a dancer in a travelling corps of performers, and her children had been abandoned by her husband William when he emigrated to America.  She began to live with together with John as husband and wife, baring him two children.  However things between them began to sour.

Two weeks before the Christmas of 1855 Jane and John separated.  Jane took the children to live with her father John Hope, a member of the same performing troupe.  In the June of 1856 the company were performing in Halifax.  John Hannah walked to Halifax from Manchester and pleaded with Jane's father to be able to speak with her.  At first John Hope refused but John Hannah persisted until a meeting was set up between them back in Armley at in the parlour room of the Malt Hill Inn on 11th September.

During this meeting John Hannah pleaded with Jane to return to him with the children, upon her refusal John asked Jane's father to speak to her on his behalf.  John Hope was reported to have said that he would, 'have nothing to do with the matter.'  John Hope left John Hannah and his daughter Jane still talking in the Malt Mill Inn.  Witnesses reported that at one point Jane left the Inn saying, 'I want nothing more to do with you!'  It was at this point that John Hannah pulled Jane back into the parlour room.  A little while later the scuffing of chairs was heard in the parlour, causing the landlady of the Inn and some patrons to investigate.  They found John Hannah kneeling upon Jane grasping her throat tightly with his hand.  One of the witnesses exclaimed, 'what do you mean, you rascal!'  To which John replied, 'I mean murder,' before slitting Jane's throat with a razor.  He then calmly got up and left the inn saying, 'I have done what I intended.'

Poor Jane staggered from the inn into the street, streaming blood from her neck.  She was taken to her lodgings and medical assistance was sort.  Sadly Jane passed away two hours later.  Doctors remarked that it was a miracle she lived so long.  John was soon found, arrested and brought to trial at York assizes on 13th December before Justice Erle.  John's defence relied heavily on the suggestion that this was a case of aggravated manslaughter rather than murder due to Jane's provocation of John.  Justice Erle stated that he could not find anything that was provocation by blows, and it was his opinion that Jane's refusal to live with John was not provocation at all.

The jury retired and a mere 15 minutes later found John guilty of the charge of wilful murder.  Upon hearing the death sentence John fainted and had to be helped from the court.

John Hannah's father, William Hannah sent a letter to Queen Victoria pleading for John's life to be spared.

"To Her Gracious Magesty,

Manchester, December 17th 1856.

This is the humble pettion of William Hannah to Your Gracious Magesty, praying that you will spare the life of my unfortunate son, John Hannah, that is now lying in York Castle under the sentence of deth, for the murder of Jane Banham, at Amrley, on 11th September.  Your humble pettioner served in the Royal Artilrey for twenty years, and was at the taking of the Flushing, in 1809 and shortly after joined Lord Wellingtons Armay, whare i was engaged in the prinsebel ingagmanets in that contary; and for my service your most Gracious Magesty granted me a shilling a day and a medal with six clasps; i also lost a son in the Canidian war, fighting against the rebels.

My unhappy son's twin brother as lastly been discharged from the 7th Royal Fusiliers at Chatham, with a pension of 8d. per day.  He landed in the Crimea with the expedton, and fought with his reghment at the Alma, and at the Battel of Inkerman, and was severely wounded in the assult of the  Grait Redan, and was presented with a medal and three clasps from your most Gracious Magesty.  i also have a nother son that is following in the steps of his father and two brothers; he is serving in the 5th Royal Lancashire Militia.  Your humbel pettioner hopes that your most Gracious Magesty will take it into your consideration the service that this familey has doen for thare Queen and contary, and spare the life of my unfortunate son, for my sake and that of his poor mother, that was with me through the Peninsular War.  This is the humble and sincere wish of your humble and faithful servant, and father of my unfortunate son, William Hannah.'

Sadly the Hannah family's military service was not enough to save John from his appointment with Thomas Askern.

The execution took place at noon, some 5000 spectators turned out to watch the hanging.  The bolt was drawn, John dropped and after a few struggles, fell still.  John's body was left hanging until 1 o'clock when it was cut down and taken for burial in the castle grounds.

Murderous Monday - Men Who Kill - William Henry Bury (Berry) - Ripper Suspect

On 28th April 1889, William Henry Bury (Berry) met his maker at the end of James Berry's rope for the murder of his wife Ellen Bury (Berry) in Dundee, Scotland.

William Henry Bury was born on 25th May 1859 in Stourbridge Worcestershire to Henry Bury, an employee of a local fishmonger, and his wife Mary Jane Henley.  Tragically William was orphaned at an early age.  His father Henry was killed in a horse and cart accident on 10th April 1860, when he fell under the wheels of his own cart as his horse bolted.

Mary Jane, already suffering with depression after the birth of her fourth child, William, and the death of her eldest child, seven year old Elizabeth Ann from a fit that same year, was committed to the Worcester Pauper and Lunatic Asylum on 7th May 1860.  There she remained until her death at the age 33 on 30th March 1864.

William Henry Bury

On the 1861 Census, one year old William can be found being cared for by Mary Jane's younger brother, Edward Henley and his wife Ann.  By 1871 William, then aged 12, is a boarding pupil at Stourbridge's Blue Coate Charitable School.  At the age of 16 William found work as a Factor's Clerk in Wolverhampton, where he remained until the early part of the 1880s when he left after being unable to repay a loan.  He found work with a lock manufacturer in Lord Street, Wolverhampton, until he was sacked for a theft in 1884.  After that William lead an unsettled life as a street hawker.

Sometime in the October of 1887, William moved to London where he found work as a sawdust seller.  It was in London that he met and later married Ellen Elliot on 2nd April 1888.  William and Ellen left London and travelled to Dundee to escape William's debt, arriving in the Scottish city on 20th January 1889.  On the 4th of February, William bought a length of rope from a provisions store.

The evening of 10th February 1889 William walked into the Dundee Central Police Station in Bell Street and reported the supposed suicide of his wife Ellen.  William was reported to say that he had been drinking the night before and woke in the morning to discover his wife's body with a rope around her neck.  He also made several rambling references to being mistaken for and arrested as Jack the Ripper.  Officers were immediately dispatched to search William's home address, 113 Princess Street, where they made the gruesome discovery of a woman's mutilated body stuffed into a wooden packing crate.

Ellen had been strangled to death with the rope William has purchased earlier, her body stabbed several times with a penknife and her abdomen had been cut open from the pubis bone upwards, exposing 12 inches of intestines.  To fit the body into the small packing crate her head had been bent to rest on her on shoulder, her left leg was broken in two places and twisted so that the foot rested on her left shoulder and her right leg had been smashed.  It soon became apparent that William had lived with the box for several days, even using it as a table, before going to the police.

William was arrested and sent to trail for the murder of his wife, either by strangulation or stabbing. The hearing lasted only 13 hours before the jury convicted William of the wilful murder of Ellen and he was sentenced to hang for his crime.  William Henry Bury was executed on the morning of 28th April 1889.


Due to the similarities between Ellen's death and that of Jack the Ripper's victims, detectives investigating the Ripper murders were sent to Dundee to interview William  They however, were unconvinced that William was the Whitchapel murderer.  James Berry the executioner remained convinced that he had hung the infamous Jack the Ripper and supposedly recounted an exchange he had with one of the detectives from London -

 'I think it is him right enough.'

-James Berry 

'And we agree with you.  We know all about his movements in the past, and we are quite satisfied that you have hanged Jack the Ripper, there will be no more Whitechapel crimes.'

- London Detective.