On April 26, 1880, 9-year-old Eliza Wilkinson and her sister 16-year-old Elizabeth went around Derby, England selling comb boxes that their father, James, made. They left their home on 67 Bridge St. with 14 comb boxes they were selling for half a penny each. They would sell 12 of the 14 boxes and decided to take a box each. About 11 a.m. they would make it to Green St. and Elizabeth gave her a comb box to sell on her own. Eliza would speak to a number of people and would be unsuccessful in selling the box. This was when Eliza went missing.
Elizabeth didn't know what happened to her young sister and would return home around 11 a.m.and asked her father if Eliza returned home. The girl did not. Elizabeth explained to her father that she was trying to sell hers on one side and Eliza on the other. Her father would send her and her younger brother, James, to look for Eliza again.
When they returned to look for her they asked residents if they had seen her. One woman would tell the two young children of their sister's fate. "A man has killed your sister." The children shocked made their way to Tan Yard and in the house of 28-year-old John Wakefield that he shared with his mother and brother was the police. Inside Eliza had been murdered.
James would return home and tell him that a man has Eliza in his house. The two would head to where Eliza was. The father would see his daughter lying near the stairs inside in a puddle of blood.
John had Eliza come into the home and had slit her throat cutting it twice. Her death wouldn't have been sudden, she would have died between 5 to 10 minutes. Eliza had bruises on her knees it was unknown if this happened before the murder or during. One knee had fresh scratches though. She was not sexually assaulted.
After he had murdered her he turned himself into the police. It's believed that it was a homicidal impulse that he had killed the girl. He would state that he was "tired of his life" was the reason he killed the girl. He was quiet about why he killed the girl though.
John was a quiet homebody. There is little information on his criminal past, but according to the book Deadly Derbyshire" Tales of Murder & Manslaughter c.1700–1900, in 1871 John was convicted of assaulting a young child.
John would be convicted and set to be executed. He was hanged on August 16, 1880.
SOURCES:
Murder Research
The Derby Mercury May 5, 1880
Birmingham Daily Post August 17, 1880
The Lancet, Volume 2; Volume 119 pg. 269
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