Murder of Ann Wycherly

 In 1837 28-year-old Ann Wycherly lived in a workhouse with her two illegitimate children in Drayton, 
England. She was known to have mistreated her oldest daughter Ann who was 3/4-years-old. On December 14, 1837, a James Freeman would see Ann and the two children leaving the workhouse in the early afternoon. 

By 6 Ann was exhausted and knocked on the door of Sarah Newbrook asking to rest. Sarah allowed the single mother to do so and noted that she just had an infant with her. 

On December 22nd the body of young Ann was found by William Poole, a farm laborer, in a water pit on his employer's land near Chipnal. He went to tell Mr. Butters of the body and the two pulled the young girl out. 

An inquest for the girl's identity was done at the Noah pub and William Crutchley, the governor of Drayton, recognized the young girl as young Ann Wycherly. Ann would be confronted and arrested for the murder.

They would show her the body and Ann seemed reluctant to look or touch her daughter. When asked why the girl was murdered Ann said that Charles Gilbert, father of her youngest, persuaded her to. She said Charles helped get the girl into the pit and then threw tiles at her

In March the Assizes would happen. Ann (Mother) would get capital punishment and would be set to hang. When told she was to be executed she told the court that she was with child. An examination was quickly done and it was found she was not pregnant. 

There were efforts to obtain reprieve of capital punishment, not because of innocence as she was seen as guilty, but for her feeble mind and being convinced to kill her daughter. The judge who presided the case saw the punishment befitting the crime though.

On May 5, 1838, Ann would be hanged in Stafford. The crowd that came was unusually small, but it's likely because people believed Ann would be reprieved for the murder. 

SOURCES:

Capital Punishment UK (list of executions)

Capital Punishment UK (Story of murder and execution)

True Crime Library

The Observer March 19, 1838

The Hull Packet; and East Riding Times March 23, 1838

The Standard May 2, 1838

Berrow's Worcester Journal May17 1838

UNIDENTIFIED: August 8, 1838 Manhattan, New York John Doe

On August 1838 an unknown man would die at the City Hospital in Manhattan, New York. He would be buried at Potter's Field Fiftieth Street. There is little information in this case.

John Doe was a man around 45-years-old.

SOURCES:

Find A Grave

UNIDENTIFIED: December 2, 1838 Akron, Ohio Jane Doe

On December 2, 1838, an elderly woman would die in Akron, Ohio. She had died from consumption.

Jane Doe was a woman and was around 70-years-old. 

SOURCES:

Find a Grave

Ballgudden Woman and Infant

 In 1831 the body of a woman and an infant were found in a bog in Northern Ireland. The woman was determined to have had blonde hair. The infant was skeletonized next to her body. It's unstated or unknown if the bodies were related. The bodies are now either lost or destroyed. 

SOURCES:

Wikipedia

Irish Central

Mummipedia

Serial Killer: Rebecca Smith

 

In May 1831 26-year-old Rebecca Smith would may Philip Smith. He was known as a drunkard. After Rebecca's mother's death in 1846 the £100 she inherited they moved to Westbury, England, and their money was wasted away by Philip. During the marriage they would have their first child, Jane, in 1832 she would have 10 more none of them living very long after. This would cause Rebecca to work as a crop picker and vegetable grower. This caused the family to live in a visible state of poverty of health.

Their last child, Richard, would be born on May 16, 1849. He was seemingly healthy, but Rebecca would start to tell people the opposite. Even before Richard was born she was asking around for rat poison/ arsenic. She would ask a girl, Caroline Mackay, to buy some. Soon after he became sick on June 7th. 

People suspected Rebecca to have killed him. The local registrar, George Shorland, had initially listed the cause of death as unknown, but rumors changed his mind. An inquest was done on the child's death and Richard's body was exhumed on June 22nd. It was found that he was poisoned with arsenic. July 18th two more of her children were exhumed and found to have been poisoned with arsenic. 

On August 9, 1849, Rebecca was put on trial for only Richards's murder. It took 30 minutes to find her guilty, but they recommended mercy for her. The judge ignored it and sentenced her to death. Two petitions for mercy were sent to the Home Secretary to help save her, but she was still set to hang. Knowing that death awaits her a week after her sentence she would make a confession to the prison chaplain. 

Out of her 11 children, the oldest one survived to adulthood. Two had died from natural causes.7 more of her children were poisoned and killed the same way Richard was. She had poisoned them all with arsenic. 

Rebecca's execution was heavily favored by the general public even though infanticide wasn't viewed as bad as a standard murder. Women in these cases don't typically get capital punishment and there is usually some sympathy for the mothers. There were factors that weighed against Rebbecca. She wasn't some young scared and ignorant mother at the time she was 44. Poisoning the child compared to smothering or drowning was seen as especially cruel.

On August 23, 1849, Rebecca was to be hanged in New Prison in Devizes. Early in the morning the streets leading to the goal were filled with people to watch the hanging. 

SOURCES:

Wikipedia

Executed Today

True Crime Library

Capital Punishment UK

CURSES: The Old Chained Oak

 

Near to the village of Alton, England, there is an old oak tree wrapped in chains on a footpath to the left of the Chained Oak B&B. The tree is known as The Old Oak and according to legend, it holds a deadly legend for a family.

One autumn day in the 1800s the Earl of Shrewsbury was on his way to the Alton Towers in a horse and coach. Suddenly there was an old woman who showed up in front of them. The coach would stop to find out why the woman was there. The woman would then ask them for a coin. The Earl would ignore and cruelly dismiss the poor woman. She would then tell the Earl that she had cursed him and each time a branch fell off of the old oak tree one of his family members would die. The Earl refused to listen to her silly curse and continued on his way.

That same night a violent storm would happen. It would cause a single branch from the cursed tree to fall. A member of the Earl's family would die mysteriously that night. The Earl now believing in the curse would order servants to chain every branch together to prevent branches from falling and the premature death of a family member.


There are some variants from retelling the tale. Sometimes it's an old man, sometimes the branch falls on the Earl's son with the old woman watching, and in some tellings, the Earl takes the branch and does experiments on it to find a way to end premature deaths. But did it happen?

The legend may have been around since 1821 which would make it the 15th Earl of Shrewsbury, Charles Talbot. But other sources say that the legend has been around since the 1840s which would make it the 16th Earl of Shrewsbury, John Talbot. 

Now if it was John Talbot this legend does not match what he was known as. He was remembered as "Good Earl John", he had a very good reputation of being charitable. He supported and helped communities build in the Midlands. He was known to have supported schools and churches, and even helped build new Catholic chapels in the Midlands. He was also known to help build almshouses for the poor and elderly in Alton. 

He did have 4 deaths of family members after the 1840s, but none of them was sudden or mysterious. His youngest daughter Lady Gwendoline Catherine Talbot died in 1840 at 22 in Rome by Scarlet Fever and 3 of her children died shortly after from measles.  Making it unlikely that the man was him if some of the legends were true.

On April 9, 2007, one of the main branches from the tree fell off and no one from the Talbot family mysteriously died. 

The tree may have been chained in an attempt to preserve it. The 15th and 16th Earls extended Alton Towers and planted many new trees. The old trees like the chained oak were greatly prized and since it was in a highly visible place it was chained to keep it from collapsing under its own weight.

SOURCES: 

Wikipedia

BBC

Alton Towers

Atlas Obscura

Oddity Central

Ramblers Retreat

End of Watch: Murder of Sheriff Thomas Griffin Thornton

 On June 12, 1830, Sheriff Thomas Thornton went to serve a man a writ in Caroline County, Virginia. In the process, he was shot and killed. The man would be arrested and charged. He would be found guilty and executed on November 26, 1830.

I got this information from the Officer Down Memorial Page and they do not disclose the names of others on the memorial pages. So I do not know the name of the man who killed the Sheriff. 

SOURCES:

Officer Down Memorial Page

Murder of James Humphrey

In Aberdeen, Scotland 51-year-old Catherine Davidson/Humphery and her husband James Humphrey were said to be drunks and to not get along. On several occasions, she threatened to kill him. She would openly hope that someone would poison him. One time she held a razor to James' neck and threatened to kill him as he dared her. He knew that one day his wife would end up killing him.

Janet Petrie was a servant of the Humphery's and 6 weeks before 16 April 1830, she had gotten a vial of vitriol (sulfuric acid) to burn off a wart on Catharine's wrist. Before April 16th very little was used in the vial.

On the night of 16 April 1830, James was not happy when he came home to see Mrs. Walton in his home. He tried to kick her out and this caused James and Catherine to fight. The fight was both verbal and physical as they struck each other. Catherine and Mrs. Walton would then hide out in a room and lock the door. This did not keep James from breaking the door and forcing Mrs. Walton to leave.

Around this time a John Roy would come over to the house. The two men would drink whiskey and ale together that night. Roy would leave and James would ask Janet to cook some beef steaks. She did as he went to his bed in the kitchen. Janet would give him the beef steaks and would go to bed, it was unusual for her to do this before Catherine or James. While she was getting ready James called for her to take the steaks away as he couldn't eat them.

Catherine had decided that night she was going to hurt her husband. She would pour the vial into James' open mouth and give him a drink with it in it. The acid was also on a glass as a child who'd tried to drink it got burned.

She would wake up Janet only dressed in stockings. She was smiling as if in joy when she told her that "James is ill" Janet would go down to check on James and found him withering in pain. "I'm burned...I'm roast...I'm gone." were some of the things he was screaming. She would try to tell him that he must have had a bad drink while out, but he knew better. “Oh, woman, woman whatever I have gotten, it was in my own house.”

Neighbors began to gather at the home, as James agonizing shouting attracted the neighbors. They would essentially hear him accuse his wife “Oh, woman, woman, you have tried to do this often, and you have done it now.” James would die of his injures.

Catherine would be calm during the murder trial. She plead not guilty. The jury though would return with a guilty verdict and be set to be executed. She was so stunned and accepting of her verdict that she didn't hear when she was going to be executed. She would later ask one of her visitors how long she had.

She was treated well while she waited for her execution, but a day from her youth ran through her head. She was a witness to the hanging of a habitual thief, Jean Craig, on 25 July 1784. She was in the crowd and it had become customary to throw the cut rope out into the crowd. The rope had touched her chest and terrified her.

At 2:30 p.m. on 8 October 1830, Catherine hanged. She would then be buried in at the old Aberdeen jail.

SOURCES:
British Executions
Lena the Hyena 
The Black Kalender by  James Bruce
Blood and Granite: True Crime from Aberdeen by Norman Adams
Aberdeen Journal, and General Advertiser for the North of Scotland September 15, 1830
The Morning Post September 20, 1830
The Caledonian Mercury October 11, 1830
The Lancaster Gazette October 16, 1830
The Bristol Mercury and Daily Post, Western Countries and South Wales Advertiser October 19, 1830

Murder of Hannah Brown

Hannah Brown lived in an apartment owned by Elizabeth Corney. She said that Hannah was a good tenant and lived there until December. Hannah told her landlord that she was going to get married on Christmas.

Hannah said her future husband wanted her to get pocket money from selling her things as where she was going they would have enough stuff. On December 24th a man came to her apartment and placed her trunks in a hackney-coach. She told Elizabeth that she wasn't going to hand over the keys yet because she had something still there and would be there Monday to pick it up.

 She never told anyone who he was, Except for a friend, Hannah Davis, someone supposed to participate in the wedding. They had dinner that her home All they got was the name Greenacre from Hannah and him. He promised to bring her to America to his property in Hudson Bay.

James Greenacre came to the friend's home on Christmas. They were all ready for the wedding. He asked her if she had seen Hannah. They stated no. He told her the wedding was off as he didn't want to pull them both into poverty after finding out Hannah had no property. He refused to come into the house and thanked them for the dinner they were invited to on December 22nd.

He then told her brother's mistress the same thing. He said that Hannah lied about having money and made him go into debt. She tried to get him to talk to Hannah's brother, but he refused. He was in a hurry to leave.

Hannah never arrived that Monday. Instead, a boy came with the key and told Elizabeth that a man had given him the key to give to her.  When she went in there was only a birdcage. The rent at the apartment was done weekly and was paid on Tuesdays.

On December 28, 1836, A man found Hannah's torso in a bag on Edgware Road in London, England. It was 20 yards from Pineapple Gate behind a flagstone, there was a cord that closed the mouth of the bag.  Inside the bag were bloody rags and a torn child's frock.

On Jan. 6, 1837 Hannah's head was found in a canal near Stepney. Her face seemed to have been mangled. Her legs were then found in Camberwell. She was left unidentified for 10 weeks. Her brother and wife then went to go see the face of the murdered woman. Fearing it was Hannah.

The face was mangled, but they were able to recognize her. There also other things that pointed to her identification. There was a bite mark from a dog that had bitten her on the leg, and her ear had been torn at some point.

Investigators found that the to be husband was James Greenacre. He was in bed with another woman when the police came. He rented a room and the woman and a child rented the other room in the home. Hannah's things were found in the home. He initially denied that he knew her, but soon admitted he did.  He told the Investigator that he was lucky he got him that night as he was leaving the next day.

He said he found that Hannah was trying to buy some silk nightgowns in his name. On Christmas-Eve she came to his home and seemed to be drinking with some coachmen. She asked for some Rum and tea and he obliged as they drank together.

He then brought up the silk gowns and that she misrepresented herself. She retaliated and told him they were declined and that he was lying about his worth. She was rocking her chair back and forth during this conversation and he put his foot against her chair. She fell backward.

Her head his a chunk of wood and he claimed it had killed her. He tried to shake her awake, but it failed. He then dismembered the body and pretended to look for her to tell her the wedding was off.

The autopsy showed that she was dismembered shortly after death. That the injury to the eye may have been first and then the blow to the back of the head. He told the woman he was living with that Hannah had left all of her things in the home. He gave the things to her and had no idea of the murder as she was out of the home at the time.

James Greenacre was found guilty of the crime.

SOURCES:
History By The Yard
The Champion and Weekly Herald
The Leeds Intelligencer and Yorkshire General Advertiser

Mrs. Colley Murdered Her Three Youngest

On May 28, 1837, The George Colley, his wife Ann and their family lived in the Police station-house in Fenton England. That night their father was out of the home. Anne the mother of 5 children the oldest being 11 and the youngest 5 months put them all to bed in the room they shared with their parents. The two oldest George (11) and Josiah (9) were laid to sleep together. Their mother put James (5 months) in his cradle. Ann and Charles slept in their bed with their mother Ann.

 No one expected what was to happen that night.

The two older boys George and Josiah were screaming running down the streets. The boys were injured and were only wearing their shirts. The first person they saw they told them that their mother Ann Colley was killing their siblings. They had escaped through a window after being attacked. George and Josiah had injuries to their head and neck causing their shirts to be blood-soaked. George has one of his ears almost taken off and Josiah had a deep gash in his neck.

The boys had woken up to their mother trying to stab them. Josiah was able to escape first and then George through a kitchen window. At the time they had no idea what had happened to the younger siblings.

John Beardsworth who lived next door was one of the first to enter the police station-house the family inhabited. They went upstairs to the room the family slept in. That was where the horrors lied. Three other children two boys and a girl laid on the ground with their heads nearly severed. Their mother on the floor with them with her throat cut, but still alive.

When the Dr. arrived on the scene he tried to sew up her neck wound. She struggled and even bit the surgeon's hand in an attempt to keep him from saving her. With the assistance of three others he was able to sew it up and save her.

It had seemed as of recently her husband and the children's father had been discharged from his position. This lead the family to live in poorer conditions. They were only living day to day on the earnings from their household goods. Before her husband's discharge, she seemed to be of good character and went to church regularly.

She claimed they it wasn't her husband's fault that she had done this. She said that he was a good husband and father to the children. It was the distress from life that had caused her to want to end the childrens life. Wanting them in the good lord's hands.

When in the hospital she would pray to god and begged the nurses to read the bible to her. She was mentally unstable. When she was told that her two sons were doing well she stated: "God will take them for when they survive they must come to want."

It was brought out that George a few weeks prior caught his wife trying to harm the children (isn't specifically what she did) and threatened to send her to the asylum if she hurt them. He believed this set her straight, but unfortunately did not.

She was brought before a jury and they returned with the verdict of Willful Murder against her.

SOURCES:
The Morning Chronical
The Morning Post
Jackson's Oxford Journal