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From 1837 to 1901 Queen Victoria presided over the world’s biggest empire – and during her 64-year reign approximately 1,100 judicial hangings were carried out in Great Britain and Ireland. Here we present a month-by-month calendar of the fascinating stories behind some of them, set frequently against a background of dire poverty, short trials and public executions... Victorian Hangings: November November 13th 13/11/1849 Frederick and Marie Manning – Bermondsy, London John Massey, a medical student, looked aghast when his landlord asked him: “Can a man under the effects of narcotics be induced to sign cheques?” What was going on, young Massey wondered? Surely the l... more » November 13th 13/11/1883 Thomas Day – Ipswich “How many fools serve mad jealousy,” says Shakespeare in the Comedy of Errors, and that was written nearly 300 years before Thomas Day, a Birmingham factory worker, succumbed to mad jealousy and was h... more » November 13th 13/11/1882 William Bartlett – Bodmin Although he was only a poor Cornish miner and the father of seven children – his wife was about to give birth to an eighth – William Bartlett, 46, had an eye for the girls. While his wife was pregnant... more » November 14th 14/11/1864 Franz Muller – East London A city banker, Thomas Briggs, 69, had the misfortune to become the first man ever to be murdered on a train in Britain, possibly even in the world. On July 9th, 1864, he was travelling on the 9.50 p.m... more » November 15th 15/11/1887 Joseph Walker – Chipping Norton “I’ll do for her when I get home,” muttered Joseph Walker. A saddler, he had been arguing all morning with his wife Henrietta, and drinking all afternoon in an effort to get over it. The other custom... more » November 15th 15/11/1898 John Ryan – Hoxton, London In the middle of the night, patrolling policeman James Baldwin hurried down Kingsland Road into Wilmer Gardens, Hoxton, his sense of duty aroused by sounds of a violent affray. A large group of men we... more » November 16th 16/11/1857 Thomas Davis – Islington, London Drink was the curse of the Victorian poor, resulting in many of the approximate 1,100 murders in the old Queen’s reign. Thomas Davis, 39, a carpenter, and his wife Martha, 35, were drinking with frien... more » November 16th 16/11/1874 Thomas Smith – Aldershot Taken to the rifle range at Caesar’s Camp, Aldershot, for firing practice, Private Thomas Smith, 40, of the 20th Hussars, swivelled his rifle round from the butts and lined up Captain John Dent Bird i... more » November 17th 17/11/1862 Robert Cooper – Brentford, London Bigamy hardly exists today, but before the permissive society it was widespread, and punishable by a long term of imprisonment. So Ann Barnham was understandably indignant when she discovered that her... more » November 18th 18/11/1878 Joseph Garcia – Usk Newport in Wales was the latest port of call visited by Spanish seaman Joseph Garcia, 21, and it would prove to be his last. While ashore he burgled a house, and for that he got nine months in jail. R... more » November 19th 19/11/1860 James Mullins – Stepney, London Comfortably-off Mary Emsley, a widow, still went about every week collecting her rents, even though she was 70. So robbery seemed the obvious motive when her body was found at her home in Grove Road, ... more » November 19th 19/11/1877 William Hussell – Barnstaple Drink was having disastrous effects on the marriage of Barnstaple butcher William Hussell, 29, and his wife Mary, 27. Drunk, depressed and in despair, he came back to his home in Diamond Street on Oct... more » November 20th 20/11/1841 Patrick Woods – Newtownhamilton, County Armagh When the mid-19th century land troubles in Ireland were at their height, landowner Mr. Powell and his surveyor, Mr. Quinn, decided to knock down a cottage and build a school. They reckoned without th... more » November 21st 21/11/1853 Nathaniel Mobbs – Whitechapel, London They were the neighbours from hell, rowdy, drunk and belligerent. Every night Nathaniel Mobbs, a 32-year-old cooper, would strip his wife Caroline, 31, and flog her. For this he was known as General H... more » November 21st 21/11/1887 Joseph Morley – Dagenham He was only 17, and sexually obsessed with his landlady, a young married woman of 24. One night he crept into her bedroom intending to rape her. But it didn’t work out like that. Instead of the “attem... more » November 21st 21/11/1899 George Nunn – Wortham, Suffolk Farm labourer George Nunn was another teenager obsessed with the idea of sex with an older woman. He waylaid Mrs. Eliza Dixon, 33, wife of a butcher and mother of six children, on the village green at... more » November 23rd 23/11/1867 William Allen, Michael Larkin and Michael O’Brien – Manchester In a scene more reminiscent of the Wild West than of Southern Ireland, two of the most wanted men in the country were sprung from police custody by 30 desperate Fenians and escaped – never to be recap... more » November 23rd 23/11/1885 John Hill and John Williams – Weobley, Herefordshire The low life of Herefordshire was out drinking its fill on September 30th, 1885. It couldn’t in fact get much lower. Among the party were two women tramps, Mary Ann Farrell, 40, and Ann Dickson, 33, p... more » November 23rd 23/11/1877 Cadwaller Jones – Dolgellau, west Wales Bits of a woman’s body washed up from the River Arran at Dolgellau, west Wales, intrigued police. First an arm, then a lower torso, followed by a foot, and then a head with both eyes cut out and its h... more » November 24th 24/11/1884 Kay Howarth – Bolton A man who knifed a commercial traveller to death and stole his day’s takings wrote a suicide note, signed it in the victim’s name, and left it by his body. The commercial traveller, Richard Dugdale, ... more » November 28th 28/11/1881 John Simpson – Preston “I don’t want you to see my daughter any more,” Annie Ratcliffe’s father told John Simpson, her boy friend. Which was far from surprising, since Simpson, a 23-year-old clerk, had been having sex with ... more » November 28th 28/11/1899 Charles Scott – Windsor “All right, kill me!” shrieked Eliza O’Shea, a 32-year-old soldier’s wife, at her lover, Charles Scott. She had just whacked him on the head with a frying pan, the result of one of their many drunken ... more » November 29th 29/11/1886 James Murphy – Barnsley When Constable Alfred Austwick was called to a disturbance at a house in Dodworth, Barnsley, the homeowner, James Murphy, opened the door. “Ah! You’re just the one I want,” Murphy shouted at the offic... more » November 29th 29/11/1880 Thomas Wheeler – St. Albans The three early-morning visitors at Marshall’s Wick Farm, Sandridge, just outside St. Albans, struck terror into the owners. As the farmer, Edward Anstee, 58, opened an upstairs window to see who was ... more » November 29th 29/11/1881 Percy Mapleton – Lewes Since Franz Muller became the first railway train murderer (see page 38) in 1864, there has been a sprinkling of others, not least on the famous London to Brighton line. Travelling south to Brighton o... more » November 29th 29/11/1894 Thomas Richards – Borth, Cardiganshire. Every morning Mary Davis, 39, went into the garden of her tiny seaside cottage in Borth, Cardiganshire, and gazed out to sea. Her sailor husband would soon be coming home, and she would tell him of th... more » November 30th 30/11/1886 James Banton – Breedon-on-the-Hill, Leicestershire Villagers at Breedon-on-the Hill in Leicestershire looked up in surprise when James Banton, a local man, came running along the high street waving a stick and shouting, “I just killed a bobby!” He ha... more »
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