Killed by a China Dog

A woman who drank no more than some tea was killed when a drunken neighbour came to her home uninvited and threw a china ornament at her.

On Saturday 21st May 1859 William Evans, a blacksmith, and his 31 year old wife Sarah were sat in the living room of their Blenheim Street home drinking tea with some neighbours. Without warning Alice McAllister, who lived opposite, came into the house in a drunken state and began shouting obscenities, only to be thrown out by William.

McAllister soon returned and picked up a candlestick which she threw at William, but he managed to duck and avoid it. His wife Sarah though was not so lucky, being hit on the head by a china dog ornament that was thrown with great force. McAllister then punched Sarah as she lay on the floor in an insensible state with blood pouring from her head.

William managed to fend McAllister off with a poker to prevent her doing any more harm and Sarah was taken to the dispensary where her wounds were dressed. She remained under the treatment of Dr Campion but she died the following Friday, 27th May. A post mortem revealed that there was a compound fracture of the skull and other injuries caused by great violence. 

When she was arrested McAllister said that the death was none of her doing and that William had struck his wife with a poker. However an inquest before Mr P F Curry returned a verdict of manslaughter against her, which led to her being committed to the assizes for trial. When she appeared before Baron Watson on 17th August, neighbours present testified to having seen Sarah get hit by the ornament, leading to a guilty verdict being returned. McAllister was then sentenced to three years penal servitude.

Free From Jail to Kill his Wife

A man who had served a three year jail sentence for stabbing his wife killed her just six weeks after his release and was found guilty of manslaughter. 

In the early hours of Tuesday 8th October 1901 Ellen Timlin was asleep at her lodgings in 42 Baptist Street when she was awoken by another member of the household, 32 year old Thomas McAllister. He was raging and told Ellen that he had killed his wife and would kill somebody else.He then started kicking out at Ellen but stopped when his wife Catherine returned.

Thomas told Catherine he was sorry for what he had done and she replied that she was a bad woman. The couple then went upstairs with Thomas saying he would look at the wound, which had been caused with a pocket knife, after a cup of tea. He later came back down and told Ellen that it was 'only the scratch of a pin' and that he had washed it and covered it with a plaster.

On the Thursday night Catherine was complaining of severe pains and admitted herself to the workhouse hospital, telling staff there that she had been separating a fight. The next night her condition had deteriorated and a detective inspector was called in to see her. She now said that she had been walking with Thomas's mother at the corner of Springfield and Christian Streets and that he had stabbed her in a fit of jealousy. A magistrate's clerk was summoned to take a formal deposition but by the time he arrived Catherine had died.

A post mortem revealed that the cause of death was haemorrhage caused by the wound which had punctured Catherine's left lung. When Thomas was arrested he said 'I am as innocent as a child, she went out on Wednesday to separate a fight and when she came back she complained of a pain underneath her breast.' At the inquest Ellen Timlin described Catherine as a'hard working steady woman' whilst Thomas was someone with a 'hot temper who is given to drink.' The Deputy Coroner Mr Gibson said there was no provocation to justify reducing the verdict to manslaughter and on this direction a verdict of wilful murder was returned.


At the Liverpool Assizes on 3rd December Ellen Timlin repeated the evidence that she had given at the inquest. After ninety minutes deliberation the jury found Thomas guilty of manslaughter leading to cries from Thomas who begged for mercy 'for the sake of my poor old mother and two orphaned sisters, the shock will kill her.' 

Mr Justice Bucknill however was in no mood for lenient sentencing, especially as Thomas had only come out of prison six weeks before the killing, having served  a three year sentence for cutting and wounding his wife. Referring to him as a 'worthless drunken blackguard' he said that the jury had been merciful enough and imposed a sentence of fifteen years penal servitude.

Hatchet Killing

A woman in Everton who killed a man by hitting him over the head with a hatchet was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment. 

On the morning of 8th July 1901 coal heaver Luke Crean went to Canada Dock to try and find some work but was unsuccessful. Him and his friends then spent several hours drinking in pubs before going to the home of one of them in Adelaide Place around 3.30pm.

A disturbance broke out in the street between two rival religious factions and Crean went out to get involved and he ended up fighting with a man named Thomas Jenkins whose wife also got involved, striking him with a slipper.  There was a large crowd watching including 24 year old Annie Turner, who was pointing to her chest and shouting 'True Blue' and 'No Surrender.' She then went into her house and got a hatchet, hitting Crean on the head with two blows. 

As shouts of police went up Crean and Jenkins fell into the cellar and when an officer pulled him out of there, he managed to escape and run away. Turner returned to her house with the hatchet and despite being a Protestant herself said to a neighbour 'I have helped to kill one Orangeman and I will kill another.' Crean did not manage to get far, collapsing with blood coming out of his ear. He was taken to the Northern Hospital where he slipped into unconsciousness and died that evening.

An inquest on 10th July returned a verdict of wilful murder against Turner and she was committed for trial at the next assizes, which were just three weeks away. On 1st August she appeared before Mr Justice Ridley, her defence counsel arguing that Crean's injuries were a a result of the fall. The jury found her guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter and she was sentenced to fifteen years penal servitude.

Who Administered the Fatal Kick

When a woman was kicked to death in Everton in 1901, the person charged with her killing was acquitted as the prosecution were unable to prove who had administered the fatal kick.

On the afternoon of 14th May 1901 Mary McConville, a 29 year old unmarried woman, drank several gills of beer at her home in  Haigh Street with her brother Arthur and friend Annie Denham. At around 7.30pm Henry Ratcliffe, a sailor that lived with Mary when he was not at sea came around with some friends but didn't join the others in drinking.

What happened next nobody can be sure, but police had to be called due to Mary ending up lying on the floor in a pool of blood. A doctor from the dispensary was also called and he pronounced that Mary was dead when he arrived at 9.30pm. Arthur told officers that Ratcliffe was responsible and he was taken into custody, denying all knowledge of the crime. 

At the inquest the following day Arthur told the Coroner that Ratcliffe had hit his sister three or four times in the face. He then said that when Mary fell to the floor Ratcliffe began kicking at her abdomen and when he tried to intervene, Ratcliffe said to him 'You are not going to boss this house.' Arthur claimed that Ratcliffe wanted to fight him in the street but he refused and he instead went to William Henry Street to find a policeman.

Mary's friend Annie Denham also gave evidence at the inquest, but all she could recall was that Ratcliffe had knocked Mary down. However a neighbour called Margaret Worrall said that when Annie had come out of the house she had said that it was Arthur who had carried out the assault. The others present said that they had seen Ratcliffe push Mary to the floor but that he had not kicked her.

The jury returned a verdict of wilful murder and 28 year old Ratcliffe was committed for trial at the Liverpool assizes, where he appeared before Mr Justice Ridley on 2nd August. The doctor who carried out the post mortem confirmed that a kick had caused the death but in directing the jury, the judge said there was no corroborating  evidence of who had carried it out. The jury found Ratcliffe not guilty and he was discharged from the dock.

Drunken Stabbing of a Son in Law

In 1901 a man who killed his son in law during a drunken fight was told by the judge that his crime was 'as near as to murder as could be' after being convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter. 

Patrick Finnegan, a 47 year old labourer, lived with his wife in Back Portland Street, off Scotland Road. His daughter was married to a marine fireman named William Carr and they lived in Portland Street, the two houses being separated from each other only by a yard. 

On the evening of Saturday 23rd March that year Carr returned home drunk and then went into the yard towards his parents in law's house looking for his wife. A quarrel broke out between the two men leading to Finnegan having cuts to his face and he went off in search of a policeman. 

An officer was located in Limekiln Lane and brought back to Back Portland Street, where Carr was talking to Finnegan's wife. The policeman persuaded Carr to return to his own home then took Finnegan to a dispensary for some treatment to his face wound. After this he went to the police and demanded that Carr be arrested, but was sent on his way.

At around quarter to one in the morning, Finnegan and his wife knocked on Carr's door and were let in by a lodger called Mary Uriel. Finnegan went upstairs to see Carr leaving his wife downstairs talking to the lodger, then soon afterwards the couple left. They were soon joined by their daughter Mrs Carr, who had been too afraid to return home to her husband and had gone to sleep on a step in Portland Street before being woken by a passing policeman.

At around 5am Mary heard moaning noises coming from Carr's bedroom which was directly above hers. She went to the Finnegans for help and Mrs Carr returned with her, finding her husband on the landing with a wound on his neck. The bedclothes were bloodsoaked and there was a trail of blood leading to where he had fallen. He was rushed to the Northern Hospital but pronounced dead on arrival, an artery having been cut.

On being questioned Finnegan claimed he had only gone to Carr's bedroom to look for his daughter, but he was unable to explain the blood on his own clothes or the bloodstained knife found in his own house. 

After being charged with murder Finnegan appeared at the assizes on 10th May. His defence counsel Mr Madden said that if Carr had been arrested for drunkenness earlier on then the tragedy had not occurred. Saying that 'all parties were deprived of their reason' Mr Madden maintained that Finnegan had initially only gone to Carr's room to look for his daughter. 

It took the jury ten minutes to find Finnegan guilty of manslaughter. In passing a sentence of twenty years penal servitude, Justice Wills said that the case was as near to murder as manslaughter could be.

Light Sentence For Killing Sister in Law

A man who killed his sister in law then went on the run was given an extremely light sentence in the circumstances. The judge commented that there had been a good deal of provocation although the killing would probably be seen in a different light today.

Tailor Patrick Ryan spent the evening of 5th May 1858 drinking at his home in Hygeia Street along with a man named Kennedy and his wife's sister Catherine Fennell. Catherine asked Ryan for some money which he refused to give her, leading to her reaching into his waistcoat pocket and taking out a small photographic portrait of a young woman. Catherine then taunted Ryan about the woman, saying to him why did he need to look elsewhere when he had a wife and children at home.

After Catherine refused to give the photograph back Ryan threatened to kick her, leading to her taking a quart jug and trying to hit him over the head, only for Kennedy to get between them. 

The following day Ryan and Kennedy returned to the house and Catherine was coming down the stairs with her face quite red, but she denied being drunk. Ryan told her he didn't want her there any more but she refused to go and an argument broke out, during which Kennedy left. At 7pm, the pair were arguing in the street leading to Mrs Ryan coming to the door and pleading with them to come in and not make a show of themselves in front of the neighbours.

As Catherine was going in to the house behind Ryan he turned around and kicked her, causing her to lose her footing and fall down some steps. He then picked up a piece of wood and struck her on the back of the head. Catherine was helped into the house by her sister then her hair was cut off and the wound washed. On the Saturday evening though she began to have convulsions and she was admitted to hospital where she died on the Monday. 

A post mortem revealed the cause of death as extravasation of blood on the brain and a fracture to the skull below the wound, which was about a quarter of an inch in length. On 11th May an inquest was held before the Coroner Mr P F Curry. When the verdict of manslaughter was returned Mrs Ryan cried out, saying that her husband had been like a father to Catherine for over six years. 

A warrant was issued for Ryan's arrest and he remained at large until early 1859. When he finally appeared at the Liverpool assizes, he pleaded guilty and in light of Catherine's provocation he was sentenced to six months imprisonment with hard labour by Justice Willes.

Child Killing at the Workhouse

The death of a one week old baby at the hands of his mother and subsequent punishment in 1859 emphasised just how little value was placed on the lives of young children then.

On 11th February that year Jane Anderson, a 26 year old pauper residing at the Liverpool workhouse, gave birth to a healthy baby boy who she named Robert. One week later on the 18th of the month the baby boy was heard to be screaming very loudly and the following morning workhouse officials noticed that he was bruised.

When Jane was asked how the bruising occurred she said she did not know and the baby was taken from her and placed in the charge of a nurse. A week later he died and a post mortem by the house surgeon Dr Leather revealed the cause of death to be congestion of the lungs caused by violence. 

Jane was charged with murder and appeared at the Liverpool assizes on 31st March. In summing up, Mr Justice Wills told the jury they had to decide whether Jane had used violence towards her baby with the intention of causing harm or in the hope of quietening him. After deliberation they took a more lenient view and found her guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter. She was then sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment with hard labour.