Crockery in the Witness Box

When a Chinese crew member of a British vessel was killed in the 1920s, many of the witnesses at the subsequent trial took the oath by smashing crockery.

On 28th July 1925 an argument broke out amongst Chinese crew on the Sunderland registered steamer Palm Branch, which was sailing from St Thomas in Jamaica to Liverpool. The result of this was that one of them, Sing Looh ended up overboard. A boat was lowered but the search for him was abandoned after two hours.

On arrival in Liverpool on 11th August police boarded and after speaking to the Captain detained six of the crew. They then charged firemen Cheong Fook and Cheong Mo Fook, who were unrelated, with murder on the high seas. Cheong Mo Fook claimed that he had been hit over the head with a basin by Sing Looh and he had subsequently slipped into the water. Other witnesses though  said that the chief engineer had separated them and Cheong had then assaulted Sing Looh and threw him overboard with the help of his accomplice.

At the trial on 5th November two interpreters were required, one to interpret the evidence from Shanghainese to Cantonese, then another to translate into English. The Chinese witnesses took the oath by smashing crockery, the broken pieces of which littered the witness box. Cheong Mo Fook was found not guilty and discharged.

An Adopted Baby Killed

A respectable middle class woman in Mossley Hill who had lost  a baby of her own adopted another one, only to kill during a spell of insanity.

Early in 1903 Elizabeth Sturgeon, the 36 year old wife of a drapers buyer who lived at 7 Dudley Road, gave birth to a stillborn baby. Devastated by this loss, she sought to adopt one and in June of that year answered an advert in the Liverpool Echo from someone in Litherland looking to take a baby off their hands.


Sturgeon showed great affection for the four month old baby girl who she christened Mabel. In early July she visited her parents in Lincolnshire where she acquired the services of a girl called Alice Porter who returned to Liverpool with her to help as a housekeeper and nanny.

On Tuesday 28th July Sturgeon acted very strangely, taking the unusual step of sending Alice to buy gin for her. She had a lie down and told her husband that she was in a vile temper, then wrote a letter to her parents saying that she was going to have a 'last walk' due to the cruelty of her husband who had tried to strangle her so he could live with a flower girl.

Sturgeon took Alice and Mabel out with her at 4pm on a long walk that ended up with them sat under a hedge in a field near Mossley Hill church The baby was crying in a strange fashion and Alice expressed concern to Sturgeon that she may suffocate the child when she put a handkerchief in her mouth to try and stop this. Alice then fell asleep after Mabel had gone quiet, having been given a small drop of rum by Sturgeon. 

In the morning, Sturgeon offered Alice a shilling as an inducement to walk across the parapet of a railway bridge. She did so but when halfway across she fell thirty feet, but was lucky to suffer only a sprained ankle.  Sturgeon told Alice to remain where she was and she would return the baby home then get help, but she was gone some time. When she did return, she told Alice that a woman was looking after Mabel and when she could find no trace her, reported the baby to the police as missing.

Nobody local had seen anything untoward and after speaking with her husband Bill Sturgeon over the letters his wife had written police arrested her on suspicion of murder on the Wednesday evening. A search of the area where they had last been seen was launched and Mabel's body was found the following morning a few inches underground in a lime pit off Solomon's Lane (where Geoffrey Hughes playing fields now are), her neck covered in stab wounds. 

Soon after the body was found, Sturgeon was remanded for a week at the police court. The inquest on 7th August heard evidence that she had been suffering hallucinations and was mentally deranged at the time of the tragedy. The coroner's court being unable to make a ruling on her state of mind, a verdict of wilful murder was returned and she was committed for trial at the assizes, 

Sturgeon was well dressed when she appeared at the assizes on 4th December, where the prosecution did not contest the medical evidence that she was insane. Justice Ridley then ordered that she be detained at His Majesty's Pleasure. Remarkably, instructed by her husband, Sturgeon's solicitor made an immediate application for her discharge, stating that the murder took place in about of temporary insanity that was now cured. However this was refused by the Home Secretary and she was removed to Broadmoor. She was released a few years later however and in the 1911 census is shown as living with Bill in Britannia Road, Wallasey.

Woman Cuts Her Husband Instead of the Bread

A woman whose abusive husband berated her for not mending his trousers properly stabbed him to death after he then told her to cut more bread for their children's supper.

On 2nd June 1903 at around 10pm, twelve year old Mary Lyon returned to her home in Salisbury Street, Everton after playing out. She was then asked to make sure her mother's friend Margaret Constantine got back to her home in Birchfield Street safely as she was drunk.

Mary saw Margaret back home, leaving her mother Catherine in Salisbury Street with her father Charlie and eight year old brother Charles. Both her parents had been drinking and Charlie said to Catherine 'You have not mended my trousers right.' She ignored him, leading to Charlie slapping her in the face and saying 'Cut more bread for the children.' With their son Charles watching in horror, Catherine pushed her husband away whilst holding the bread knife, which stabbed him in the chest causing him to fall onto the sofa.

Catherine ran into  the street screaming and a passer by named Henry Dowling came to see what was going on. She took him inside and Charlie was lying on the sofa. Young Charles said 'My mama done it' and Catherine responded 'I did not mean to do it.' Mary then returned from Birchfield Street and encountered the tragic scene.

Charles was pronounced dead on arrival at the Royal Infirmary, where the post mortem established that the wound to the heart was five inches deep. Catherine was arrested and admitted she was responsible for the killing, but insisted she had not meant to cause any harm. 

The inquest returned a verdict of wilful murder and Catherine was committed to the assizes for trial. However the Grand Jury, which carried out a preliminary review of the facts, decided that she should only stand trial for manslaughter. She was found guilty and sentenced by Mr Justice Bigham to three years penal servitude.

The Blundellsands Tragedy

A Crosby woman who killed two of her children and then attempted suicide herself was detained at His Majesty's Pleasure

Shortly before 9am on the morning of Sunday 31st May 1903 Joseph Cannell, a journeyman plasterer living at Brighton Vale in Blundellsands, went out for a walk with his three elder children leaving his wife Eleanor in charge of the youngest two. Joseph did not speak to Eleanor before going out which wasn't unusual, but there was nothing normal about the scene which greeted him when they returned at 2pm. 

Eleanor was in an excited state and told her husband that she had drowned their two youngest children. When Joseph saw that they weren't in their cots, he ran into the kitchen where he found eighteen month old Alfred and six month old Eleanor lying face down in a tub that was usually used to wash clothes. They were both dead and when Joseph went back to his wife's bedroom, she was trying to strangle herself with a rope that she had tied to a bedpost.

Joseph managed to cut the rope from his wife's neck but she ran off with the knife threatening to cut her throat. When Joseph managed to get the knife from her, Eleanor pleaded to be allowed to go to the beach to drown herself then tried to drink boiling water, causing her to vomit profusely. 

A doctor arrived and managed to sedate 38 year old Eleanor who was then taken to hospital. A letter was found in her clothing which read addressed to her father which read 'I cannot live in such trouble, forgive me and don't blame me too much.'

At the inquest on 12th June Joseph told the Coroner Mr Samuel Brighouse how his wife had been acting oddly in recent weeks and he had turned down work on occasions to stay at home and look after her. The day before the killing, he had been in a pub when she threw a glass of beer over him. Eleanor stated that she did what she did as she was upset and a neighbour said she had been erratic recently when the weather was hot. During the proceedings she often wept and cried out for her daughter Jane, who was in the horrible situation of giving evidence against her mother.

A verdict of wilful murder was returned by the coroner's jury and Eleanor then appeared at the County sessions House in William Brown Street, where she was committed to the assizes for trial. On 8th September Dr Price from Walton gaol said that she was unfit to plead and was suffering from melancholia at the time of the tragedy. This was not challenged by the Crown, leading to Justice Bigham ordering that she be detained at His Majesty's Pleasure.

The Altcar Tragedy

A soldier on training at the Altcar camp near Formby was sentenced to death after battering a fellow serviceman after a night out, but was reprieved by the Home Secretary. 

On the afternoon of Saturday 16th May 1903 Private John James and Private Arthur Wilkes of the Royal Welch Fusiliers went out drinking in Formby. They went to several beerhouses before being turned away from the Railway Hotel for being too drunk at around 9pm.

James was 29 years old and had fought in the South African War then served in China, where he received an injury that meant his fighting days were over, but he remained with the regiment as a cook. Wilkes had yet to see any action and was at Altcar with his regiment for musketry training.

The circumstances that led to what happened next will never be known, but 21 year old Wilkes arrived back at camp on his own. At 330am another private, Frederick Boswell, was walking back to the camp along Fisherman's Walk and heard moaning coming from a ditch. On going to investigate, he found James in an insensible state with several wounds on his face. Boswell ran to the camp for help and returned with a Sergeant Jenkins and a stretcher. They took James to the camp hospital but after being laid on  a bed he took his last breaths and died. 

A key find near the scene had been a regimental belt, meaning that somebody at the following mornings parade would be without one. That person was set to be Private Burke, who had reported his belt as missing at 6am when he saw that it wasn't hanging up where it should be. The belt was then found in Wilkes's tent and he became agitated when confronted about it. He was also unable to explain where his regimental trousers were, having been wearing normal ones. This was enough for Sergeant Jenkins to authorise the detention of Wilkes and he was taken to Formby police station.

The following day Wilkes's regimental trousers were found hidden behind a radiator, covered in mud. Wilkes appeared at Birkdale Magistrates Court that day and was remanded having been charged with murder. An inquest opened on the Tuesday at the Railway Hotel, with the Coroner ordering the body to be laid out where it had been found so that the jury could get a full picture of the surroundings. When they went to view it though one member of the jury fainted and had to be taken to hospital, leading to an adjournment of a week.

When the inquest resumed it was at the police buildings in Birkdale. Knowing how much evidence was against him Wilkes decided to issue a statement via Inspector Hodgson. In this he claimed that the two men were on friendly terms whilst walking back but James insisted on returning to try and find more drink. Wilkes said that when he tried to stop him, James's replied 'You will have to go to the front and get some medals on you chest before you can stop me going to town.' He then claimed that James wrestled him to the ground and he had to use his belt to get him off and he had no idea what state he left him in. 

A verdict of wilful murder was returned by the inquest jury and Wilkes was formally committed for trial at the next Liverpool assizes. He appeared before Justice Bigham on 31st July, pleading not guilty on the grounds that he was acting in self defence. However, medical evidence showed that he had not received any injuries and was much stronger than James, who had a fractured skull, crushed nose and sixteen wounds on his face, hands and fingers. in summing up Justice Bigham said that if the jury was satisfied that it was Wilkes who carried out the act then it was a 'wicked and brutal murder.'

Wilkes was found guilty by the jury who recommended mercy on account of his youth. The judge said he would pass this on but that he should not hold out much hope of a reprieve. A petition was presented to the Home Secretary by Wilkes's solicitors who were based in North John Street but time was running out fast with the execution fixed for Tuesday 18th August and no news forthcoming. Finally on the 15th August a letter was received by the Governor of Walton Gaol saying that the sentence had been commuted to penal servitude for life.

Habitually Abusive Husband Kills Wife With Poker

A man who had been convicted three times for battering his wife was convicted of manslaughter after he killed her, but was given a lenient sentence by today's standards. 

In 1903 a 52 year old labourer named William Smith lived with his wife Isabella in Peach Street, occupying the parlour and two cellars of a house. Their daughter Mary Wyness, her husband and young children lived in the other rooms. Mr and Mrs Smith both drank regularly and Mary would often hear her father beating her mother following arguments.

On the afternoon of 15th February that year the couple both got drunk but nothing seemed unusual when Mary saw her parents in the afternoon. In the evening though she heard her mother nagging her father as he had not shared any betting winnings with her, instead spending them on drinks for other people. 

At 330am the following morning Mary was awoken by moans coming from the cellar and went to investigate. She found her mother lying face down, unconscious and covered in blood. She went upstairs to the parlour were her father was asleep and he helped her lift Isabella onto the sofa. Smith went out and fetched a policeman himself, bringing him back to the house and saying that his wife had fallen onto the ashpan. 

The officer was suspicious of Smith's version of events and took him into custody, lodging him at the Prescot Street Bridewell. A doctor who carried out a post mortem felt that the injuries to Isabella's chest could not have been caused by a fall and would have required 'extraordinary force.' Smith then admitted that he had struck her with a poker but not intended to cause great harm.

After an inquest returned a verdict of wilful murder, Smith was committed for trial at the assizes where he appeared before Justice Lawrence on 8th May. The jury returned a verdict of manslaughter on the grounds that Smith had been provoked by his wife's excessive drinking. A neighbour had told the court that a few days before the killing it was Mary's wedding anniversary and Isabella had drank nine pints of beer.

The judge said he agreed with the jury's verdict and even though Smith had been convicted of assault on three previous occasions for battering his wife, a sentence of just twelve years penal servitude was imposed.

Mocked Man's Hatchet Revenge

A man whose patience snapped after he was mocked and beaten by his partner, causing him to hit her with a hatchet and cut her throat, was found guilty of manslaughter and jailed for ten years.

On 25th August 1902 Francis Burke returned to his lodgings in Gladstone Street after work to find that Catherine Daly, with whom he cohabited, was not at home. After his landlord John Shingler said that he had no idea where Catherine was and his sister Lizzie, who lived nearby, said she had not seen him, Francis went back home and made some chips for his tea. While he was eating them Catherine returned, sporting a black eye. 

When asked how she got her injury Catherine, who was quite drunk, replied that she had been fighting with a woman named Mary Daly, the wife of her brother. John Shingler's wife tended to the eye whilst Francis sat on the front steps drinking some beer that he had sent out for. Catherine then started hitting him about the head and carried on drinking along with Lizzie who had since came round to see if everything was okay. Lizzie then joined Catherine in mocking Francis for not doing anything when he was being repeatedly slapped.

Eventually Francis's patience snapped and he got up and threw Catherine into a chair, but this didn't stop her getting up and hitting him again. After Lizzie left Francis and Catherine went to bed but in the early hours John Shingler was woken up by the couple arguing and he then heard a cry of 'murder'. On running to investigate he found that Catherine was lying on her back covered in blood and Francis was attempting to cut his own throat with a carving knife. 

Other lodgers managed to get the knife from Francis while Mr Shingler ran to the Northern Dispensary for a doctor and also found a policeman. Catherine was still alive and pointed to Francis when asked who had cut her. She was taken to the Northern Hospital where she died on 1st September, having been able to make a deposition stating that she had been hit over the head with a hatchet and then had her throat cut. Francis was himself close to death and remained in the Workhouse Hospital in Brownlow Hill for a month, on one occasion ripping the bandages from his throat. He was not considered fit to be committed for trial for murder until 2nd October.

Francis appeared at the assizes at St George's Hall on 5th December, where he said he recalled nothing from the moment he threw Catherine into the chair. After twenty minutes deliberation the jury found him guilty of manslaughter on the grounds of extreme provocation. He was then sentenced by Justice Jelf to penal servitude for ten years.