Pub Singer Killed

A man who enjoyed a sing song in a Scotland Road pub with friends ended up dead when a fight broke out after another customer objected to the noise. 

On the afternoon of Saturday 13th March 1886 Patrick Heston, a 23 year old labourer went to watch a foot race in Walton with four friends. They then headed back towards Liverpool, stopping off for some beer in in Walton Lane and then Korn's public house at 203 Scotland Road.

Whilst drinking in the parlour they started to sing and did so for about twenty minutes. When a 40 year old named Thomas Doulan arrived, he told Heston at the end of a song that he couldn't sing any more and to sit down. Although Heston did so, his friend Patrick Rogan acted angrily and Doulan then took out a knife and said he could settle him, before waving it about indiscriminately.

Heston dived between the two men and gasped 'I am stabbed in the heart' before falling down. The pub landlord John Shied managed to get Doulan in a headlock, but he was still able to wave the knife about and slash two other men. Heston was carried into the snug but he died before an ambulance arrived from the Northern Hospital.

When police arrived Doulan was given into their custody, but he claimed that Rogan had struck him first and he had also been hit by another of Heston's friends. A post mortem revealed that the knife had penetrated into Heston's left breast and another artery had been severed on his leg. Doulan was charged with murder and first appeared at the police court on 16th March. It was clear from his appearance that there had been a severe scuffle, as his face was covered in scratches and his lip was cut.

Doulan appeared at the assizes before Mr Justice Grantham on 25th May. Evidence was presented to suggest that he had been placed under a great deal of provocation and he hadn't deliberately plunged the knife into Heston, rather waved a knife about at random. After being found guilty of manslaughter he was sentenced to just six months imprisonment.