Husband's Sunday Morning Frenzy

A man in wartime Liverpool killed his wife in a frenzied act after she told him she would be leaving him for a sailor.

John and Maud Povall had married in 1922, aged twenty and eighteen years old respectively. They went on to have four children and set up home in Cromarty Road, Old Swan.

At the outbreak of the Second World War John volunteered for the Royal Navy and was then transferred to the Merchant Navy. He went away to sea in 1941 for a voyage that last eleven months, during which time his wife began a liaison with a Dutch seaman.

Mrs Povall didn't hide the relationship from her children and on one occasion went to London leaving the children at home in the care of her eldest daughter Hilda who was in her late teens. Hilda didn't tell her father about the repeated infidelity but he eventually found out by receiving an anonymous letter.

Although Povall was prepared to forgive Maud, she told him on Sunday 10th May 1943 that she would be leaving home and taking the youngest three children with her. An argument broke out which was calmed down by their lodger George Bollingham. At Povall's request the lodger went back upstairs to get changed so they could go out for a drink but as he was doing so Povall began beating and kicking his wife. Bollingham heard the screams and went out to find help and on returning with a policeman saw Povall bathing a wound on his wife's neck.

Maud told her husband she would try to start afresh with him and they kissed as she was helped into an ambulance. At the police station, Povall said the knife caught his wife's neck as she tried to stop him attacking her, then admitted kicking her as she lay on the floor. Maud required 44 stitches in wounds to various parts of her body but at 4.30 the following morning she died of shock and a perforated wound in the larynx. Povall made no reply as he was charged with murder.

On 16th June Povall appeared at the Liverpool assizes before Mr Justice Lawrence, with the prosecution opening the case by referring to it as a 'sad one.' The couple's eldest daughter Hilda said they had appeared to be fine on the evening before the killing and were planning to go out together. The lodger Bollingham recalled that they had been friendly that night, but that Maud's face was bruised and they had argued earlier in the week. He described how he had tried to pull Povall from his wife but couldn't do so and ran outside to find help. Asked how Povall was acting, Bollingham responded that he was 'in a frenzy, like a man possessed.' He also said that he was broken hearted at the affair as he loved her so much.

Under cross examination from Rose Heilbron, Hilda said that her parents relationship was good until he went away to sea in 1941. After that, he mother began frequenting public houses and bringing men back to the house, including the Dutch seaman. Hilda went on to say that she had often ordered the Dutchman out of the house and this association caused her to leave home to go and live with her grandmother in Moreton. 

Dr W H Grace, a lecturer in forensic psychology at the University of Liverpool said that in his opinion the injuries on Maud were consistent with somebody who had lost control. In her closing speech, Miss Heilbron said the case was 'one of the saddest possible to be recounted in these courts.' She referred to Povall as a devoted family man and described how Hilda had endured the pain of being devoted to both parents and having to try and hide her mother's infatuation with another man from her father. 

The jury agreed with Miss Heilbron's plea to find Povall guilty of manslaughter rather than murder and he was then sentenced to ten years penal servitude.

Hit With an Iron and Gassed

A man who knocked his wife unconscious with an iron then put her head in an oven and gassed her to death was found guilty but insane.

Early in 1942 Walter Bentick was discharged from the RAF due to his nerves and returned to his family at 61 Greenwich Road, Fazakerley. The 31 year old lived there with his 26 year old wife Pauline and two young children, aged two and three. The couple had their occasional quarrels, resulting from his medical condition, but were generally very happy.

On 25th April 1943 at around 10pm two of Pauline's sisters called round and were told by Walter that she had left him. An hour later, another sister called and demanded more answers, leading to Walter pointing to the kitchen and saying that she was in there. Her sister then found Pauline dead, her head resting on an open oven door. Walter said that they had been happy all afternoon but she had made him do it and he had been trying to die all afternoon but couldn't.

When Walter was questioned by police he told them that he had hit his wife with an iron and that he hadn't intended it. When his clothing was searched, what appeared to be a suicide note was found which read 'Please Pauline always look after the children, never forget that I always loved you and them. I will always be near you but do not forget me, I love you all, Wallie.' A post mortem was carried out which established that Pauline was pregnant and that the blow to the head had caused a fracture of the skull but carbon monoxide poisoning was the cause of death. 

Walter was committed for trial at the Liverpool Assizes, where he was defended by Rose Heilbron on 9th June. Pauline's sisters stated that she had told them Walter had been acting oddly in the preceding weeks, and that he was always fidgety on trams and often walked in circles around the bedroom at night. Miss Heilbron produced evidence that showed both Walter's father and brother had died in mental homes and two doctors who had examined him since the killing felt that he had suffered serious brain damage as a result of epilepsy. 

Without leaving the box the jury returned a verdict of guilty but insane, leading to Walter being detained at His Majesty's pleasure. He died in an asylum in Macclesfield in 1985.

Mother and Baby in Lake

A woman who drowned her baby in the lake of a Liverpool park was charged with murder but found to be insane.

On the afternoon of Saturday 16th January 1943 two boys were playing in Greenbank Park and saw a woman wade out of the boating lake. She then said 'Where is my baby, we are mental.' A member of the Women's Land Army, Betty Critchley, was passing and swam into the lake, retrieving the body of her two year old daughter Freda.

The woman in question was 31 year old Robina Rackham, whose husband was away in the merchant navy. She was taken to hospital where a note was found in her clothing which said 'mother and baby in lake, we are losing our minds - Rackham 106 Salisbury Road, Liverpool 15.' When the police questioned her, she said that both she and Freda were incurably ill and she felt that her daughter would be better off dead. A post mortem however showed that the little girl had been in good health and when charged Robina said 'I don't know whats the matter with me.'

At the Manchester assizes Robina the court heard that Robina had been a very loving mother to her daughter. She was found guilty but insane and ordered to be detained at His Majesty's Pleasure. The judge thanked Miss Critchley, saying what she had done was 'plucky and creditable on a cold winter's afternoon'.

Robinha lived to the age of eighty and died at a nursing home in Ullet Road in 1992. She was buried alongside Freda at Toxteth Park Cemetery.

A Chinese Vendetta

A Chinese man whose father was poisoned caught up with his killer in Liverpool and was sentenced to death after stabbing him.

At around 5pm on 31st January 1943 cries were heard coming from the library of the Chinese Seaman's Welfare Centre in Bedford Street North. A man named Wing Kee Foong who went to investigate saw two men clawing at each others throats, covered in blood. 

One of those fighting was Foong's fellow ship's steward, 24 year old Hung Leung, who appeared to be gaining the upper hand. Foong asked what was going on and Leung explained that four years earlier in China his father had been poisoned by the man he was fighting with, Chang Ling Fok. Foong tried to persuade Leung to let go, but knowing that it was custom the death should be avenged, he had little hope of doing so. Even when warned he could hang, Leung said he was prepared for that.

When Fok 33 year old arrived at hospital he was already dead, a broken knife being found embedded in his neck. Leung was committed for trial at the Manchester assizes where he was asked by the judge how he was sure that Fok had killed his father. He replied that he had been told by his mother, the police and other members of the household. He then resigned his job and joined a shipping company, eventually tracking Fok down in Liverpool after taking lodgings in Aigburth Road. Leung explained that Fok had stolen $59,000 from his father and begged forgiveness when found, saying he had been destitute and starving at the time.

Leung was found guilty but with a strong recommendation for mercy by the jury. He was sentenced to death but later reprieved by the Home Secretary and the the sentence commuted to life imprisonment.

Killed and Dumped in a Cellar

A ship's fireman was hanged in 1943 for killing a woman he was having a relationship with and dumping her body in a cellar.

28 year old Gwendoline Sweeney was separated from her husband and became a prostitute who plied her trade around the docks. On 17th August 1943 she spent the evening drinking with 26 year old marine fireman Thomas James and his friend George Dias.

After leaving the Bush hotel in St James Street Dias left James and Sweeney in Kitchen Street where they were seen to go into a bombed out house together. The following day James told Dias he was worried about Sweeney and they both went to Kitchen Street where her mutilated body was found. Dias told the police, who arrested James at his lodgings in Upper Warwick Street that evening.

When James was questioned by detectives he made an error that would go a long way to convicting him, telling them that if he had killed her he wouldn't have done it by strangulation. At this moment, the cause of death hadn't been disclosed. This led to him being charged with murder and after being found guilty at his trial he was sentenced to death. James, who the press referred to as 'coloured' at every opportunity, was hanged on 29th December.