No Reprieve For Man Who Stabbed Partner

In April 1894 a Kirkdale man stabbed his partner to death after accusing her of infidelity and failed in his appeal to have his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment.

John Langford, a 40 year old confectioner who was originally from Shropshire, separated from his wife and began co-habiting with a woman named Elizabeth Stephen and her three children in Cockerell Street off Walton Road.

Both were prone to drunkenness and Elizabeth spent Easter Monday, 2nd April drinking most of the day, with Langford  believing she was out with another man. He went out to work a nightshift, leaving her lying intoxicated on a rug in front of the fire. The next morning he came home to find Elizabeth had gone out, and found her drinking with two women in a pub on the corner of Florence Street and Walton Road.

After Langford struck her Elizabeth ran off but he caught up with her in the entry behind Cockerell Street and plunged a knife into her chest. He then tried to slit his own throat and both were taken to the Stanley Hospital in Stanley Road. Elizabeth died that day but did manage to tell police that she had brought the trouble on to herself due to her conduct. Langford survived and police stood guard by his bed, with him eventually being fit enough to appear before magistrates on 17th April on a murder charge.

On 3rd May Langford stood trial at the Liverpool Assizes and was found guilty, but with a recommendation for mercy. He was sentenced to death by Justice Day and the expected commutation to life imprisonment never came. Langford was hanged at Walton by James Billington on 22nd May. He went to the gallows with a resigned acceptance in an execution which members of the press were allowed to witness for the first time in many years.

Imprisoned In Attic And Beaten To Death

In 1894 John Walber was kept chained up in his home for four months before being beaten to death by his wife who suspected him of infidelity.

50 year old John and his wife Margaret, 53, lived at 6 Gildart Street, off London Road, along with Margaret's son John Murray and a number of lodgers. They had married in 1888 but it was not a happy one, with both of them addicted to drink. John was a French polisher while Margaret ran a small grocery store at the address.

In 1893 Anne Connolly, who had been in a relationship with John in the 1870s moved into a house in nearby Oakes Street and renewed her acquaintance with John again, although he maintained it was purely on a friendship basis. One afternoon that summer John told Margaret that he was going out for a drink and after she had followed him to Connolly's house, she burst the door down and punched him several times.

When John returned home later that evening there were further arguments before he collapsed drunk. When he awoke, he found that he was stripped and chained to the wall of his attic, the door of which had been padlocked. Margaret had managed to get him up there with the help of her son.

For four months John was kept in the attic, his non appearance being explained away to lodgers by the fact that he was sick and in need of a long rest. However on 16th November a great disturbance was heard from the attic and Margaret told other residents that her son John had beaten her husband to death and fled the property. When the police arrived, they found what the Liverpool Mercury described as a gruesome sight. John had been beaten with the chain and also with a porcelain chamber pot, which was now smashed and the walls were covered in blood.

Margaret was taken in for questioning and after the police found inconsistencies in her story and bloodstains in her clothing, she made a statement to the effect that she had hit him with a chain after seeing he had managed to get some trousers on and was looking to leave the property. Her son was traced to Dublin and was brought back to Liverpool for questioning, where he told police that his mother had given him two gold sovereigns and sent him away after he had come across Margaret standing next to John's dead body.

Margaret was charged and stood trial at Liverpool Assizes on 14th March 1894. It did not take the jury long to reach a verdict of guilty and Margaret was sentenced to death by Justice Day. After being given consolation by Father Wade, she was hanged at Walton on 2nd April by James Billington. The press reported that after initially acting with a resigned acceptance, she broke down crying when the pinionning started.

Man Hanged For Shooting Sister In Law

In 1904 William Kirwan was sentenced to death after shooting his sister in law dead as he believed she was covering up his wife's extra marital affair.

Kirwan, a butcher, lived with his wife Catherine and two children in Richmond Row, Everton (below). Catherine's sister Mary Pike lived in Great Newton Street, that runs from London Road to Brownlow Hill and it is there that the murder took place.

On 26th February 1904 Kirwan followed Catherine to her sister's house and accused her of the affair, also saying that the house in Great Newton Street was being used as a brothel. As Catherine asked Mary to confirm her whereabouts on the days Kirwan believed she had been unfaithful, he produced a revolver and fired shots at both sisters then left the house.

Neither woman had been hit by the shots and a lodger in the property managed to bolt the door and get them both to safety before shouting for a policeman. When a constable arrived Kirwan surrendered himself but as Mary came out of the house to confirm that it was him who had fired the shots, he managed to take the gun out of his pocket and shoot her in the stomach.

As the officer arrested and disarmed him, Kirwan admitted that he had intended to kill both women. Mary died a few days later and the charge of attempted murder was increased to wilful murder. He attempted to justify the shooting because of the alleged infidelity but the fact it had been witnessed by a policeman meant that there was only ever going to be one verdict - guilty.

Kirwan was hanged by James Billington on 31st May 1904 in a double execution alongside Ping Lun. Due to the notoriety of the case, Kirwan's wife and children changed their name to Kirwin, with Catherine remarrying in 1918.