Man Kills Brother In Law After Drinking Session

In 1899 the decision by two Kirkdale family members to stay off work and spend the day drinking had fatal consequences when one killed the other after a row.

On 6th November 1899 dock labourer Thomas O'Byrne, who was 29 and lived at 1 Blackfield Street in Kirkdale, decided not to go to work and go out drinking with James Toolan, who was married to O'Byrne's sister Joanna. All three lived at the same house along with Thomas and Joanna's mother Bridget.

Their drinking session began before breakfast and at 930am they went to a pub, taking Bridget with them. After returning to the house at 1130am Thomas went out to get some more liquor but when he got back he found that Bridget had gone out. This angered him and he told both Joanna and James that he would 'do for you' if anything happened to her.

As the two men argued across the table Joanna tried to intervene but before she could do so Thomas picked up a small knife that was used for cutting tobacco and plunged it into James's chest. James ran outside but collapsed in nearby Latham Street. A pub landlord called for the police but James was pronounced dead on arrival at Stanley Hospital.

At the inquest on 16th November Joanna told the coroner that both men were usually best of friends but were 'stupidly drunk.' On 1st December Thomas appeared before the Liverpool Assizes charged with murder, which he denied on the basis that he was too drunk to know what he was doing. His defence counsel argued for total acquittal so he could continue looking after his aged mother, but the jury found him guilty of manslaughter, accepting that there had been no intent to kill. He was sentenced to ten years penal servitude.

Insane Woman Cuts Daughter's Throat

One of the last murders to take place in the 1800s saw a mother cut the throat of her four month old daughter in Toxteth.

Rose Earle lived in Chesterfield Street with John Fletcher, a commercial traveller, and their four month old baby, also called Rose Earle. On the morning of Monday 14th August 1899 Rose, who had told John a few days earlier that her mind was going, called her domestic servant Ellen Woolley down to the cellar. When Ellen arrived Rose told her that she had 'done it' and took her to the front bedroom where baby Rose was lying on the bed in a pool of blood.

Ellen ran for assistance and Mrs Campbell, a resident of Upper Parliament Street, came into the house. When she asked Rose what had happened she replied that she had been unable to leave her baby with anyone when she had gone. A police officer was called and as she was arrested Rose replied 'Yes, Yes, I am very very sorry.' A doctor arrived at the house whilst Rose was having a fit and carried out a post mortem, concluding that the baby had died after having the windpipe cut.

Whilst on remand at Walton Gaol doctors had serious concerns about Rose's ability to enter any pleas or understand the court proceedings. She often refused food as she believed it had been poisoned and said that she had been called upon by God to destroy herself. Dr Wigglesworth from the Rainhill Asylum said that she was unfit to plead and the judge directed that she be detained during Her Majesty's Pleasure.

Murder By A Mother In Kirkdale

In 1892 there was a shocking domestic tragedy in Kirkdale when  two children were strangled by their mother.

At 5am on 15th February 1892 John Lascelles left his home at 54 Freeland Street to go to work at the Great Howard Street goods depot, where he was a guard for the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Company. His wife Mary and children -six month old Elizabeth and three year old John Henry were still in bed- with Mary commenting that she was still not feeling well, having been struck by a bout of influenza the week before. 

John was 38 year old former piano teacher Mary's second husband, her first having been the Captain of a steamship that drowned nine years earlier. They were described by the Liverpool Mercury as a couple who were 'very respectable quiet folks'.

Around 9am Catherine Newey, a relative of Mary's called around, as she often did so as she had been suffering from depression since Elizabeth's birth. Catherine was horrified when Mary opened the door wearing a nightdress which was covered in blood, and with a washing line tied around her neck. She ran off to get help from neighbours, who entered the property to find Mary sat on the kitchen floor trying to pull the cord tighter.

Three women managed to free the cord and laid Mary down as she pointed towards the ceiling, her arms apparently cut and a knife nearby. A police officer was sought and he went upstairs where he found the bodies of the two children on the bed. Both had been strangled. An ambulance took Mary, whose life hung in the balance, to the Stanley Hospital and her husband was called home from work to the terrible scene at his home. He told the police officer that a few days earlier he had heard his wife say to a friend that it would be good to all die together, but hadn't realised just how serious she had been about this. Later that evening Mary's life was out of danger and she enquired about her children, having no idea that they were dead.

Mary remained in hospital for three months before she was charged with murder, telling police that she had no recollection of the events. At her trial on 28th May a doctor from the Rainhill Asylum told the jury that she was insane at the time of the killings. She was found guilty of murder but not responsible for her actions and as such detained at Her Majesty's pleasure. She died in an asylum twelve years later.

Condemned Man Warns of Drink Danger

In 1891 John Conway was hanged for the killing of 10 year old Nicholas Martin, whose body he had dumped in Sandon Dock.

The last time Nicholas was seen by any of his family was at a quarter to nine on the evening of Saturday 16th May, when he was playing ball outside his house in Bridgewater Street. His mother went to some shops and returned half an hour later and he was nowhere to be seen. However as Nicholas had a habit of going to an uncle's house in Great Howard Street he wasn't reported as missing to the police until the Monday.

On the Tuesday morning two gatemen at the Sandon Dock Basin pulled a black bag out of the water and found that it contained the badly mutilated body of Nicholas, whose feet had been cut off. Word soon got around the city of the find and Nicholas's father, also called    Nicholas, identified the body at a mortuary that evening. 

Enquiries focused on the black canvass bag that Nicholas's body had been placed in and it was soon found that it had been sold from a shop in Park Lane on the Monday afternoon. A vital clue left in the bag was some brown paper with the stamp of the Sailor's Union, who had an office in Stanhope Street. This allowed police to act swiftly and a search of the premises found a large quantity of blood. The following day the union's representative in South Liverpool, former marine fireman John Conway, was arrested at a lodging house in Bridgewater Street.

At the inquest Nicholas's mother was so distressed at the description of his body that she had to go and sit in the coroner's room. A verdict of wilful murder was returned and his funeral was held at the Church of St Vincent de Paul  and he was buried in Ford Cemetery.

Conway's trial took place on the 31st July and 1st August. The circumstantial evidence against him was overwhelming. Fellow boarding house lodgers identified the razor which was believed to be the murder weapon as his, boys said they saw Conway talking to Nicholas shortly before he disappeared and the shop owner confirmed that Conway had bought the bag. A cab driver also said that he had picked Conway up from Stanhope Street on the Monday night and dropped him off at the Pier Head carrying the bag which he was struggling with but refused help. 

Conway's defence was that the murder had been committed by an unknown foreign sailor and pointed out that he was of previous good character, had no motive and had been drinking and acting normally with friends on the Sunday. It took the jury half an hour to reach a verdict of guilty and Conway was sentenced to death.

Conway was executed at Kirkdale Gaol on 20th August, having finally made a written confession to the murder the day before in which he said that he had developed a morbid mania to see someone dying. As he was led to the scaffold he said to the executioner James Berry 'beware of drink.' Berry had miscalculated the drop and Conway was almost decapitated as he was hanged, leading to him returning straight home to Bradford and refusing to talk to reporters.

Triple Child Murder In Wavertree

In 1890 three young children were killed by their mother who had fallen ill after failing to settle in Liverpool.

In 1889 customs officer Charles Charlton was relocated to Liverpool from Southsea, taking up residence at 16 Garmoyle Road with his wife Leah and three children Bob (4) Dorothy (2) and new baby Barbara. Leah though failed to settle in the area and made few friends, becoming convinced that everybody was out to get her and she would often tell her husband as he left for work that she may be dead when he returned.

Only one side of Garmoyle Road was built then and when some bricks were placed opposite the Charlton home in readiness for more development and she told her husband that they were meant to kill her. No amount of persuasion could convince her otherwise and when the body of a local boy was found in a nearby claypit on the morning of Thursday 8th May, it triggered the catastrophic tragedy that left three young children dead.

Leah was certain that whoever had caused the death of the young boy would be coming for her family next and after putting her children to bed that night she cut their throats with a razor as they slept. When her husband returned home at 7.30pm she answered the door holding the razor, then calmly slashed herself across the throat. Charles sought assistance from a neighbour who managed to summon a policeman, who found the bodies of the older two children in their beds. When asked why she had killed two of her children, Leah wrote on a piece of paper that the mob were out to get them and that there was a third child. The body of 10 month old Barbara was then found in her cot.

After spending a night in the Royal Southern Hospital, Leah was taken to the Toxteth Workhouse Hospital the following day, where she was not expected to survive. Intrigued crowds gathered outside the house, where the bodies of the three children remained until the inquest on the Saturday, which was held at the nearby Bourne Arms hotel. A verdict of wilful murder was returned and they were buried in the same grave in Toxteth Park cemetery two days later at an internment attended by just Mr Charlton, his brother and a handful of police officers.

On 4th August 1890 Leah was tried at the Liverpool Assizes before Justice Vaughan Williams. Charles Charlton was in court to hear his wife described by the prosecution as a 'kind, affectionate and attentive mother' whose move away from her family and friends had led to her being in 'an unsatisfactory condition of health.' Doctors from Toxteth Workhouse, Walton Gaol and Rainhill Asylum all said she was suffering from melancholia, hallucinations and delusions. It took the jury no time at all to find Leah guilty but not responsible for her actions. She was then detained at Her Majesty's Pleasure.

Murder of a Sea Captain

In 1888 a seaman stabbed his captain to death whilst on a voyage to Liverpool but escaped the hangman's noose when the death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

On 5th March that year the Dovenby Hall left San Francisco bound for Liverpool carrying a cargo of grain. On board was a crew of 23, including Steward Charles Arthur, a 34 year old native of Barbados who had lived in Liverpool for a number of years.

Arthur had been on the outbound voyage and remained quiet for most of it, but in San Francisco there was a disagreement between the Captain, David Bailey, and a number of crew members that led to many leaving the ship and the recruitment of a new Chief Mate. On 30th March, Arthur was reprimanded by the 54 year old Captain and ordered to perform  menial duties on deck, temporarily relinquishing his role as a Steward.

Being forced to go on deck was the culmination of a week of berating for supposedly not carrying out his duties properly and the following morning Arthur snapped. One of the jobs he had to do as Steward was take a cup of tea to the Captain in his cabin at 5am but when he did so, he plunged a carving knife into Bailey's stomach as he lay in bed. The Chief Mate and a sailmaker heard screams and ran to the cabin, managing to disarm Arthur and then capturing him as he tried to jump overboard. Captain Bailey died from his injuries 24 hours later and was buried at sea, with the Chief Mate safely guiding the vessel back to Liverpool, arriving on 28th June.

Arthur, who had been held in irons for the rest of the voyage was handed over to the river police on arrival and appeared to be on good terms with the crew, most of whom shook hands with him as he was taken away. On being charged with murder he responded that he had done it, but 'under great provocation.' Standing by the quayside were Captain Bailey's wife and nephew, who heard about his terrible fate for the first time.

At the trial on 3rd August crew members told how the Captain had regularly complained about Arthur's work and threatened him. However, in summing up the judge said that the only grounds for a reduction of the charge to manslaughter were if Arthur had actually been assaulted himself. As it had been admitted that Bailey was lying in his bed at the time and the knife had been removed from the pantry, the jury had no option but to conclude that he was guilty of wilful murder.

Arthur was of previous good character and the jury recommended mercy due to the provocation. Following submissions from his family and the Seamen's Institute, a reprieve was granted and his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

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Orange Day Killing

In 1880 a killing with possible Sectarian undertones took place in Everton when a Protestant was stabbed by a Catholic.

On 12th July 1880, the traditional day for Orange Lodge parades, Matthew Foulkes and his wife took a wagonette to Hale where an Orange parade was taking place, although they did not join in this. After stopping for drinks at Garston on the way back, they arrived in Beresford Street at 8pm when their wagonette came under attack from bricks that were being thrown from 29 Beresford Street, the home of a 29 year old Catholic seaman named Ezra Male. His house was directly opposite number 30, where Mr and Mrs Foulkes lodged.

A squabble took place between Mrs Foulkes and Mrs Male, while a large crowd also gathered as three youths were taken away by police. Ezra Male then came running out of the house with a knife and slashed Mrs Foulkes down the arm, cutting her from the shoulder to elbow. Matthew Foulkes then went at Male and was stabbed in the stomach. He was taken to the Royal Infirmary, while Male was arrested initially for wounding. Matthew was able to give a statement the next day prior to dying from his injuries, his bowel having been protruded.

Male was charged with murder and appeared before the Liverpool Assizes on 30th July, when Mrs Foulkes was still in hospital recovering from her injuries and a miscarriage. Several witnesses said they had seen the two women arguing and that Foulkes had initially appeared to go at Male. With respect to whether the killing was motivated by religion, there is no doubt that Foulkes was wearing an orange lilly and that bricks were thrown from Male's house. However the two men had previously never spoken to each other and it is quite possible that it took place as a result of the two wives having had a disagreement a few days earlier.

In summing up the judge said that if Male was acting in self defence then it was manslaughter, but if he had come out of his property holding a knife it was murder. The jury deliberated for 35 minutes and found Male guilty of manslaughter, leading to the judge to tell him that the case was 'very near murder.' Male, who maintained just before sentencing that he had not been in possession of  a knife that day, was sentenced to twenty years penal servitude.