William Broome - a robbery murder.

John Ellis and William Willis hanged 25 year old William Broome, aka William Brookes, at Reading Gaol at 8.00 a.m. on Thursday the 24th of November 1910 for the murder of 70 year old Isabella Wilson. Those present at the execution were the Governor, Captain T. F. W. Wisden, Dr. Freeman, the prison surgeon, the Under sheriff of Buchinghamshire, Mr. Parrott and the chaplain, the Rev. M. T. Friend. Newspaper reporters were not admitted. John Ellis gave Broome a drop of 7’ 9” for his 155 lb. body weight, this having the desired result. The LPC4 form noted that there was no abrasion on the neck but subcutaneous bleeding from underneath the noose. The inquest was held before the coroner, Mr. W. Weedon later that morning.

Isabella Wilson had run a second hand clothes shop at 22 High Street in Slough for the previous six years. It appears that she did not trust banks and wrapped her money in a piece of brown paper and kept it in a bag. On Friday the 15th of July 1910, this bag contained 19 gold sovereigns and two half sovereigns. The paper in which they had been wrapped clearly showed the imprints of the coins. Around 4 p.m. the milkman called as usual but got no answer, but noticed that the door between the shop and the living room was closed, which it normally wasn’t.

Between noon and 1 p.m. on the day of the murder a man was seen loitering in High Street by five different people and he was later identified as William Broome, who had lived next door to Isabella until he had moved to Harlesden in London a month before the murder. 25 year old Broome was an unemployed army reservist in the Yeomanry and a motor engineer.

Isabella’s sister in law, Mrs. White, discovered Isabella’s fully clothed body lying on the floor in the living room when she and her husband visited on the Friday evening. Her husband fetched Police Superintendent Pearman and Dr. Fraser, who pronounced her dead. She had been hit, bound and gagged and suffocated with a cushion.

Broome was questioned by police but denied having been to Slough on that Friday. The police were able to show train times from Paddington to Slough and back that would have given Broome sufficient time to get there and back on the day of the murder. Officers noted that he had two parallel scratches on his face, which they suspected were caused by Isabella trying to defend herself and that had not been noticed on the previous day. They were able to trace a chemist near Paddington station who said that a man answering Broome’s description had been in the shop asking for something to remove facial scratches. In another chemists near Oxford Street he had bought some face lotion. His landlady, Anna Lexius, had also noted the scratches which had not been there earlier on the Friday of the murder. His erstwhile girlfriend, Ellen Bruce testified that he was always short of money and that she had broken up with him as she saw no prospect of marriage. Dr. William Wilcox examined various items removed from the crime scene and clippings from Isabella’s finger nails and was able to provide forensic evidence at trial. All above was reported in the South Bucks Standard newspaper over three and a half columns.

A search of Broome’s room revealed the stolen coins hidden in a clean envelope inside a box.

He was tried at Aylesbury on the 14th and 15th of October 1910 before Mr. Justice Bucknill. The jury required just 13 minutes to reach their verdict. Broome’s appeal was heard before the Lord Chief Justice and Justices Darling and Pickford and was dismissed on the 7th of November.

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