Background Domestic Situation On Monday the 28th of December 1863, Alice Holt became the last woman to be executed at Chester. 27 year old widow, Alice Hewitt, was co-habiting with her boyfriend, George Holt, in a two-up, two-down slum house in Great Egerton Street in Stockport in Cheshire. She had adopted his surname and called … Read more
Early Life and Career Catherine Wilson was born in Boston, Lincolnshire, in 1822. As an adult, she worked as a nurse, initially in Spalding, Lincolnshire, although it is not clear whether she actually trained or qualified as one. Crimes It is thought that her career as a murderer began in 1853 and lasted until 1862, … Read more
John Leone, age 22, (also given as Lyons), Francisco Blanco, 23, Ambrosio (also Mauricio) Duranno, 25, Miguel Lopez, 22, all of Spanish/Filipino origin from Manila and Marcus Vartus, (or Watto), 23, Levantine Turkish subject of Greek ancestry, were executed at Newgate on Monday the 22nd of February 1864 by William Calcraft. The execution attracted a huge crowd, despite the poor … Read more
45 year old Mary Ann Ashford became the last woman to be hanged in public in the county of Devon. She was executed in front of the County Gaol at Exeter before a crowd estimated at between 15 and 20,000 at 8.00 a.m. on Wednesday the 28th of March 1866 for the murder by arsenic poisoning of her husband of 20 years, 45 year … Read more
There was considerable public concern about the safety of train travel in the 1860s, so a murder occurring on the railway was headline news. The person convicted of this crime was a young German called Franz Műller, aged 23, who had originated in Cologne and was struggling to make a living as a tailor in … Read more
