Criminal Wirral

By Daniel K Longman and Terry Deary

'Criminal Wirral' is an intriguing and entertaining collection of some of the strangest, most despicable and comical crimes that took place on the Wirral peninsula from the Victorian era up until the early twentieth century. Daniel K. Longman's painstaking research has uncovered many fascinating cases that have been long forgotten, and he sheds new light on local causes celebres. The tales are supported by a number of maps with many contemporary and modern photographs, which help to bring these events and the people featured in them to life. Criminal Wirral will appeal to anyone who has an interest in the darker side of Wirral's history.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The History Press
• Release date: Jun 29, 2006
• ISBN: 9780750953290

Book preview

Histories’

INTRODUCTION

The Borough of Wirral has a long and colourful history. There has always been crime on the Wirral, even before its mention in the Domesday Book in 1086. Although very few records detailing crimes from so far back in time exist, it is known that in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Wirral was infamous for its smugglers and bandits.

Many places, such as Old Mother Redcap’s pub, which stood at the bottom of what is now Caithness Drive in Wallasey, were associated with the criminal underworld. In the Georgian era that part of the Wirral was separated from the rest of the peninsula by a regular tidal pool (hence its Gaelic name ‘Wealas Eye’, which roughly translated means Welshman’s or Stranger’s Island), which ensured that the pub was more or less free of unwanted guests from the mainland. Just as well, because Old Mother Redcap’s was notorious with smugglers and outlaws far and near. The inn got its name in the 1770s when it was owned by Polly Jones who, as the legend goes, always used to wear a red hood or cap. She was said to be a fresh-faced, Cheshire-accented woman who was very well acquainted with many local sailors. She owned the inn, which was riddled with secret storage spaces for stolen goods, and was designed to be a stronghold against unwanted visitors. Its imposing front door was 5 inches thick and heavily reinforced, as were the sturdy shutters on the windows. Investigating customs officers who tried to enter the pub could be ‘dealt with’ via a concealed trapdoor. Any attempts at forcing the heavy front door would release a catch that caused the trapdoor to fly open, instantaneously throwing whoever was standing above into a darkened cellar below!

Birkenhead Police, 28 March 1911. Back row, left to right: Detective Officer Bowden, Detective Officer W. Hughes, Detective Officer Lees, Detective Officer Pearson. Front row: Detective Sergeant Mountfield, Detective Inspector Eakins, Detective Officer Iball. (Photograph taken by J. Long, Bridewell Keeper)

Detective Sergeant Mountfield’s truncheon. (Linda Doyle, great-granddaughter)

After the year 1660 the number of offences that carried the death penalty increased dramatically. By 1795 a collection of laws, known as ‘The Bloody Code’, listed over two hundred felonies that were punishable by execution. This penalty was not only applicable to what we today would call serious crimes, but also to petty crimes such as pickpocketing, animal theft and the concealment of effects by bankrupts. The hanging of Archibald Girdwood at Tyburn in the West Midlands on Wednesday 17 July 1775 offers a clear example of how merciless the law could be. He was hanged for sending a threatening letter.

Not only adults suffered the punishment of execution. At the Dorchester Assizes in March 1794 fifteen-year-old Elizabeth Marsh was convicted of the murder of her grandfather. She was publicly hanged two days later. On 1 August 1831, John Bell was hanged for the murder of thirteen-year-old Richard Taylor in Maidstone prison. The fourteen-year-old youth and his eleven-year-old brother James, killed Richard for the sum of 9s which he was collecting from the Parish on behalf of his disabled father. John’s execution was witnessed by some five thousand people and his body given to surgeons in Rochester for dissection.

Although children were frequently sentenced to death (a mandatory sentence for many crimes in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries) there is little actual evidence that anyone under fourteen years of age was hanged in the nineteenth century, as many considered the punishment to be too severe.

The Victorian era saw a new crime wave sweep across Britain. However, attitudes were changing and after 1834 the number of crimes for which the ultimate penalty could be handed down was reduced considerably. ‘The Bloody Code’ of the eighteenth century had all but disappeared. Capital punishment was retained only for murderers and traitors.

Victorian society was undergoing substantial change. A decline in agriculture forced mass migration from rural areas into the rapidly growing cities where work could more readily be found. By 1891 the picturesque countryside village of Thornton Hough had a population of only 487, compared with 58,287 working in the flourishing shipping town of Birkenhead.

Overcrowding, immigration, poverty and an ever-increasing divide between rich and poor created a social environment in which new and more daring crimes began to take place. Larceny, whether housebreaking or pickpocketing, was, in many areas, the most prevalent of offences.

The Magistrates’ Court in Chester Street was a location for criminal proceedings from 1887 onwards.

What many would consider the most famous crimes of the period were committed in Whitechapel, London, in 1888. Between the months of August and November, referred to by some as ‘The Autumn of Terror’, five prostitutes were brutally murdered by an unknown killer, nicknamed Jack the Ripper. Despite the police’s best efforts, the infamous murderer was never brought to justice.

Many believe that if this madman was operating today the police, with all of the technologically advanced methods available to them, would have no problem in catching the elusive serial killer.

Walk into any modern shopping centre and you will see many closed circuit television cameras scanning the horizon, keeping a watchful electronic eye on any would-be thieves. Listen, and you will hear the distinctive sound of the siren of a blue and yellow police patrol car as it speedily makes its way to another crime scene. Look up, and watch as the bright beam of a searchlight illuminates the back alleys from an all-seeing police helicopter hovering above. The mass of newspapers, the array of radio reports and the variety of popular television programmes such as Crimewatch constantly warn us to be on the lookout for various wanted criminals.

Yet, with all of this media attention and the amazing and innovative crime fighting gadgets that are available, crime is still a major problem on our streets. According to the British Crime Survey figures for 2003/2004, the total number of crimes committed in England and Wales was approximately 11,716,000. It has been calculated that 26 per cent of the population fell victim to some sort of crime in those years. That is an awful lot of victims.

Nevertheless, the situation has improved immeasurably since Georgian and Victorian times. In a period when a person could be hanged for being in the company of gypsies for a month, or transported to the other side of the world for petty theft, today’s tolerant judicial system would be seen as positively idyllic. Some people believe that the Anti-Social Behaviour Orders received by modern-day Oliver Twists for their yobbish behaviour are punishments that are neither appropriate nor suitable. My own opinion is irrelevant, but I am sure you will agree that the death penalty for such crimes, as used to be the case, is certainly not the answer.

This book features a number of interesting, and sometimes macabre, tales concerning crimes that were committed among the streets and people of Wirral. Read about the gruesome end of John Horridge by means of a cutthroat razor, the unusual defence of Robert Travis against his charge of murder, and the terrifying gang-attack that took place in a quaint country pub. You will discover true tales of murder, suicide, robbery and many more examples of villainous and heinous crimes from times gone by.

Daniel K. Longman

THE MAD MAID

OF OXTON

During the nineteenth century many Wirral homes had at least one maid living in, with their employer’s family. A maid’s chores consisted of whatever her master or mistress chose to impose. From preparing breakfast as early as six in the morning to meticulously scrubbing the flagstones outside the front door in the evening, a maid’s work was never done. The following story highlights a rare incident that happened in one of the most respectable parts of the borough over a century ago.

Mary Eccles, a young domestic servant, was alone with her elderly employer Martha Samuels at 29 Kings Mount, Oxton. Miss Samuels had noticed a change in her servant’s behaviour in recent weeks and was not only concerned for Mary’s well-being but also for her own. She had observed how the once respectable and hardworking servant had become slightly disturbed and was not the woman she had first employed.

King’s Mount, Oxton, on a map dating from 1899.

No. 29 Kings Mount, Oxton.

Mary seemed to be suffering from strange delusions and believed that her mistress intended to kill her. She was often nervous in Miss Samuel’s presence and did not like to be alone with her.

On 11 March 1891 Miss Eccles’ state of mind took a turn for the worse. That night, while she was carrying out her household duties, Mary became convinced that Miss Samuels, a woman of sixty-eight years of age, was going to kill her. In the past few days Mary had believed that she had felt a knife prod against her three or four times, and she was anxious for her life as she thought Miss Samuels had been trying to stab her in the back with a carving knife.

Mary panicked, ran up to her bedroom and bolted the door. She dragged all of the heavy items of furniture up against the door, making it impossible for anyone to get in.

Next morning, however, Mary believed that her mistress had somehow managed to get into the room and hide under her bed, whence she had assaulted the paranoid maid during the night.

Mary got dressed in preparation for starting work but was worried about going downstairs in case of any further attacks. Eventually the anxious young servant managed to pluck up enough courage to begin work at about eleven o’clock.

Mary hastily made her way down the stairs and into the elegant dining room, where she took out a rag and knelt down to start cleaning the dusty grate. After a moment or two she could feel a presence standing over her. She turned. It was Miss Samuels, who was quite annoyed that her servant had only now just begun work and asked what she had been doing all morning.

Mary was terrified. Fearing that she was about to meet her end, she stood up menacingly and came at Miss Samuels, rapidly closing the small gap that stood between them. The disturbed servant then grappled with the aged woman and forcefully wrestled her to the ground. Mary seemed to have the fixed idea that she was struggling for her life and grabbed for the nearest thing that she could to use against the frightened old woman. With one hand Mary was able to reach for a heavy door key all the while holding down Miss Samuels with the other. Once it was firmly in her grip, Mary used the key as a weapon and struck her employer repeatedly in the face,