*****
Watson, Lionel
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Wagner, Louis
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Wales, Alan
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Walsh, Edward
*****
Watson, John Selby
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Wainewright, Thomas Griffiths
*****
Wainwright, Henry
*****
Walden, Bernard Hugh
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Walker, Vincent Knowles
*****
Wallace,William Herbert
*****
Wardlaw, David
*****
Webber, Joseph
*****
Wells, Thomas
*****
Welsh, Joseph
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West, Rosemary & Fred
*****
Westwood, Samuel
*****
Whiston, Enoch
*****
Whiteway, Alfred Charles
*****
Whitman, Charles
*****
Wiora, Ginter
*****
Williams, John
*****
Williams, John
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Williams, Shane
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Williamson, James Hutton
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Wilson, Howard
*****
Wingfield, John
*****
Woodfield, Randall, Brent
*****
Woolmington, Reginald
*****
Wooldridge, Charles Thomas
*****
Worthington, William
*****
Wright, William
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Wainewright, Thomas Griffiths
Thomas was raised by his grandfather. At the age of eighteen he joined
the army but soon tired of the lifestyle. When he was twenty-one, in 1821,
he married Eliza Frances Ward but was soon in trouble because of his extravagant
lifestyle. He turned to forgery and obtained £2,000 by forging the
signatures of the trustees of his stock. In 1829 his Thomas's grandfather
died after having a fit, though it is suspected that he was poisoned with
strychnine. Thomas inherited the old man's fortune but it was barely enough
to pay off his outstanding debts.
Mrs Abercromby, his wife's mother, came to stay with the couple and
brought with her two daughters, Helen and Madelaine. In 1830, Mrs Abercromby
also died, again probably poisoned by strychnine. Next to die was 20-year-old
Helen, but not before he had insured her life for £18,000. She succumbed
in December 1830. Wainewright did not, however, get his hands on the money.
The interest in the policies was held by Madelaine, who had assigned them
to Wainewright. The insurance company refused to pay and the case took
five years to resolve with the decision going against Wainewright.
He took flight and went to France. Here he insured the life of the father
of a girl that he was acquainted with for £3,000. The father soon
died and Thomas collected the insurance payout. He returned to England
in 1837 and was soon arrested but only charged with forgery. He was found
guilty and sentenced to transportation for life in Van Dieman's Land. He
died in Tasmania in 1858.
Walsh, Edward
No details at this time
Wales, Allen
Allen Wales was only twenty two when he was sentenced to death on 27 July
1928 for the murder of his wife, Isabella, a domestic servant. He continually
ill treated her and as a result she left him and went to stay with her
mother, taking their nine month old son with her. On the day of the murder.
he had visited her mother's house and tried to persuade his wife to come
home. When this failed. he dragged her into a back alley and cut her throat
with a knife his mother had lent him to mend his boots. Isabella bled to
death in front of her horrified mother and neighbours. Wales was soon detained
and charged with the murder. He was visited in the condemned cell in Edinburgh
by his parents and child. A few hours after he bade them farewell for the
last time. he was led to the new scaffold and hanged by Robert Baxter and
Henry Pollard. It was the first execution at Saughton Prison.
Wright, William
William Wright was convicted of the murder of his girlfriend, Annie Coulbeck
who was thirty four years old. At the time of the murder she lived
alone in a cottage at Caister, Lincolnshire. Thirty nine year old Wright
was a tailor by trade. He had got Annie pregnant and was not pleased
and was heard to tell a friend that he would 'sort out her condition.'
On 29 October 1919, she was found strangled at her cottage. Wright was
the obvious suspect and when brought in for questioning soon confessed
that he had strangled her following an argument over a broach he claimed
had been given to her by another man. Wright was found guilty and sentenced
to death. The sentence was carried out by Thomas Pierrepoint on the
10th March 1920.
Williamson, James Hutton
James Hutton Williamson was sentenced to death at Durham Assizes by Mr
Justice Bray on 1 March 1922, and hanged by Thomas Pierrepoint for the
murder of his wife at Houghton-le-Spring by cutting her throat. The
fatal wound was so bad it almost severed her head. This foul act was the
result of a quarrel that had taken place on the 10th January 1922.
James Williamson was thirty seven years old when he was hanged.
Westwood, Samuel
Samuel Westwood was only 26 when he was hanged by John Ellis for the murder
of his wife. Westwood who was a keysmith was found guilty of murder
at Stafford Assizes and his plea of manslaughter was rejected. He
had apparently attacked his wife at Willenhall on 11 September while she
was staying with her mother-in-law. They had argued the day before
and she had left him. He was here to ask her to come home but when
she refused he stabbed her. The sentence of death was carried out
in Birmingham on the 30th December 1920.
Wainwright, Henry
Henry met 20-year-old milliner's apprentice Harriet Louisa Lane in 1871
and installed her as his mistress in a house in Mile End. Wainwright was
a brush-manufacturer with a shop, and wife, at 215 Whitechapel Road. Over
the next couple of years Harriet, who called herself Mrs Percy King, had
two children by Wainwright. Henry found that the cost of running two homes
was getting too much for his limited income and moved Harriet and the children
to cheaper accommodation in Sidney Square. Even this could not prevent
him becoming bankrupt.
Harriet arranged for friends to look after the children and the last
that was seen of her was when she left Sidney Square with her night clothes
wrapped in a parcel. When the friends became worried about Harriet's disappearance
Wainwright told them that she had gone to Brighton. This was followed by
a letter that explained that she was going to live on the continent with
a man named Edward Frieake.
Because of his financial position Wainwright was forced to move from
his shop and enlisted the help of a former employee named Stokes to help
him move two parcels. Stokes noticed the weight of the parcels and the
disagreeable smell and, while Wainwright went to fetch a taxi, he looked
inside one of the bundles. It contained a decomposing arm and head. He
helped Wainwright load the parcels into the cab and then decided to follow
on foot. Stokes summoned a policeman and they apprehended Wainwright taking
the parcels into his brother's house.
Wainwright had killed Harriet at his shop and buried her under the floor.
Then, a year later and aided by his brother, Thomas alias Frieake, they
had disinterred the body and cut it into manageable pieces.
The pair were tried at the Old Bailey in November 1875. Thomas Wainwright
was sentenced to seven years imprisonment and Henry was sentenced to death.
He was hanged outside Newgate on 21st December 1875.
Walden, Bernard Hugh
Walden was a 33-year-old lecturer at Rotherham Technical College. He was
convicted of a homosexual offence in 1949. He later became infatuated with
a woman on campus, Miss J Moran, and proposed to her. But she already had
a boyfriend and resisted Walden's advances towards her. Consumed by jealousy,
he shot dead both the woman and her boyfriend, N. Saxton.
At his trial in 1959 he told the court 'I am not as other men. I am
a cripple and must be armed to put me on fair terms with others... I have
an absolute right to kill.' He was found guilty and sentenced to death.
Although he was diagnosed as suffering from a chronic paranoid disorder,
he was hanged at Armley Jail, Leeds, on 14th August 1959.
Walker, Vincent Knowles
No details on this case at this time
Wallace,William Herbert
Wallace was a 52-year-old, mild-mannered, insurance agent for Prudential
Assurance. He had, for seventeen years, lived quietly with his wife, Julia,
at 29 Wolverton Street, Anfield, Liverpool. Wallace regularly played chess
at the Liverpool Central Chess Club and was due to play a game there on
the evening of 19th January 1931. Before Wallace arrived at the
club that evening the club received a telephone call for Wallace from
a man who said his name was R.M. Qualtrough. He left a message with the
club captain asking Wallace to visit him at his home, 25 Menlove Gardens
East, Mossley Hill, at 7.30pm the following evening.
Wallace had never heard of Qualtrough or Menlove Gardens East but left
home the following evening around 6.45pm. There was, however, a Menlove
Gardens West and Wallace spent two hours searching in vain for Menlove
Gardens East before returning home. Here he found his wife lying face-down
on the parlour floor with her head smashed. Underneath the body was Wallace's
mackintosh, heavily blood-stained and partly burnt. A poker was missing
from the house. The police were summoned and Wallace informed them that
he thought about £4 was missing from his cash box.
The police thought Wallace's story of the non-existent Qualtrough and
Menlove Gardens East a rouse to establish an alibi and charged Wallace
with the murder of his wife. His trial took place at Liverpool Assizes
in April 1931. The pathologist who carried out the post-mortem placed the
time of death before 6pm, even though a local milk boy testified that he
had seen Mrs Wallace alive at 6.30pm. The prosecution contended that Wallace
had made the mysterious phone call on his way to the chess club. On the
evening of the murder he had stripped naked and donned the mackintosh before
bludgeoning his wife. The jury found Wallace guilty and he was sentenced
to death.
On 18th May Wallace's appeal was heard by the Lord Chief Justice. The
appeal was based on the contention that the verdict was not supported by
the evidence. In a ruling that made British legal history, the Lord Chief
Justice agreed and overturned the verdict and Wallace was freed.
He returned to work but was plagued by rumours and gossip and his health
deteriorated. He died of a kidney disorder two years later.
Wardlaw, David
No details on this case at this time
Webber, Joseph
No details on this case at this time
Watson, John Selby
John Selby Watson was the headmaster of London grammar school who married
Anne Armstrong in 1845. He had studied classics and had been ordained in
1839. He had taken a curacy in Somerset before moving to the post in London
in 1844. The school was quite successful but maybe because of changing
times by 1870, the number of pupils had fallen and the governors were forced
to give the 66 year old master notice.
On 8th October 1871 he called his servant, Ellen Pyne, to him and said
that his wife had 'gone out of town. He added that she was to call for
a
doctor if she found anything wrong with him the following morning. The
servant thought this was a bit strange but he was getting on a bit. She
later found him unconscious and immediately sent for the doctor. Watson
had tried to commit suicide by taking prussic acid. He had left two notes,
one, addressed to the servant, contained her wages and the other, addressed
to the doctor, In it he said that he had killed his wife in a fit of rage
to which she provoked him. It might have been better for him had he not
given instructions to the servant to call the doctor as he was revived.
Anne Watson's body was found upstairs in a locked bedroom. He had battered
her to death with the butt of his pistol which was found on Watson's dressing
table.
He was brought to trial at the Old Bailey in January 1872. His defence
was one of insanity but this was not accepted and he was found guilty of
murder. He did however receive a recommendation to mercy. He was reprieved
and sent to Parkhurst where he died , aged 80, on 6th July 1884.
Watson, Lionel
No details listed for this case at this time
Wells, Thomas
Edward Walshe was the station master employed by London South Eastern Railways
at Dover Priory Station. On the 1st May 1868 he summoned Thomas Wells
into his office. He was dissatisfied with his behaviour and so he
reprimanded him in front of the Area Superintendent who was Henry Cox.
Walshe believed Wells to be disobedient and was unhappy about his continuing
poor standard of work.
This was not the first time that Thomas Wells had been given a warning,
and he was told that if it happened again he would be sacked. Thomas Wells
was a porter and he also did some cleaning. He could not see a problem
and was convinced that the station master enjoyed picking on him. Enough
was enough and Wells walked out of the office only to return a few minutes
later with a gun that he kept for shooting birds, and which he kept concealed
at the station. He entered the office where Walshe and Cox were talking
about him and raising the gun so that it was pointing at Walshe he pulled
the trigger and shot him through the head.
Seemingly realising what he had done for the first time he ran from
the office and attempted to hide in an empty railway carriage. He
was soon found and the police arrested him.
He was brought to trial at Kent Summer Assizes which was held at Maidstone.
The defence counsel tried to plead insanity which was apparently the result
of an accident he sustained while working at the station when he was almost
crushed by a train. This plea was rejected and he was sentenced to death
by Mr Justice Wills. The execution was the first to be carried out in private
but was in fact witnessed by sixteen journalists who were able to relate
to their readers later that day that the execution had not gone all that
well and Wells had died struggling on the end of the rope for several minutes.
It was the end of a short life as Wells was only 18 when he died.
Welsh, Joseph
No details at this time
West, Rosemary & Fred
Rosemary and her husband Fred West, were accused of murdering 10 women
and young girls over a 16 year period ending in 1987. They enjoyed luring
away vulnerable runaways with offers of rides, lodging or jobs as nannies.
Once in their clutches, the young women were stripped, bound with tape,
raped, tortured, then killed, dismembered and buried. The killer couple
was arrested at their lethal homestead, 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester,
England in 1994. Police, armed with a search warrant, dug up the remains
of their 16 year old daughter, Heather, who vanished in 1987. Further excavations
produced eight more female bodies, including her stepdaughter, Charmaine,
under the house and in garden.
Police then turned their attention to a former home of the Wests. A
search revealed another body found under the kitchen in the house at 25
Midland Road, Gloucester. Fred hanged himself in jail on New Years Day,
1995. He also faced two further charges of murdering his ex wife and a
baby-sitter and burying them in fields near his former home. Authorities
believe that Fred probably killed more women. Rosemary, an admitted prostitute,
still maintains her innocence. However, she was convicted of murdering
10 women and girls on November 22, 1995. Authorities are investigating
the whereabouts of nine other women who frequented their house.
Whiston, Enoch
No details on this case at this time
Whiteway, Alfred Charles
On 31st May 1953, teenagers Barbara Songhurst and Christine Reed went missing.
They had been out cycling together and did not return to their homes in
Teddington. They had both been spotted on their bikes on the towpath at
the side of the Thames between 11 and 11.30pm that day. They had been heading
in the direction of their homes. The following morning Barbara's body was
recovered from the Thames near Richmond. She had been raped, stabbed and
battered. It was another five days before Christine's body, with similar
injuries, turned up also in the river.
At the end of the following month Alfred Charles Whiteway was arrested
for raping a woman and assaulting another on Oxshott Heath. Whiteway was
married but because the couple were unable to get accommodation Whiteway
lived with his parents in Teddington while his wife lived in Kingston.
What police officers did not know at the time was that when they had apprehended
Whiteway he had been carrying an axe. Somehow during their car journey
to the police station Whiteway had managed to hide the axe under a seat
in the patrol car where it remained until later when an officer was cleaning
the vehicle and realised the significance. When shown the axe and the fact
that his shoes showed traces of blood Whiteway broke down and confessed
to the killings and signed a statement to that effect.
Whiteway's trial for the murder of Barbara Songhurst opened at the Old
Bailey in October 1953. He denied killing the girl claiming that his confession
statement had been fabricated by the police. The jury preferred to believe
in the integrity of the police and took less than an hour to find him guilty.
He was sentenced to death and was hanged at Wandsworth Prison on 22nd December
1953.
Whitman, Charles
Charles Whitman seemed to first become unstable when his mother left home.
His father had ill treated her and this had affected Whitman. He complained
of headaches and would often fly into a rage. Before going out on his rampage
of death he had typed a note which stated 'I am prepared to die. After
my death I wish an autopsy on me to be performed to see if there is any
mental disorder.
Charles whitman was a 25 year old man who on 31 July 1966 was finalising
his plans for the following days masacre. He knew what he was planning
would upset his mother and wife so he had decided the only way to protect
them from it would be to kill them. He went to see his mother and when
Margaret Whitman opened the door he attacked her with a knife with which
he at first stabbed her and then he shot her in the head. He put the body
to bed and tidied up the apartment. By the time he got home his wife Cathy
was already in bed asleep so he first busied himself with some final preparations
for the next day and then in the early hours of the morning he took his
hunting knife and going into the bedroom stabbed her three times in the
heart.
The following day armed with several pistols and a rifle he climbed
the observation tower of the Austin campus of the university of texas.
Walking into the reception room he casually strolled across to where the
receptionist was sitting. 51 year old Edna Townsley looked up at the young
man walking towards her. He was dressed in grey nylon overalls and sported
a crew cut hairstyle, very popular in the 60's. Before she had time to
realise he was carrying a rifle he struck her over the head with it, he
then ran down the stairs and brought up his cache of weapons before barricading
the stairs.
A group of people started to come up the stairs, armed with a pump action
shotgun Whitman fired three shots into the group. 15 year old Mark Gabour
and his aunt Marguerite Lamport were killed outright. Marks brother Mike
and his Mother Mary were both seriously Injured. Going back to Edna Townsley
he fired a shot at close range into her head to finish her off. Going out
on to the observation deck he laid out his weapons neatly before selecting
a bolt action remington .35 with a telescopic sight.
Looking over the parapet he saw his first target. A paper boy was cycling
across the campus he shot him and then shot another 3 students before anyone
had any idea what was happening. His next victim was a traffic cop called
Billy Speed. When he arrived on the scene he hid behind a stone balustrade
while he tried to work out what was going on. Whitman saw him and fired
between the stone pillars killing the policeman. During this seige he hit
48 people, 12 of them dying almost instantly and one dying later in hospital.
Over the next 96 minutes police did all they could to stop him. After
several attempts to dislodge him even at one stage using a low flying aircraft
they finally decided to charge the barricade. During the charge Whitman
was shot to pieces. An autopsy was carried out on the body and whitman
was found to be suffering from a tumour in the hypothalamus region of the
brain but did not feel his behaviour was caused by this.
Wiora, Ginter
Mrs Doreen Dally was awoken at 8am on Saturday 4th May 1957 by a loud banging
noise followed by a woman crying out 'No, Peter! No! Oh, Peter, please.'
After that came a scream. When she looked out of her basement flat she
saw the figure of 24-year-old Shirley Marguerite Allen start to emerge
from the basement flat opposite her own. Shirley wore a red dressing gown
and blood streamed from a head wound. Shirley had lived with 24-year-old
Polish art student Ginter Wiora for the previous six months and she called
herself Mrs Wiora. He was an extremely jealous man and had often accused
her of having affairs and of posing for pornographic pictures. The girl
tried to leave the flat but was held back and she called out 'Oh, Mrs Dally
- help me, please. Peter's gone mad.' Mrs Dally grabbed the girl's arm
and managed to pull her into the hallway. She pushed the girl into her
own flat and told her to lock the door. She went to climb the stairs to
the telephone when
Wiora came out into the hall. He held, crossed on his chest, a Samurai
sword. He lunged at the hapless woman and stabbed the sword into her left
breast. She managed to run upstairs and, rousing the occupant of another
flat, telephone for the police.
The police arrived, in the form of DC Drown and PC Tennyson, and they
ascertained from Mrs Dally what had happened. When they descended into
the basement they found the door to Mrs Dally's flat open and Shirley Allen
lying dead on the floor. She had died from a stab wound to the chest. The
sword, now badly bent, lay on the floor nearby. The door to Wiora's
flat was locked. When the policemen listened they could hear the sound
of a radio and a low moaning. They could also smell gas. The policemen
broke down the door and turned off the gas. Wiora lay on a bed where he
was bleeding from a chest wound and from cuts to his wrists. He was taken
to hospital.
He was tried at the Old Bailey on 25th July 1957 and put forward a defence
of diminished responsibility. The jury found him not guilty of murder but
guilty of manslaughter and he was sentenced to twelve years imprisonment.
He was later removed to Broadmoor.
Williams, John
On the evening of October 9th 1912 as Countess Sztaray was leaving her
home in South Cliff Avenue, Eastbourne, her driver noticed a man hunched
up on the canopy over the front door. He told the countess and as soon
as they were out of sight of the house she rang the police and told them
of the man and that she feared that she was about to be burgled. Inspector
Arthur Walls was sent to attend the incident and he arrived about ten minutes
later. He shouted to the man to come down, the only reply he got was the
report of two shots being fired. Before the noise had died down the police
fell to the ground dead. The man jumped down and quickly ran off.
The following day a man called Edgar Power informed the police that
the man they were looking for was 29-year-old John Williams. Williams was
not his real name, his real name was George Mackay. He was soon picked
up in London and taken to Eastbourne. An identity parade was organised
but all of the witnesses failed to pick out Williams as the man they had
seen. Edgar Power and Florence Seymour, Williams' pregnant mistress, were
found searching the beach and arrested. When questioned about what they
were doing Florence said they were looking for the gun. She said that on
the night of the murder Williams, a known burglar, had left her on the
beach. He had returned later without his hat. He had buried the gun on
the beach the next day. A police search of the area turned up a revolver
that could have fired the fatal shots.
Williams' trial took place at Lewes Assizes in December 1912. He admitted
to 'casing' the area but denied the killing. The jury, however did not
believe him and he was found him guilty and he was sentenced to death and
hanged on 29 January 1913 by John Ellis.
Williams, John
No details listed on this case at this time
Williams, Shane
Shane Williams was found guilty of murdering Bodmin taxi driver Roger Dale.
Williams had apparently told his girlfriend the day before that he was
going to murder a taxi driver. At the time she had not believed him. It
would appear that it was a completely random killing. He ordered the taxi
from 'Ansom Cabs' and then forced the driver to take him out in the country.
Telling him to stop the car he put a shotgun to his head and shot him at
close range.
When on trial he maintained that robbery was the reason and that the
gun had gone off when he shivered. This is where forensic science was able
to help. They took the gun and made several tests measuring how much weight
was required before the trigger activated. What they found was very interesting,
the forensic evidence actually proved that the trigger required almost
twice the normal pressure to make it fire. This ruled out any possibility
that the gun could have gone off accidently and Shane Williams who was
a 22 year old factory worker was sentenced to life imprisonment at Truro
Crown Court on 17 December 1993.
Wilson, Howard
On 30th December 1969 the Clydesdale Bank, Bridge Street, Linwood, Glasgow,
was held up by three armed robbers. They locked the staff in the bank and
made their getaway with £14,000. The robbers drove to Wilson's flat
in Allison Street where they intended to share out the loot. While they
were trying to unload their haul from the car they were noticed by Inspector
Andrew Hyslop who recognised Wilson as a former policeman who had some
ten years' service. The way the men were behaving made Hyslop suspicious
and he radioed in for backup. Within a few minutes a sergeant and three
constables arrived. The five men made their way up to the flat. In the
flat they found a suitcase full of coins and notes and started to conduct
a proper search of the flat. It was at that point that Howard Wilson pulled
out a gun and shot Hyslop at close range in the face. Before he could be
subdued he also managed to shoot two of the other officers, killing one
and fatally injuring another. Wilson and his accomplices were arrested.
Wilson appeared in Edinburgh High Court in February 1970 charged with murder.
He was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. Being a policeman
himself Wilson would have known how hard life would be for him in prison
and this might have influenced the way in which he behaved.
Wingfield, John
No details on this case at this time
Woodfield, Randall Brent
In June 1981 Randall Brent Woodfield was found guilty
and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Shari Hull on 18 January
1981.
Woolmington, Reginald
No details listed for this case at this time.
Worthington, William
No details listed for this case at this time
Wooldridge, Charles Thomas
Wooldridge was a 30-year-old soldier serving in the Royal Horse Guards
and was stationed at Regent's Park barracks, London. His wife, Ellen, who
had recently married was living in the village of Clewar, near Windsor.
They met whenever they could but the forced separation put an inevitable
strain on their relationship. By March 1896 Ellen had started to use her
maiden name again and, during one of their meetings, Wooldridge struck
his wife. On 27th March Ellen requested her husband to sign a document
undertaking not to molest her further. They had arranged to meet later
that day outside Regent's Park barracks and, when Ellen failed to turn
up, Wooldridge became highly agitated. He told the sentry that he was going
to Windsor and that 'I'm going to do some damage.'
His wife's neighbours, alarmed by screams, found Wooldridge standing
over his wife's body in the street. Her throat had been cut. When he was
arrested he told the officer 'Take me! I have killed my wife.'
At his trial the jury took just two minutes to find him guilty, despite
his attempts to get the charge reduced to manslaughter because of his wife's
unfaithfulness. He was sentenced to death and was hanged at Reading Gaol
on 7th July 1896. He passed into immortality as the subject of the poem
'The Ballad of Reading Gaol' by Oscar Wilde, who was serving time in
Reading Gaol during the execution.
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