Fanny Adams

 Fanny Adams was an 8-year-old girl who was murdered in Alton, Hampshire, in 1867. Fanny was born on 30 April 1859. Her father was a bricklayer named George. Her mother was named Harriett. Fanny was the fourth of six children. She had three sisters and two brothers.

Fanny was tall for her age. She looked, it was said, older than her age. She was also a bright girl. People who knew Fanny described her as a happy and talkative child.

In the mid-19th century, Alton was a small town with a population of about 4,000. There was a brewing industry in the town and fields of hops. Fanny lived in Tanhouse Lane. Near her house was an open place named Flood Meadow, through which the River Wey flowed. The river sometimes flooded, giving the meadow its name. Next to it was a hop garden.

On 24 August 1867, Fanny asked her mother for permission to go and play in Flood Meadow with her 5-year-old sister Lizzie and her best friend, Minnie Warner, aged 8. Her mother agreed. There was little crime in Alton, and Mrs Adams was not worried.

Between 1 pm and 2 pm, the girls had the misfortune to meet a 29-year-old solicitor’s clerk named Frederick Baker. He was from Guildford but had recently moved to Alton, where he worked for a solicitor named William Clements in the High Street. The girls had seen the man before. 

Frederick Baker gave Minnie and Lizzie three half pennies to buy some sweets. He also gave Fanny a half penny. 

For a time, the girls played while Baker watched the girls playing while he smoked his pipe. He also picked some blackberries for them.

Minnie and Lizzie eventually decided to go home. Baker then asked Fanny to come with him on her own along the Hollow, a road that led to the nearby village of Shalden. Fanny refused. 

Baker then grabbed the child and carried her off. Minnie and Lizzie ran and told Mrs Warner, Minnie’s mother. But she was unconcerned, and the girls went off to play again. 

It may seem incredible that Mrs Warner did not immediately raise the alarm, but attitudes were very different then. Mrs Warner may have thought it was some sort of game.

About 5 pm, the two girls, Minnie and Lizzie, went home again. A neighbour, Mrs Gardener, saw them and asked where Fanny was. The two girls told her what had happened. Mrs Gardener was worried, and she told Fanny’s mother, Mrs Adams. The two women went off in search of the missing child.

Within a short time, they met Baker near a gate separating the hop garden from the Meadow. Mrs Gardener asked him, ‘What have you done with the child?’. Baker replied ‘nothing’. Mrs Gardener then asked if he had given Minnie Warner money. Baker admitted he had given her money. But he claimed that he often gave money to children. Not surprisingly, Mrs Gardener was suspicious. She told Baker ‘I have a great mind to give you in charge of the police’. Baker replied, ‘You may do as you like’.

The two women went home, no doubt hoping Fanny would turn up. But, of course, she didn’t. By 7 pm, her mother was growing very worried, and she and a group of neighbours went in search of her. 

A man named Thomas Gates found the head of a child stuck on two hop poles. The eyes had been cut out, and the right ear was missing. It was the head of Fanny Adams.

More of the remains of Fanny Adams were found that evening. But as it was growing dark, the search had to be called off until the next morning. The next day, searchers found one of Fanny’s arms, a foot, and her intestines. Her eyes were eventually found in the river.

At the trial of Frederick Baker, Dr Leslie said: The remains were that of a female child, the head, arms, and legs were separated from the trunk’. The doctor also said: ‘A deep incision divided the chest between the ribs. The right leg was torn from the trunk, and the whole contents of the pelvis and chest were completely removed. Five incisions had been made on the liver, the heart cut out and missing’.

A man named William Henry Walker found a stone with flesh and hair sticking to it. He thought it might be the murder weapon. At the murder trial, Dr Leslie said that in his opinion it was.

Meanwhile, Fanny’s mother, Harriet Adams, was naturally very distraught. She went to tell her husband, George, who had been playing cricket. He got his shotgun and was going to shoot the murderer but was persuaded not to.

At 9 pm on Sunday, 25 August 1867, the police went to the office of Clements, the solicitor. Superintendent Cheney asked Baker if he had heard of the murder. Baker replied, ‘Yes, they say it’s me’. The Superintendent told him, ‘Well, you are suspected’. Baker replied, ‘I am innocent’. 

Despite his denials, Baker was arrested on suspicion of the murder of Fanny Adams. An angry crowd had gathered outside the office, so the police had to smuggle him out the back door.

Baker was found to be carrying two small knives (they were too small to have carried out the mutilation. It was believed a larger knife was used, but it was never found). Baker’s trousers were wet, presumably from an attempt to wash off blood stains. The police also found bloodstains on Baker’s shirt cuffs. Baker could not account for them. He said ‘Well, I don’t see a scratch or cut on my hands to account for the blood’.

The next day, the police searched the solicitor’s office. They found Baker’s diary in his desk. An entry read: ‘Killed a young girl. It was fine and hot’. Baker admitted it was his handwriting but claimed he was intoxicated at the time.

Baker made another very incriminating remark on the day of the murder. At 7 p.m., he went to a pub with a colleague. An employee of the pub said he was moving and claimed he could turn his hand to anything. Baker said he might join him, but admitted there were only a very limited number of jobs he could do. But he then added, ‘I could turn butcher’.

An inquest into the death of Fanny Adams was held at the Duke’s Head Inn in Alton on 27 August 1867. Minnie Warner gave evidence. So did Mrs Gardner. In 1867, the jury at an inquest could not only find that a person was a victim of murder, but they could also name the person who they believed had committed the murder, even though that person had not been tried. The jury found that Frederick Baker murdered Fanny Adams. The law was changed in 1977.

The trial of Frederick Baker for murder began on 5 December 1867. The defence claimed that it could not be proved that Baker killed Fanny. But at the same time, they tried to argue that if he did do it, he was insane.

Minnie Warner and Mrs Gardener gave evidence. Other witnesses said Baker had left the solicitor’s office after 1 p.m. (Shortly before the murder was committed). He returned at 3.25 p.m. Baker left the office again at 4.30 p.m. (At which time he met Mrs Adams and Mrs Gardener near the murder scene).

More witnesses described seeing Baker in the vicinity of the murder on the afternoon of 26 August. A woman named Eliza White said she saw a man with three children at about 2 p.m. She identified Baker as the man. Mrs White said that afterwards, she heard ‘a girl cry out, not a cry of pain, as in play, trying to get away from someone’. A witness named William Alder was walking back from the nearby village of Lasham at about 2 p.m. He also saw Baker, who he knew. He also saw three children.

Both Mrs Gardener and Mrs Adams saw Baker after 5 p.m. A woman named Mary Ann Porter also said she saw Baker in the area between 5 and 6 p.m.

 There was also the fact that Baker wrote in his diary, ‘Killed a young girl. It was fine and hot”. The defence claimed that what he meant was ‘a young girl was killed’ not ‘I killed a young girl’. They also tried to cast doubt on Minnie Warner’s identification of Baker, and they said the two knives found on Baker were too small to have carried out the mutilations. (They may very well be true, but it doesn’t rule out the possibility that Baker had a larger knife that was never found).

The defence also tried to argue that even if Baker did do it then he was insane. They claimed that Baker’s father was violent and had once tried to kill his son and daughter with a poker. They also claimed that Baker had tried to commit suicide after his fiancée broke off their engagement in 1865. Baker’s sister had died of a ‘brain fever’. Also, Baker’s cousin was in a lunatic asylum and was violent. But none of this impressed the jury.

The judge advised the jury that three verdicts were possible – guilty, not guilty or not guilty on the grounds of insanity. The jury took only 15 minutes to find Baker guilty of murder. The judge then sentenced him to death. While awaiting execution, Baker confessed to killing Fanny.

At that time, executions were carried out in public. Frederick Baker was hanged outside Winchester prison, in front of a crowd of about 5,000 people at 8 a.m. on 24 December 1867. His body was buried within the precincts of the prison.

Meanwhile, Fanny Adams was laid to rest in Alton Cemetery on 28 August 1867. In 1868, a gravestone was erected, paid for by public subscription. An inscription on the gravestone reads ‘Sacred to the memory of Fanny Adams, aged eight years and four months, who was cruelly murdered on Saturday, August 24, 1867’ and ‘Fear not them which kill the body are not able to kill the soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell Matthew 10 v28’.

The Bloody Benders

 I wrote about the Bloody Benders, a family of murderers in Kansas in the 1870s.

Blossom Alley

 A gruesome murder happened in Portsea, Portsmouth in 1923. The victim was Mary Frances Pelham, aged 37. According to newspaper reports, she was born in ‘the north of England’. During the First World War, she moved to Brighton and later to Portsmouth. She was separated from her husband. Mary was a kind woman, especially to local children. She was a sex worker, although she also sold flowers. She was known as Brighton Mary.

On 27 January 1923, a neighbour found her dead in bed in her hovel. The unfortunate woman had been strangled with a scarf or handkerchief. She was also stabbed or slashed with a broken bottle. A neighbour had seen Mary with a sailor the previous night. The navy held an identity parade and a woman did pick out one sailor but he had an alibi and was never arrested. The killer was never found.

The public was shocked, not just by the murder but by her living conditions. She lived in Blossom Alley, an alley 300 yards long and only 4 feet wide. Her home was a ‘one-up-one down’. Built in the 18th century it was one room over another joined by a ladder. 

The floors were sagging so the ceiling of the bottom room was 6 feet high at one end and 10 feet high at the other. Five houses shared three outside toilets and one water tap. Following the horrific murder, a great deal of slum clearance took place in Portsea.

A History of Flowers

 I wrote a brief history of flowers. For thousands of years, they have enhanced life. 

Mary Wilson

 Although Ruth Ellis was the last woman to be hanged in Britain the last woman to be sentenced to death was Mary Wilson in 1958. 

Mary was born on 11 June 1889. She married a chimney sweep named John Knowles in 1912 He died in August 1955. Early in 1956 she married a painter and decorator named John Russell but he died early in 1957. At first, the two men were believed to have died from natural causes but later they were found to have been poisoned. 

In June 1957 Mary married Oliver Leonard. He soon fell ill and died on 3 October. 

A doctor ascribed his death to heart failure, although the truth is Mary poisoned him. On 28 October 1957 she married a fourth man, Ernest Wilson but he lived for only a short time after the wedding. He too, was poisoned. He died on 12 November 1957. At first his death was ascribed to natural causes.

However, people who knew Mary were suspicious. It was not just that her husbands kept dying; it was also the cheerful way she dealt with the deaths. It’s said that at her last wedding reception, Mary was asked what to do with the leftover sandwiches she said they would still be fresh for his funeral. (Such brazenness is common among multiple murderers. They often seem to think they will never be caught). Police began investigating and they exhumed the bodies of Oliver and Ernest.

She was convicted of poisoning two of her husbands, Oliver Leonard and Ernest Wilson with phosphorus, which was found in rat and beetle poison. She was sentenced to death but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment because of her old age (She was 68). The remains of her two other husbands, John Knowles and John Russell were exhumed and found to contain poison but it was felt there was no point in having another trial. 

Mary Wilson, the merry widow of Windy Nook died in prison in 1963.

Ruth Ellis

 Ruth Ellis was the last woman to be hanged in Britain. She was born on 9 October 1926 in Rhyl, Wales. She was one of six children. Ruth was sexually abused by her father. When she was 17, Ruth had a son called Andy by a Canadian soldier.

After the Second World War, Ruth was living in London. In the 1940s Ruth worked in factories but she could not earn enough to support herself and her son. Ruth became a nude model and by 1950, she was an escort. In 1950 she married a man called George Ellis. They had a daughter named Georgina but the couple soon separated. However, by 1953 Ruth had a job as a manager of the Little Club in Knightsbridge, London. It was there that she met David Blakely.

Blakely was a racing driver. He was also a heavy drinker. He moved in with Ruth even though he was already engaged to another woman. Ruth met another man, Desmond Cussen and she moved in with him. Ruth and David Blakely continued their relationship, although they were both seeing other people. Blakely was abusive. 

He asked Ruth to marry him but she had a miscarriage in January 1955 after Blakely punched her in the stomach. Blakely later decided he never wanted to see Ruth again.

On 10 April 1955 Ruth took a taxi to a flat where she knew Blakely was staying. As they arrived, she saw him drive off in his car. She paid the taxi driver and walked to the Magdala Tavern, where she thought he would be. Ruth waited till Blakely emerged from the pub. She drew a revolver from her handbag and as he searched for his car keys she shot him. Gladys fired six bullets at Blakely. The first shot missed. The second hit him, causing him to fall to the ground. 

She fired three more bullets into him. Her last shot ricocheted off the road and his a bystander in the hand.

Ruth was immediately arrested by an off-duty policeman. Psychiatrists who examined her found she was not insane. Ruth went on trial on 20 June 1955. There was no doubt that she had shot David Blakely. The prosecution merely had to prove the intent to kill. The prosecution lawyer asked, “When you fired the revolver at close range into the body of David Blakely, what did you intend to do?”. Ruth answered, “It's obvious when I shot him I intended to kill him”.

The jury found her guilty of murder and she was sentenced to death. However, many people felt that her sentence should be commuted to life imprisonment. A petition was signed by 50,000 people but the Home Secretary refused to grant a reprieve and Ruth Ellis was hanged on 13 July 1955.

The execution of Ruth Ellis is still controversial. In 1955 to plead insanity, a person accused of murder had to prove they did not know the ‘nature and quality’ of their acts. Ruth did not meet those criteria. However, in 1957 the law was changed so that a prisoner could plead that their mental state substantially reduced their responsibility for the crime. If the jury agreed, they would be found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter and would not be executed. Perhaps if that was the law in 1955, Ruth could have pleaded diminished responsibility and would not have been hanged. We will never know.

Leopold and Loeb

 Nathan Leopold aged 19 and Richard Loeb aged 18 killed a 14-year-old boy in Chicago in 1924. Both were from rich families and both were very intelligent. They excelled academically. Loeb graduated from the University of Michigan aged 17. Leopold was studying law at the University of Chicago and planned to study at Harvard Law School. Both seemed to believe they were superior beings, above ethics and the law. The two committed petty theft just for thrills before progressing to murder. They planned to commit the perfect murder. They didn’t. In fact, it was an incompetent crime and they were easily caught.

The unfortunate victim was Bobby Franks, aged 14. On 21 May 1924 Leopold and Loeb hired a car. They chose a victim at random. Driving along they saw a boy walking home from an after-school baseball game. Bobby didn’t know Leopold but he knew the Loeb family. The murderers lured him into the car. They gagged him then hit him, repeatedly over the head with a chisel. Bobby suffocated on the gag.

They threw the chisel out of the car. It was found and handed in to the police. Leopold and Loeb then stripped the body and hid it in a culvert by a railroad. They poured acid over his face to make identification harder.

They sent a letter to the family of Bobby Franks saying he had been kidnapped and demanding a ransom of $10,000. In fact, Bobby was already dead. 

The body of Bobby Franks was discovered the next day, 22 May. Nearby the police found a pair of glasses. They had an unusual hinge which allowed them to be traced to a certain optometrist. He had only made three prescriptions for that type of glasses. One of them was Nathan Leopold. He claimed he must have dropped them from his jacket pocket in the area when he was bird watching some days before. But it had been raining for days before the body was found and the glasses were dry. The police asked Leopold to demonstrate how the glasses could have fallen from his jacket pocket but no matter how he bent over the glasses did not fall out. 

At first Leopold claimed he had driven with his friend Loeb to Lincoln Park, Chicago. Loeb confirmed his alibi. However, Leopold had typed notes for students at his law school. One still had the notes and the typeface was found to match the type on the ransom note sent to Bobby Frank’s family. Also the Leopold family chauffeur made a statement that the car the murderers claimed they had driven around all day on 21 May, had not left the garage that day.

Faced with the evidence, Loeb broke down and confessed. When he was told that Loeb had confessed, Leopold confessed too. They both blamed each other for the actual killing. Both denied any sexual assault took place.

The two were interviewed by ‘alienists’ as psychiatrists were then called. Neither showed any remorse for the crime.

The trial began on 21 July 1924. The killers were defended by the famous lawyer Clarence Darrow. They pleaded guilty but Darrow pleaded with the judge not to impose the death penalty. 

He made a speech lasting two days. In the end, the judge did not sentence the two to death on the grounds of their youth. Instead, he sentenced them to life imprisonment plus 99 years for the kidnapping.

Richard Loeb was killed by another inmate in 1936. Leopold was paroled in 1958. He died of a heart attack in 1971, aged 66.