Sidney Fox

 Sidney Fox was hanged in 1930 for the murder of his mother. Fox was born in Norfolk in 1899. His mother was Rosaline Fox. It’s not certain if Rosaline’s husband William was his father. Before the murder, Sidney had a history of petty theft and fraud and spent time in jail.

In 1927, Fox’s mother met a 51-year-old woman called Charlotte Morse. Although Fox was gay he began an affair with Mrs Morse. Fox also stole her jewellery and insured her life. One night Mrs Morse awoke to find her room filling with gas. A gas tap behind a heavy piece of furniture had been turned on, so it was obviously not accidental. Fox was trying to murder the woman for her life insurance money. Mrs Morse told the police. Sydney was not convicted of attempted murder but of stealing and was sentenced to 15 months in prison.

In May 1929, Fox and his mother began a life of staying in hotels and leaving without paying the bills. Sidney took out a life insurance policy on his mother, to expire at midnight on 23 October 1929. 

On that date, they were both staying at the Hotel Metropole in Margate. Mother and son were in adjoining rooms with a connecting door. 

At 11.40 PM on 23 October, Fox raised the alarm that his mother’s room was on fire. Two other guests found the adjoining door closed. They found Rosaline Fox in a burning armchair. They pulled her out, but she was already dead. Sidney claimed he had left his mother reading a newspaper in her room. At first, it was thought the fire was accidental and Rosaline’s death was ascribed to shock and suffocation. 

However, the insurance company was, not surprisingly, suspicious. It was just too convenient that Rosaline died just 20 minutes before the life insurance policy expired. The fire was supposed to have been started by a gas fire in the room but investigators found a patch of unburnt carpet between the fire and the armchair Rosaline was found in. The fire could not have spread from the gas fire to the armchair without burning the patch of carpet between them. 

Even more suspicious, petrol-soaked newspapers and a can of petrol were found in the dead woman’s room. As a result of the investigation, the body of Rosaline Fox was exhumed. Pathologist Bernard Spilsbury conducted an autopsy and claimed that the dead woman had been strangled before the fire started. There were no signs of smoke inhalation. 

Sidney Fox went on trial at Lewes in March 1930. Pathologist Bernard Spilsbury was adamant that Mrs Fox had been strangled and he claimed he saw a bruise on his throat. However, other doctors disagreed. They could not see the ‘bruise’ as it had disappeared as the body decomposed. It was possible, they argued that the ‘bruise’ seen by Spilsbury was just discolouration caused by the body decomposing. Spilsbury also had to admit that the hyoid bone (a small bone in the throat) was not broken. (It is usually broken during strangulation). 

Fox did not help himself. He was asked why he closed the door to his mother’s rooms knowing it was on fire. Fox replied ‘so that smoke should not spread into the hotel’. 

The prosecution lawyer said ‘rather that your mother should suffocate in that room than smoke should get about in the hotel?’. Fox’s seeming callousness badly damaged his case. He was convicted of murder and he was hanged on 8 April 1930. 

Axminster

 I wrote a little history of Axminster in Dorset

Devizes

 I wrote a short history of Devizes 

Tiverton

 I wrote a brief history of the town of Tiverton in Devon 

The Axeman of New Orleans

 The axeman of New Orleans was an unknown serial killer in the years 1918-1919. As his title suggests, he killed people with an axe. He usually chiseled out a panel of a back door to gain access to people’s homes. His first victims were Joseph Maggio, an Italian grocer and his wife, Catherine. On 23 May 1918, the axeman broke into the couple’s home, cut their throats with a razor and then hit them both with an axe. The motive for the murders was unclear. It was not robbery, as nothing was taken.

The axeman next struck on 27 June 1918. He broke into the home of Louis Bessumer, another Italian grocer and Harriet Lowe. He struck both of them with an axe. Fortunately, both survived although Harriet suffered from partial facial paralysis for the rest of her life. Once again nothing was stolen.

The next attack was on 5 August 1918. The axeman broke into the home of Anna Schneider. He struck her with an object (some accounts say an axe, others say a bedside table lamp) but she survived. Anna was 8 months pregnant at the time of the attack but luckily the baby was not harmed. Anna gave birth shortly afterward.

The next victim was an elderly man named Joseph Romano. Joseph lived with his two nieces. On 10 August they were woken by the sounds of a struggle. On investigating they found their uncle had been hit with an axe. He was still alive but he died two days later.

The axeman did not strike again until 10 March 1919. This time he struck in Gretna, Louisiana. He broke into the home of Italian grocer Charles Cortimiglia. He struck Charles and his wife with an axe. Both survived. Sadly, their two year old daughter Mary was also hit with an axe and she died. Rosie accused Iorlando Jordano and his son Frank of being the attackers. Both men were convicted of murder. Iorlando was sentenced to life imprisonment while his son was sentenced to death. 

However, they could not have been guilty. Iorlando was nearly 70 and in poor health. His son, Frank, was a tall and heavily built man. The killer had chiseled out a panel of a door to gain entry. Frank would not have been able to squeeze through. Charles Cortimiglia said his wife was lying and the Jordano’s were innocent. 

Eventually, Rosie Cortimiglia admitted she lied and the two men were released. (Her motive for accusing two innocent men is not known).

Steve Boca was attacked by a man with an axe on 10 August 1919. Fortunately, he survived. Sarah Laumann was attacked on 3 September 1919. She too survived. 

The last murder by the New Orleans Axeman happened on 27 October 1919. A man named Mike Pepitone was attacked and killed in his bed. The attacks then ceased. The case remains a mystery.

Alfred Rouse - The Burning Car Murder

 Alfred Rouse was hanged for the murder of an unknown man. Rouse was born in London on 6 April 1894. In 1914 he joined the army but he married Lily May Watkins before he departed for France. In 1915 he was wounded. He suffered head injuries and as well as injuries to his leg. Rouse slowly recovered. He was discharged from the army with a pension in 1916. However In 1920 a doctor examined him and his pension was stopped as he had completely recovered. However Rouse found work as a car mechanic.

In 1929 Rouse got a job as a salesman. It was a well paid position and it involved a lot of travelling by car. Rouse was also a womaniser who had many affairs. He had several illegitimate children and faced having to pay maintenance for them. With his financial situation strained Rouse looked for a way out. He turned to murder.

Rouse thought of a plan. He would offer a lift to a down and out and then kill the man. He would set the car on fire. He hoped he could make it look like an accident. The man’s body would be so badly burned it would be unidentifiable but the cars number plates would survive. Rouse hoped the police would identify the car as his and assume the dead body was him. If he was believed to be dead he could make a fresh start. 

However, Rouse bungled the murder. In Britain 5 November is Bonfire Night when people light bonfires and fireworks. At 2 am on 6 November 1930 two young men were returning from a Bonfire Night Dance in Northamptonshire. They saw a fire in the distance. Strangely they saw a man on the opposite side of the road climb out of a ditch. He was carrying a briefcase. The man said ‘It looks like someone is having a bonfire’. He then walked off in the opposite direction to the two men. They soon discovered the burning car. As Rouse hoped, the police quickly identified the burning car. 

The police spoke to his wife. She said she had last seen Alfred at 2 am on 6 November. (Rouse later said it was actually about 6.30 am). They showed pieces of the dead man’s clothing to Mrs Rouse. She was not certain if they were his. 

The police were naturally keen to talk to the mysterious man who climbed out of a ditch. It had been a moonlight night and the two young men who saw him were able to describe him to the police. He matched the description of Alfred Rouse. So if he wasn’t the victim who was? 

Meanwhile, Rouse went to his house in London then hitchhiked to the house of his mistress, who was heavily pregnant in Wales. She asked where his car was. He told her it had been stolen. 

However his mistress showed him a newspaper that named him as the owner of the burned car. Rouse decided to leave and he caught a coach to London.  He told his mistress where he was going and she told the police. They were waiting to arrest him when he arrived. 

The police also found that the fire was not accidental. The feeder pipe from the petrol tank to the carburetor had been loosened allowing petrol to leak out. Across the two front seats of the car was the body of a man burned beyond recognition. The post mortem showed he was alive but unconscious when the fire started. 

Rouse had a not very convincing explanation for the fire. He had picked up a man near St Albans and later stopped the car to go to the toilet. He asked the hitch hiker to fill the petrol tank with fuel from a can. The man then asked if he had a cigarette. Rouse did not smoke cigarettes but he had a cigar and gave the man one. He then went into a field. Looking back he saw the car on fire. According to Rouse the passenger must have accidentally ignited the petrol when he lit his cigar. Rouse claimed he tried to rescue the hitch hiker from the burning car but he could not.

The police were skeptical. Why had Rouse taken his briefcase when he got out of the car to relieve himself? (The two men who discovered the burning car saw him carrying one). Rouse claimed that he panicked and fled the scene. 

However the police soon discovered that several of Rouse’s mistresses were taking out had child maintenance orders against him. He would be unable to pay them so he set fire to his car with an unconscious hitchhiker inside hoping he would be mistaken for the dead man. 

He hoped could begin a new life with a new identity. On 27 November 1930 Rouse was arrested for the murder of an unidentified man. 

His trial began on 26 January 1931. Expert witnesses testified that the victim was unconscious when the fire started. It was also revealed that a fragment of his clothing, which had survived the fire had been soaked in petrol.  Rouse stood by his claim that the death was an accident. However the jury did not believe him. On 31 January he was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Alfred Rouse was hanged on 10 March 1931. 

While awaiting execution Rouse sent a letter to a newspaper, the Daily Sketch confessing to the murder. Rouse claimed he met a man outside a pub in London and promised him a job in the Midlands and arranged to drive him there. Rouse got the man drunk by giving him a bottle of whisky. When he was sufficiently drunk Rouse strangled the man until he was unconscious. Rouse admitted he had deliberately loosened a pipe to let petrol flow out. He also poured petrol over the man. He then set the car on fire. 

The Brighton Trunk Murder of 1934

 On 17th June 1934, a railway employee named William Vinnicombe noticed a horrid odour coming from a trunk in a left luggage room in Brighton Railway Station. 

The trunk was locked, but Detective Bishop of the Railway Police was called to deal with it. Inside, they found the torso and arms of a woman. The head and legs were missing. 

The following day, 18 June 1934, a stinking suitcase was found at Kings Cross Railway Station in London. It contained the woman’s legs. 

The famous pathologist Bernard Spilsbury said the victim was a woman aged about 25. 

She was well nourished and probably stood about 5 feet 2 inches tall. Sadly, she was 5 months pregnant at the time of her death. Her head was never found, making identification very difficult.

From the condition of her hands, feet, and nails, Spilsbury thought the woman was middle class. He also gave his opinion that whoever dismembered the woman had little surgical skill. 

The police appealed for information about missing women, but the dead woman was never identified. The motive for the murder is unknown, and the whole case is a mystery.

Barnstaple History

 I wrote a brief history of Barnstaple, a town in Devon 

Telephones History

 I wrote a little history of telephones

Blaby

 I wrote a little history of Blaby, in Leicestershire

Women Astronomers

 I wrote about some famous women astronomers 

Mali

 I wrote a brief history of Mali 

Gabon History

 I wrote a history of Gabon, a small country in Africa.

Cartoons History

 I wrote a little history of cartoons

The Discovery of Dinosaurs

 I wrote another article, not about dinosaurs themselves but about how they were discovered.

Syria

 I wrote a brief history of Syria 

History of Armenia

 I wrote a brief history of Armenia