Murder - Crimes - History - Bootle and North Liverpool

Your place to talk about your Bootle memories
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Steven Horton
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Joined: Tue Jan 29, 2019 12:11 am

Joined this forum today after a tip off from a friend. All of these murder stories look really familiar. Why? I researched and wrote them, not FatBoyJoe.
There's 550 of them on my site.
http://liverpoolmurders.blogspot.com/
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fatboyjoe90
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Hiya Steven, I have never said that I’d written any of them in any way whatsoever, if you go to the stat of this thread you will see this Murder - Crimes - History - Bootle and North Liverpool.

From the past archives of news, Joe has found some fascinating stories.
Cheers Joe.
Steven Horton
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Joined: Tue Jan 29, 2019 12:11 am

Its common courtesy to provide some accreditation, especially as you're cutting/pasting from my site and lifting photos from there some of which were taken by me. Ive no problem them being shared, I'm not demanding members get directed to my site to read them, I just ask for a link to where they were first aired. Even if its not the actual page of the story, just the frontpage is sufficient.
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BOBHAMO
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Joe has not posted the crimes to enhance his ego
interesting topics on this post have been very good
think more people will look at your very good site
so joe has done you a favour
are site gives good info on lots of things which are online
bobhamo
Last edited by BOBHAMO on Tue Jan 29, 2019 3:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
bootle born altcar road
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filsgreen
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Mr Horton, thank you for all of your stories, which I've read, via Joe posting them on this forum. Whilst I recognise it is nice to be credited for your work, I would have read none of your publications, if Joe had not took the time to put them on this forum. Joe has not took any credit for the stories, his only crime is it to distribute your stories to a wider audience. If the boot was on the other foot and I had wrote the murder stories, I would have thanked Joe, I certainly wouldn't be calling him out on the forum. Could you have not e-mailed him with your grievances?
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fatboyjoe90
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Steven Horton, I apologize for not informing you that I have posted murder cases and photos copied and pasted off your site. I hope you will find this accreditation is appropriate below. I have never posted them as my own!


Image

http://liverpoolmurders.blogspot.com/
Cheers Joe.
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fatboyjoe90
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I would like to thank Bob and Phil for your support on this matter. :wink:
Cheers Joe.
lynne99
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I concur with Filsgreen. I would never have found you site (good as it will be) and could not cope with reading them in a big block. Thanks Mr Horton for finding the stories and I do hope Joe can continue to give them to us in bite size chunks Thanks from Lynne
Steven Horton
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Joined: Tue Jan 29, 2019 12:11 am

Joe thanks, a link to the front page saying thats where its taken from is all I ask for, Ive no problem with them being shared otherwise as long as I get the accreditation, whether it be by name or the title of the site.
It may seem over protective etc on my part, but I do run a Facebook group with 24,000 members and if anybody posted on there something they had cut pasted and not credited, I'd intervene to avoid getting complaints made to FB. Likewise I expect to get the same in return.
Hopefully this can be put to bed now and they can continue to be enjoyed in bitesize form which is a brilliant quote by lynne.
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fatboyjoe90
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Thanks Steven, if I post any more of your murders, do you want a link or the title on every one of them, or on the front of a new page?
Cheers Joe.
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fatboyjoe90
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The Poisoning Landlord
A Liverpool born man who let greed get the better of him was hanged after he was found guilty of poisoning his tenant.

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Frederick Henry Seddon was born in Liverpool in 1872 and baptised at St Peters Church in Church Street. At the age of 21, he married his wife Margaret at St George's Church in Everton. They would have five children together.

Seddon was an insurance agent and he was known to be energetic, respectable and charitable. During the Boer War, he organised concerts at the Picton Lecture Hall in William Brown Street, with proceeds going to widows of servicemen. At this time he was living at 88 Belmont Road, Anfield.

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At the beginning of the 20th Century, Seddon secured a position as superintendent with the Liverpool & Manchester was promoted to superintendent in his firm and moved to Buckinghamshire, where he began speculating in property. He bought a fourteen bedroom house in Tollington Park, North London in 1909 and the following year let the first floor to a wealthy spinster named Eliza Barrow. She moved in with Ernest Grant, the eight-year-old son of a friend who had died and who she was now the guardian of.

Eliza had substantial savings and annuities. However, she agreed to allow Seddon to take a controlling interest in return for an annual sum and living rent free for life.

On 14th September 1911, Eliza Barrow died having suffered excruciating stomach pains. Just a month earlier, she and Ernest, along with Seddon's family, had holidayed together in Southend. Seddon then arranged for her to be buried in a communal plot instead of her family vault in Islington.

When Frank Vonderahe, a cousin of Eliza's went to take over the estate, he was informed by Seddon that there was nothing left after the funeral expenses and paying for Ernest's upkeep. Frank went to the police with his suspicions, leading to Eliza's body being exhumed on 15th November. A post-mortem took place and two grains of arsenic were found in the stomach, leading to the arrest of Seddon and his wife.

The trial took place at the Old Bailey, where it was proved Seddon's fifteen-year-old daughter Maggie had bought flypaper from a chemist. Against the advice of his counsel, Seddon conducted his own defence, suggesting that Eliza could have drunk water that the flypapers had been getting soaked in.

Seddon was found guilty and sentenced to death, but his wife Margaret was acquitted. He was hanged at Pentonville on 18th April 1912. Margaret returned to Liverpool, marrying American James Cameron just seven months later. She took the emigrated to America with him and the five children.


http://liverpoolmurders.blogspot.com/
Cheers Joe.
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fatboyjoe90
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lynne99 wrote:I concur with Filsgreen. I would never have found you site (good as it will be) and could not cope with reading them in a big block. Thanks Mr Horton for finding the stories and I do hope Joe can continue to give them to us in bite size chunks Thanks from Lynne


Thanks for your support Lynn. :wink: :)
Cheers Joe.
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fatboyjoe90
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If you want me to continue posting Steven Hortons, murder cases it would be appreciated if could you let me know thanks in anticipation. :wink:
Cheers Joe.
lynne99
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Well, I do. As I said, bite sized chunks are better for me. Thanks Joe
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BOBHAMO
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Keep them coming Joe :D :D :D
bobhamo
bootle born altcar road
Shelagh
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Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2015 4:40 pm

Oh dear..it’s all been kicking off here :) what have I missed :?:

As far as I can see, only crime you’ve committed Joe, is keeping us entertained by sharing info about notorious side of Liverpool’s historical past :!:
More murders please,, :wink:

Steven, thank you very much for allowing us the use of your material, a very well researched subject indeed!
Thank you also for the link to your site :!:
Shall enjoy browsing..looks to be very interesting, an insight into the lives of local people, how they coped, or didn’t :shock:
Shall look forward to a good old peruse :)
Many thanks..

Shelagh!
bob. b
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As far as I can see, only crime you’ve committed Joe, is keeping us entertained by sharing info about notorious side of Liverpool’s historical past :!:
More murders please,, :wink:

Well Joe keep it coming, mate love this :D :D :D
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fatboyjoe90
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Thanks for your all your support guys, and Steven for allowing me to post them. :wink: :)
Cheers Joe.
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fatboyjoe90
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Murder at the Blind Home

A partially sighted man in his seventies who killed a fellow resident of the care home where he resided was detained at Her Majesty's pleasure.

Balliol Road Looking South 1973

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At 1 pm on 1st December 1951 police were called to Connolly House in Balliol Road, a Bootle Corporation's home for the blind. On arrival they found 46-year-old Margaret Hughes lying on a landing with a throat wound. She as taken to hospital but was dead on arrival.

Later that afternoon detectives took Frederick Wilson, a 76-year-old partially sighted resident of the home, into custody. Wilson admitted cutting Margaret's throat with a razor but when examined by Dr Brisley at Walton gaol, was found to be suffering from a progressive disease of the mind. At the Liverpool assizes on 14th February 1952, the judge accepted that he was unfit to plead and detained him at Her Majesty's pleasure.

Connolly house later became a home for elder persons and was demolished in 2010 to make way for an extension to Hugh Baird College.




http://liverpoolmurders.blogspot.com/
Cheers Joe.
miv donelan
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Location: Ashton-in-Makerfield

Joe, I love the murder mysteries, please keep them coming.
Steven, I appreciated the point you were making, but I don't visit any other site, neither yours or Facebook etc, therefore I would never get to read any of these fascinating true stories. Joe works really hard on the Bootle forum, keeping us all entertained with a wide variety of subjects. He's brilliant at what he does, as are a good number of our members. I'm sure Joe intended no disrespect to you.
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fatboyjoe90
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What can I say Miv? Other than thanks for that. :D :D
Cheers Joe.
lynne99
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Do you reckon he had dementia?? Sounds like it to me. So Sad. Thanks Joe.
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fatboyjoe90
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Thanks for your reply Lynne, I would say so as well. :(
Cheers Joe.
Shelagh
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Awful crime, murdered with cut throat razor..horrible death :shock:
Can remember Connolly House, bleak looking place!!

Ta Joe, enjoy reading these posts!
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fatboyjoe90
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Thanks for your reply Shelagh, the only consolation is it would've been quick. :oops: My great grandmother was in Connolly House in the early 1960s, i used to take 2oz of Fox's Glacier Mints in for her she had no teeth she would suck the life out of them. :)

Funny how we remember some things.
Cheers Joe.
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fatboyjoe90
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Sefton Park Mother Declared Insane.

A mother who battered her son to death with a hammer in a flat in Sefton Park was declared insane.

Aigburth Drive.
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On the afternoon of 2nd October 1947 at a flat in 20 Aigburth Drive, Sefton Park, Isabella Warden battered her 16-month-old son Derek to death with a hammer. She then went to Lark Lane police station and said to the desk sergeant "I have done something terrible, I have killed my baby." Officers went to the address and broke in, where they found Derek's body in a cot, with a hammer next to it.

A suicide note was also found in the property, written by Isabella and addressed to her husband Oliver which said "I am sorry for doing this terrible thing but I can't face life any longer, and this has been in my mind for weeks and I can't get rid of it. You don't deserve such treatment, but life never deserved the kind of life I have given you for the past year. I can't think straight, and everything is on top of me, and I can't bear to see you looking so miserable when you think you have failed to make me happy. Oh, why did you ever meet me, and why was I ever born."

As Isabella said she had taken 400 aspirin tablets, she was rushed to Smithdown Road hospital where she begged doctors, to let her die. Officers had the terrible task of calling Oliver at the tailor shop he managed, telling him to return home immediately, where he had to confirm the dead child's identity and receive the news his wife was in the hospital.

A postmortem revealed that Derek had been in good health but died of multiple fractures to the skull and laceration of the brain.




When Isabella was fit to be discharged from the hospital, she was charged with murder and first appeared at Liverpool Magistrate's Court on 13th October. She looked dazed and had to be supported by two court officials, then was allowed to sit down and take sips of water.

On 6th November at the Liverpool Assizes, Dr McCormack from Strangeways Prison in Manchester said that he was of the opinion that Isabella was incapable of understanding an indictment of murder and had no memory of the crime. She was then ordered by the judge to be detained at the King's pleasure.


http://liverpoolmurders.blogspot.com/
Cheers Joe.
lynne99
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Thanks again Joe. So sad as a lot of these murders were.
Shelagh
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Poor little boy, the mother could have been suffering from post natal depression, something unheard of in those days.
Pity her husband!!

Thanks Joe :!:
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fatboyjoe90
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Thanks for your comments, Lynne and Shelagh, I agree with both of you the mother must've been suffering from postnatal depression as you say back in those days it unheard of a very sad case.
Cheers Joe.
bob. b
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Thanks, Joe keep them coming
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fatboyjoe90
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Thanks for your comments Bob. :wink:
Cheers Joe.
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fatboyjoe90
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Mocked Man's Hatchet Revenge

A man whose patience snapped after he was mocked and beaten by his partner, causing him to hit her with a hatchet and cut her throat, was found guilty of manslaughter and jailed for ten years.


On 25th August 1902, Francis Burke returned to his lodgings in Gladstone Street after work to find that Catherine Daly, with whom he cohabited, was not at home. After his landlord, John Shingler said that he had no idea where Catherine was and his sister Lizzie, who lived nearby, said she had not seen him, Francis went back home and made some chips for his tea. While he was eating them Catherine returned, sporting a black eye.


When asked how she got her injury Catherine, who was quite drunk, replied that she had been fighting with a woman named Mary Daly, the wife of her brother. John Shingler's wife tended to the eye whilst Francis sat on the front steps drinking some beer that he had sent out for. Catherine then started hitting him about the head and carried on drinking along with Lizzie who had since come round to see if everything was okay. Lizzie then joined Catherine in mocking Francis for not doing anything when he was being repeatedly slapped.

Liverpool Workhouse Infirmary.
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Eventually, Francis's patience snapped and he got up and threw Catherine into a chair, but this didn't stop her getting up and hitting him again. After Lizzie left Francis and Catherine went to bed but in the early hours John Shingler was woken up by the couple arguing and he then heard a cry of 'murder'. On running to investigate he found that Catherine was lying on her back covered in blood and Francis was attempting to cut his own throat with a carving knife.



Other lodgers managed to get the knife from Francis while Mr Shingler ran to the Northern Dispensary for a doctor and also found a policeman. Catherine was still alive and pointed to Francis when asked who had cut her. She was taken to the Northern Hospital where she died on 1st September, having been able to make a deposition stating that she had been hit over the head with a hatchet and then had her throat cut. Francis was himself close to death and remained in the Workhouse Hospital in Brownlow Hill for a month, on one occasion ripping the bandages from his throat. He was not considered fit to be committed for trial for murder until 2nd October.

Justice Jelf from Vanity Fair,
Image

Francis appeared at the assizes at St George's Hall on 5th December, where he said he recalled nothing from the moment he threw Catherine into the chair. After twenty minutes deliberation the jury found him guilty of manslaughter on the grounds of extreme provocation. He was then sentenced by Justice Jelf to penal servitude for ten years.











http://liverpoolmurders.blogspot.com/
Cheers Joe.
lynne99
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Drink again. It is often the cause of crime. Thanks Joe
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fatboyjoe90
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Thanks for your reply, Lynne. A derogatory phrase for alcohol that emphasizes its negative effects. Woe be to any of you who fall under the spell of the demon drink
Cheers Joe.
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fatboyjoe90
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Widow and Lodger Cleared of Baby Death
When doctors refused to accept that a child had been stillborn a woman and her lodger was charged with murder. However, despite the highly suspicious circumstances surrounding the birth, they were acquitted as doctors at the trial could not unanimously agree on the cause of death.

In the autumn of 1892 Mary Lunt, a thirty-one-year-old mother of two became widowed when her postman husband died. She lived at Bickerton Street off Lark Lane and in November the following year, she took in Thomas Muat as a lodger. Muat was a twenty-seven-year-old policeman who was stationed just around the corner.

Bickerton Street 2016.
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On 5th December 1893, Lunt complained of a lung condition and sought assistance from her neighbour Annie Atkins, but did not tell her that she was actually heavily pregnant. Muat regularly entered her bedroom but told Atkins they should not call for a doctor unless Lunt gave them the go ahead. After being told that Lunt wanted to be left alone for a while, Atkins went home and returned at 11 pm to stay until morning as Muat was on night duty for the police.

The following day Dr Campbell was called and after examining Lunt asked if she had given birth. She admitted that she had, saying she had fallen down the stairs at 7 pm the previous evening and that the child, which was stillborn, was now at an undertaker. After the doctor left, Lunt told Atkins that she had now been diagnosed with kidney problems.

Dr Campbell was unhappy with what he saw when he examined the infant and said he needed to consult others. A full post mortem was carried out at Princes Dock mortuary, with doctors forming the opinion that the child had been born alive and died due to strangulation, suffocation and bleeding. When Lunt was arrested she told police she had felt ill but had no idea of her condition, then said that Muat was the father.

On 30th December Muat, who had been suspended from duty for the previous fortnight, was arrested and taken to the Old Swan bridewell. He denied being the father of the baby and when he was searched an elastic band was found in his trouser pockets.

A committal hearing at the Islington courthouse on 5th January heard evidence from the doctors involved, who agreed that the baby had not been stillborn. The defence solicitor claimed that as Lunt had made no attempt to conceal the birth and Muat was just a lodger then there was no case to answer by either party. The bench though consulted for a few moments and committed both prisoners to the assizes for trial.

The trial opened on Saturday 17th March before Mr Justice Day. Evidence was heard from Annie Atkins and her mother Mary, who had tried to persuade Lunt to call a doctor on the day of the birth. However, a juror then took ill and the judge postponed the case until the following Wednesday when Annie and Mary had to repeat their evidence due to a new jury having been sworn in.

The Undertaker who had collected the body stated that there had been no attempt made at concealment. When the detective who arrested Muat was cross-examined, he admitted that the elastic band found on his person was the same that police officers would use to wrap around their pocket notebooks.

Evidence was then given by four doctors. Two, including Dr Campbell, were of the opinion that death was caused by strangulation. However, another said that it could have been asphyxiation due to lack of proper afterbirth care. The fourth doctor said that if the birth had been triggered by the fall, this could also have caused complications.

In summing up, Justice Day asked the jury to consider that after hearing the medical evidence, could they safely say that the death had occurred due to violence. After a few minutes deliberation, they returned a verdict of not guilty and both prisoners were discharged.



http://liverpoolmurders.blogspot.com/
Cheers Joe.
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