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17 People Die At A Hanging Of William Saville

mikfez

Generally Bewildered
Joined
Aug 17, 2006
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Location
East Yorkshire
Nottingham - National Justice Museum

At the hanging of William Saville in 1844 -12 people died in the crush, 5 died later of their injuries and over 100 people were seriously hurt.
Just another day out for the family.

Hanging.jpg
 
Last month I was browsing some saved files taken from old Cumbrian newspapers. A crime remarkably similar to to Saville's was reported there. It's quite possible that the Nottingham case had been picked-up from another paper. It did not cover the chaotic scenes at the execution. I will try to relocate it. Was there a pattern of men luring their families to the woods before slaughtering them? One case would be enough!

The Victorians certainly loved their horrors and supped deep on them. They had plenty of contemporary ones but were not above reviving medieval atrocities and reporting them as news. :cskull:

Edit 11.49 am:

Here we are! It was the Saville case, as reported in some detail, having been picked up by the Carlisle Patriot and published 01.06.1844. The details are worth pasting it whole, I think, since it is clear the case had caught the attention of large crowds from early on. The notion of them flocking to the barn to gape at the bodies is chilling but there are plenty would do it today!


NOTTINGHAM.

On Thursday evening week a quadruple murder, of a most revolting
description, was discovered to have been committed at Colwick, about three
miles from Nottingham. The victims of this massacre we[re] Anne SAVILLE and her
three children, two boys and a girl, of the several ages of seven, five, and
four years, who were found with their throats cut from ear to ear, in a
retired spinny. The husband and father, there is little doubt, was the
atrocious criminal.

It appears Mrs. SAVILLE and her children, after having been in the Union
Workhouse, at Nottingham, for the last three months, came out at the request
of her sister, (a Mrs. BROWNSWORD) on Monday week, and went in search of her
husband, a framework knitter, employed at Mr. SUTTON"s shop, at Radford.

On her finding him he came back with her to the town, and left her to sleep
at the house of Samuel WARDLE, in Wood-street, Meadowplatts; next morning,
after breakfast, he fetched his wife and children away, and set out with
them to visit her sister at Carlton. He afterwards returned on the same day
to WARDLE's, and as his wife and children were not there, he professed to be
much alarmed.

It seems he was paying his addresses to a young woman at Radford, named
TAIT, and on that evening he actually went to her and offered to marry her;
the girl told him that she understood he was already married, and refused to
have anything to do with him. SAVILLE replied "She's not my wife, she has
never troubled you, and never will; she is safe and the children provided
for." The next day he went again to WARDLE's, and his wife not being there
he said he thought she must have drowned herself. Afterwards he made some
other statement of contradictory nature, which gave rise to a suspicion that
he knew more of her than he was desirous to have understood.

This having got abroad, an immense mob collected round the house, and, if
the man had not been taken into custody, he would probably have received
rough treatment at the hands of the populance, who believed that he had
drowned his wife and children in the Trent, at Colwick Weir.

While under examination before the Mayor and Alderman HEARD, intelligence
arrived that the bodies had been found in a spinny between Colwick and
Carlton, a picturesque spot, across which is a footpath. The children lay
together, but the mother, with her throat shockingly mangled, was at some
distance. A razor was in her left hand, but was held in such a manner as to
render it evident that it had been put there since death.

The unfortunate woman does not appear to have struggled much, and her hands
were uncut; there were also, traces of her having been dragged upon the
grass. The bodies were quite cold and stiff, and the blood was congealed.
The razor can be identified as one that the prisoner was in the habit of
using; and when the prisoner's box was searched, his razor case proved to be
empty. Spots of blood were also found upon his trousers.

The bodies were removed to Mr. PARR's barn, whither the inhabitants of the
districts surrounding have flocked in thousands to satisfy their curiosity
by gazing upon the bloody corpses.

The prisoner was committed till the result of the inquest.
 
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The notion of them flocking to the barn to gape at the bodies is chilling but there are plenty would do it today!
Thanks for the post James -
Maybe they were just a little more honest about their morbid curiosity in those days.
 
Wasn't the banning of public hangings down to safety concerns for the spectators, not because of some sort of moral evolution away from such barbarism?
 
It was also felt that public execution "glamorised" the death of the criminal and them into heroes in the final moments in the eyes of some of the public.
 
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