Although largely circumstantial, the evidence against Burrows was growing. Tommy’s parents confirmed that he had not eaten an apple at home on the morning of his disappearance, and a young lad had been seen eating one in the company of Burrows. That boy had not been positively identified but the police were convinced it was Tommy. There were also the conflicting statements given by him regarding his own movements and those of the deceased. The prosecution now believed they had a motive for the murder, and this had been to prevent Tommy reporting that he had been the victim of a sexual assault by Burrows. On 28 March he was charged with the boy’s murder and was committed to appear at the next Derby Assizes.
However, this did not bring an end to police enquiries, for while he was being held in custody for Tommy’s murder, an investigation was begun into the disappearance three years earlier of Hannah Calladine, the woman Burrows had married bigamously, and her two children.
Albert Burrows and Hannah Calladine. (Author’s collection)
Some years earlier, as the First World War raged in Europe, Burrows who was then forty-six years of age, was working as a fireman at a Cheshire munitions factory. He had left his wife and daughter at the family home in Glossop, and he found lodgings near to his place of work. He was earning a good wage and was able to send money home to his family. He also began an intimate relationship with thirty-eight-year-old Hannah Calladine, a co-worker who lived with her parents, sister and her two-year-old illegitimate daughter Elsie Large, in Nantwich. His wife knew nothing of the relationship with Hannah, just as she was unaware of his family in Glossop. In April 1918 she and Burrows were married at the United Methodist Free Church in Nantwich, and on 26 October that year Hannah gave birth to his son, who was also named Albert.
However, the bigamous marriage was discovered and he was sentenced to six months imprisonment. He was also ordered by the court to pay 7s weekly in maintenance to Hannah. Despite learning the truth about Burrows, Hannah remained fond of him, and in late 1919 she agreed to leave her family home to live with him in Glossop. It was not surprising that his wife, who with her daughter was still living in the family home, refused to tolerate this situation, and she left the house the following day with their child. She applied for maintenance, and on 30 December 1920, Inspector Padwick issued Burrows with a summons to appear before the matrimonial court on 12 January 1920.
A few days before this hearing date, Burrows approached local newsagent George Dale, a friend of his wife’s. He asked George to try and persuade her to cancel the court proceedings and return to the family home. He could assure her that the relationship with Hannah was over and she would soon be leaving the house. He said that Hannah had found work as a housekeeper for a single gentleman, who was prepared to allow her two children to live with her in his home.
However, his wife refused his request to cancel the court hearing, which went ahead, and he was ordered to pay her £1 weekly in maintenance. Within days however, his wife and daughter returned to Back Kershaw Street, for just as Burrows had promised Hannah and the two children were no longer living there.
Hannah’s family, however, were becoming increasingly worried, as they had received no news from her. They placed advertisements in a number of newspapers, urging her to contact them. They also followed up accounts of her whereabouts given to them by Burrows, but after several weeks, having heard nothing from her, the Calladines contacted the police. Despite being sympathetic and sharing the family’s concerns, the police did not have the resources to devote to a full investigation in the absence of any bodies or compelling evidence of a crime having been committed.
Hannah had last been seen with her baby son in her arms at 6.30 p.m. on the evening of Sunday, 11 January 1920 by neighbour Eliza Hammond, who was told by Hannah that they were going for a walk with Burrows. Later that evening, Eliza saw Burrows return alone, and the following day, when questioned by Eliza, he explained that he had taken Hannah and the baby to their new home. He also told Eliza that earlier that day he had taken Elsie to join them, but when Eliza asked where they had gone he replied, ‘That is a secret between me and her. I promised I would never tell’.
Earlier in the day at six o’clock in the morning, Burrows had been seen by another neighbour, Margaret Streets, holding Elsie’s hand and walking towards Simondley. Two hours later he passed her once again but he was now alone. A few days later she met Burrows and asked him where Hannah and the children were. He told Margaret, ‘She has a good job in a relative’s bacon shop in Stretford, and we’ve found a good home for the children’.
For the next three years he continued to give neighbours and the Calladine family the impression that Hannah and the children were still alive. He sent several letters to her parents and sister suggesting they were well. In November 1921, his sister gave birth to a son and Burrows sent a copy of his photograph to Hannah’s mother, which was inscribed, ‘I send you a photograph of your grandson. I hope you like it’. In another letter he asked Hannah’s mother to send him the children’s birth certificates, which he needed as they were in hospital recovering from diphtheria.
The police were convinced that Burrows had murdered Hannah and the two children. As for a motive, they believed he had chosen murder as an alternative to paying maintenance. If he had remained with Hannah and the children he would have to pay £1 weekly to his wife and child, and if he remained with his wife and daughter, he would be required to make a weekly payment of 7s to Hannah. He was unemployed without a regular income, and whoever he stayed with, he would face the prospect of prison again for non-payment of maintenance to the other. The police believed he decided to murder Hannah and her children, hoping that his wife would return to the family home, thinking that her rival had left. This would solve his financial worries, as he would have to make no further maintenance payments.
The police discovered that following her disappearance, Burrows had disposed of some of Hannah’s belongings. He sold a pram which she had brought with her from Nantwich, to a neighbour Marie Hibbert for 7s and 6d. He also gave one of her coats to Harriet Mellor, from which she made a pair of trousers for her son. That he should dispose of these items, which Hannah would surely have needed in any new home, was another indication that there had been foul play. They became even more suspicious on learning from local jeweller Harold Garside that he had paid Burrows 30s for Hannah’s gold wedding ring on 23 February 1920, a possession they thought she would not have willingly got rid off if she was alive.
The police also believed that they knew how he had disposed of the bodies. Following the news of the arrest of Burrows on suspicion of murdering Tommy, and the speculation surrounding the whereabouts of Hannah and the children, Robert Mellor came forward and provided invaluable information. On 19 November 1919, his brother, who was being taken to prison with Burrows, was on Glossop station with a police escort. Robert was also present and heard Burrows, who was about to begin his sentence for failing to pay maintenance to Hannah, tell his brother, ‘When I’ve done my time I’ll get this woman. I’ll either do her in or put her down the pit shaft.’
The police were convinced that the bodies of Hannah and the children were at the bottom of the disused shaft, in which they had discovered Tommy’s body. It was therefore decided to begin a full-scale search of the shaft, and the police team led by Constable Sam Rowe was assisted by a group of volunteer miners from Oldham, under colliery director James Hilton.
The shaft had not been used for more than ninety years, and its crumbling walls meant there was a constant threat of a collapse. Inside the shaft the stench was appalling as for decades, a great deal of farm waste had been dumped in it, and there were many dead animals in various stages of decomposition.
Following an extensive search of the disused pit, human remains were discovered. (The Illustrated Police News)
Albert Burrows was subsequently charged with the murder of Hannah Calladine. (The Illustrated Police News)
The first task was to pump out the water, which w
as several feet deep at the bottom. However, this proved to be far from straightforward, as the pump which was provided by the local fire brigade broke down frequently. Those working inside the shaft faced constant danger, and on one occasion, part of the timber framework of the windlass, which was used to carry debris to the surface, collapsed. Constable Rowe and miner Thomas Greenwood, who were in the shaft at the time were fortunate to escape unhurt.
Nevertheless, despite the terrible conditions in which they had to work, the police and miners were determined to complete their task, and eventually their tenacity and courage were rewarded. During the afternoon of Wednesday, 23 May, the twelfth day of the search, human remains were found. Dr Burke of Glossop was at the surface ready to provide an initial examination of bones brought from the bottom of the shaft, to determine if they were human. Two small bones, with decomposing flesh still attached to them were confirmed as being part of a baby’s forearm, and later that evening, the skull and jaw bone of an older child were recovered.
The search continued for several more days, and the partial skeleton of an adult was formed from a skull, the left side of the pelvis, a thigh bone, several ribs and a shoulder blade. All of the human bones removed from the shaft were examined by Dr J.H. Dible, who confirmed they belonged to an adult female; a female child aged between four and five, and a baby boy. Hannah’s family confirmed that she had prominent and distinctive front teeth, which matched those remaining in the woman’s skull. This left the police in no doubt as to the identities of the three individuals to whom the remains belonged.
Further evidence came on 1 June, when a pair of clogs was brought to the surface, inside of which were stockings containing the bones of the legs and feet of a young girl. Police enquiries led to the premises of master clogger Philip Robinson of Nantwich, who identified them as a pair he had made to order for Hannah in 1919.
Burrows was committed to Derby Assizes to face trial for the three murders by local magistrates and a coroner’s jury in mid-June. His trial took place on 3 and 4 July 1923 before Mr Justice Shearman. Sir Henry Maddocks KC led the prosecution and the defence was led by Norman Winning. He was assisted by Miss G. Cobb, the first female barrister to be briefed in a murder trial in Derbyshire. On the opening day, the defence was taken by surprise by a request from Sir Henry. This was that the cases of Hannah and her children be heard first, and despite the misgivings of the defence, who said they had not had as long to prepare for those cases as they had for that of Tommy’s, the judge agreed to the prosecution request.
The Crown called Mrs Hammond and Mrs Streets who had been the last to see Hannah and the children alive over the two day period of 11 and 12 January 1920. Elsie’s clogs were identified and Hannah’s sister identified her teeth. The financial dilemma facing the accused was also described by Sir Henry. The Crown obviously had a strong case, which was further supported by the evidence of a prisoner who had been with Burrows in the hospital wing of Strangeways Prison during his period on remand awaiting trial.
John Rogers had been serving a short prison sentence and told the court that Burrows asked him, once he was at liberty, to write a brief note addressed to Burrows and send it to him in the prison. He wanted the note to read, ‘I and the children are all right. Hope to see you soon’. Burrows wrote several specimen examples of handwriting, supposedly similar to Hannah’s, clearly hoping this would persuade others that she had written the note, and that she and the children were still alive. However, his plan failed after Rogers informed prison staff.
The defence attempted to discredit the witness, suggesting he had made the story up so that he might be released early from prison for his cooperation. In reply to a question from the judge, Rogers stated that he had indeed been released fourteen days early, but this was because of his good behaviour throughout his sentence, and was not a reward for giving evidence at the trial.
The defence also argued that the blue woollen dress in which the adult’s remains had been found in the shaft, had been sent to Glossop by her family four days after her alleged disappearance and murder at the hands of their client. If the jury accepted this, the Crown’s case would fail, as she could not have been murdered on 11 January.
The major plank of the defence case was that Hannah had committed suicide after killing her children. They argued that following the breakdown of the relationship with the accused, and his reconciliation with his wife, she was so distraught that she decided to kill herself. She did so, they claimed, after throwing her children down the shaft to their deaths and then jumping herself. Mr Winning attempted to use the intense public hostility shown towards his client to his advantage, by suggesting that there were several individuals who could support this claim but they were too frightened to come forward for fear of reprisals.
The jury retired for twelve minutes and returned three guilty verdicts. Before passing sentencing the judge asked him if he had anything to say. Burrows replied by saying, ‘I am not afraid of death, but I am not guilty. I love those children and the woman too, as true as I hope to meet my God. I am innocent’.
After the condemned man was taken from the dock, the judge ordered the Crown to pay the local authority £363 3s 9d to cover the costs of searching the shaft, in which the bodies had been discovered. He also directed that Burrows should face trial for the murder of Tommy Woods at the next assizes. However, everyone knew that there would be no such trial.
His appeal against conviction was heard before Justices Darling, Slater and Swift, and the defence persisted with the claim that Hannah had committed suicide and argued that there was nothing in the prosecution case that was not consistent with this theory. This was rejected by the court and the appeal failed. Burrows was executed at Nottingham’s Bagthorpe Gaol on 8 August by John Ellis, who was assisted by William Willis.
15
A SEVENTY-FIVE-YEAR-OLD MYSTERY
Ilkeston, 1927
The county’s second matricide which led to the gallows occurred in Ilkeston, twenty-two years after John Silk’s execution. It was 7 a.m. on 8 February 1927, when William Knighton, a twenty-two-year-old former slaughter man who was then working as a miner, walked into Ilkeston police station to confess to the murder of his fifty-five-year-old mother, Ada Knighton. He asked to speak to Inspector Wheeldon, and in a matter-of-fact voice he told the police officer, ‘I have done the old woman in. I have cut her throat with a razor, which is lying at the side of the bed’. The inspector cautioned him, but Knighton continued by saying, ‘You’ll find it right. I have been on the booze’. The inspector arranged for the man to be detained at the station while he visited the Knighton home at 1 Bethel Street. As he made his way there, Inspector Wheeldon could not have imagined that one of the strangest and most prolonged murder cases of the twentieth century had been set in motion.
On his arrival at the house, he discovered that five people, including the man who had confessed to committing murder, lived there. The suspect’s father, George, who because of poor health, slept in the ground-floor living room; William shared a bedroom with his five-year-old nephew, Reginald, on the first floor; and another flight of stairs led to a bedroom in the attic in which Ada and her sixteen-year-old daughter Ivy, shared a bed.
Inspector Wheeldon found Ada’s body in her bed with her throat cut. Lying on the floor at the side of the bed, in a pool of blood, was a razor together with its case and a candlestick.
Dr Sudbury arrived at the house and found no other signs of injury or wounds. He later performed a post-mortem and found that death had been caused by the deep wound to her neck, which was 4in long and located just above the Adam’s apple. Considerable force had been used in inflicting the wound, which had severed the oesophagus. The doctor confirmed that the razor discovered at the scene had without doubt been the murder weapon. It belonged to George and was always kept in its case in a drawer next to his bed in the downstairs living room, but William had permission to use it whenever he wished to do so.
Ivy had been in the same be
d at the time of her mother’s death, and she told the police that she had gone to bed at ten o’clock the previous night. Her mother was out at the time, and Ivy did not hear her come to bed. However, at one o’clock in the morning Ivy said she was woken by her mother’s coughing. Eventually her mother became quiet and Ivy dropped off to sleep once more. Some time later Ivy woke to discover her brother William, dressed in his shirt and trousers, standing on their mother’s side of the bed. Ivy asked him to light a match, and she saw that it was two o’clock. He asked her, ‘What’s wrong with her Ivy?’ to which she replied she did not know. William left the bedroom and Ivy went back to sleep. This however was the first of several differing accounts Ivy was to make about the events in the bedroom that night.
Ada’s husband George had been born in 1868, and joined the Army when he was sixteen years old and in which he served for eight years. However, he subsequently re-enlisted and fought in the South Africa campaigns. He left once again but remained a reservist and served in the First World War. He was invalided out of the Army in 1918, and by 1927 he was unable to work due to continuing ill health. He was suffering badly from rheumatism, and twelve months before his wife’s death he began to experience chronic heart problems.
Derbyshire Murders Page 14
