Paul Heslop - Cumbria Murders

Cumbria

MURDERS

Paul Heslop

This book is dedicated to former policeman, international athlete,
writer and colleague, Arthur McKenzie,
and also to writer and writing course tutor, Nick Cook;
both of whom have been my inspiration.

First published in 2007 by Sutton Publishing

The History Press

The Mill, Brimscombe Port

Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

This ebook edition first published in 2012

All rights reserved

Paul Heslop, 2007, 2012

The right of Paul Heslop, to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the authors and publishers rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

EPUB ISBN 978 0 7524 8417 4

MOBI ISBN 978 0 7524 8416 7

Original typesetting by The History Press

CONTENTS

AN IMPRESSION OF JOHN HATFIELD

I wish you to be seriously impressed with the awfulness of your situation. Reflect with anxious care and deep concern on your approaching end. Employ properly the short space of time you have to live in preparing for eternity. Hear now the sentence of the law, that you be carried from hence to the place from whence you came, and from thence to the place of execution, there to be hanged by the neck till you are dead. And may the Lord have mercy upon your soul.

T hese were the words of the trial judge, directed at John Hatfield who was convicted in August 1803 at the Cumberland Assizes, Carlisle, for forgery and avoiding payment of postage charges while falsely purporting to be a Member of Parliament.

On 3 September 1803, Hatfield was indulged with a chaise and, accompanied by a gaoler and his executioner, taken to the place of execution, a small island on Carlisle Sands on the River Eden. A large crowd watched as a small dung cart was placed under the gibbet, and Hatfield climbed the ladder to it. Asked if he wished for any support, he replied, No, though my body may appear weak, my mind is perfectly firm. After thanking his gaoler for his indulgence and humanity during his confinement, he was launched into eternity, the first person to be executed in Cumberland in the nineteenth century.

Hatfields execution had not been favoured by the jury, which declared an unwillingness to let him hang for forgery. They were reconciled, however, because of his heartless conduct towards Mary Robinson, the so-called Beauty of Buttermere, whom he had married while falsely claiming to be the Hon. Colonel Hope, brother of the Earl of Hopetoun, Scotland. Hatfields remains were interred in a criminals grave in St Marys churchyard, outside the city walls.

John Hatfield.

FOREWORD BY HUNTER DAVIES

W ho better than a modern-day copper to investigate what coppers in the past were trying to solve?

Paul Heslop has carried out painstaking research, revisited scenes and examined, as far as possible, all the available evidence before writing about selected crimes committed in what is now the county of Cumbria*. He includes, in detail, the executions of those convicted, and at the end of each chapter offers his verdict, taking into account the testimony of witnesses, the evidence gleaned and, finally, whether justice was done or otherwise.

Paul Heslop is a retired policeman, with over thirty years experience, most of them as a detective. Beginning his career on the streets of Newcastle, Paul went on to serve in CID and Regional Crime Squads in two police forces. The investigative experience gleaned over this period has enabled him to reinvestigate and analyse the crimes featured in this book. The result is an interesting and entertaining narrative, inviting the reader to draw his or her own conclusions, just as Paul has done.

Hunter Davies, journalist and author, is a regular contributor to a number of national publications, including the Sunday Times and New Statesman . He has written over 40 books, including biographies on Beatrix Potter, William Wordsworth and Alfred Wainwright, as well as the authorised biography of The Beatles. His many books include A Walk Along the Wall , The Good Guide to the Lakes , The Beatles and Football and Me among others.

* The county of Cumbria was formed in 1974, being an amalgamation of the former administrative counties of Cumberland, Westmorland, the Furness district of Lancashire and a small part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. The crimes featured in this book were committed within this area, the presentday Cumbria. Where appropriate, the former county names are used in this book.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

T he author wishes to thank staff at Cumbria Record Offices at Carlisle, Whitehaven, Kendal and Barrow, who assisted with the research required to produce this book, in particular Mr Stephen White at Carlisle Library with regard to the archive images reproduced herein; and editorial staff at Cumbrian Newspapers Ltd, the Westmorland Gazette and the Evening News , Edinburgh, regarding reproduction of images from past publications.

Thanks also to: Mr Brian Parnaby for kindly providing material concerning the murder of his great uncle, PC Joseph Byrnes; Mr Jim McMonies and staff of Cumbria Constabulary regarding information and images relating to Chapter 14; Mr Stewart Lister of Cummertrees; Mr Hunter Davies who kindly wrote the foreword; and, not least, my partner Kate for her support.

Please note that in exceptional circumstances some images have been reproduced without sanction of the original publisher, but only after I have exhausted all means of tracing and identifying them.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

P aul Heslop joined Newcastle upon Tyne City Police in 1965 (later amalgamated into Northumbria Police). He learned his trade on the beat, supervised by patrol sergeants and shift inspectors, when on-the-street contact with the general public was seen as an essential ingredient in policing. Thereafter, he spent most of his career in CID and regional Crime Squads as a senior detective with Northumbria and Hertfordshire Constabularies, which included investigating serious crime in London and the Home Counties. He retired from the force in 1995 and is now an established writer. He lives in Cumbria.

By the Author :

The Job (Froswick Press, 2000)

The Walking Detective: An account of a walk from Cornwall to Caithness (Froswick Press, 2001)

Old Murders and Crimes of Northumberland and Tyne & Wear (The Peoples History, 2002)

Bedfordshire Casebook: A Reinvestigation into Crimes and Murders (The Book Castle, 2004)

Hertfordshire Casebook: A Reinvestigation into Crimes and Murders (The Book Castle, 2006)

A DOUBLE EXECUTION

R obert Fox and Philip Tinnaney had little in common, save their lowly position in life. But on a wet and blustery March day in 1827, they would share the moment of death, watched by an expectant crowd of several thousand, there to witness the administration of justice in the Border City.

The scaffold was arranged on the roof of the prison wall, facing English Street. At noon the prison bell tolled the knell of departure and they were brought up, two murderers about to pay the penalty for their wicked deeds: Fox, the farm worker from Bankhouse, near Gosforth, who slipped arsenic into his wifes coffee and food, so that she died three days later following the birth of their child, stillborn, also effectively murdered by poisoning; and Tinnaney, the Irishman who enticed his lover, Mary Brown, into a Carlisle field where he remorselessly beat her to death with a hammer. Now it was their turn to die in the cause of justice. I hope the pain wont be protracted, said Fox. Never mind the pain, replied Tinnaney, pragmatically, think of something beyond that.

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