THE TERRIBLE EXECUTION OF THE 19 YEARS OLD EDWARD ANDERSON FOR MURDERING HIS UNCLE.
Edward Anderson - for the murder of his uncle.
19 year old Edward Walker Anderson had a criminal record. He had worked as hall porter at the Grand Hotel in Tynemouth but had left on the 9th of March 1941.
He returned there on the 7th of June, and the manageress, Gertrude Green took pity on him for being down on his luck and allowed him to stay the night. The following morning she gave him a pound to help him on his way.
Three days later, Anderson hatched a plan to solve his money problems. He would rob his blind, 63 year old great-uncle, William Anderson. William didn’t trust banks and kept his money in his home at 9 Moor End Terrace in the Belmont area of Durham.
Given his disabilities William employed a housekeeper, Ethel Carr. She arrived as normal on the morning of Wednesday the 11th of June but found the door locked.
She went next door to William’s brother’s house and Alfred managed to gain entry via an open upstairs window. The house had been ransacked and he found his brother, lying by the front door. William had been battered about the head with an axe. He died on Thursday the 19th of June.
A search of the house revealed that William’s money was missing and the police suspected that it was likely the work of a family member who would have known where it was kept.
The family were interviewed, Edward Anderson being questioned on the 13th of June.
His room was searched and revealed a number of items of William’s property, including a fountain pen. Anderson confessed to the robbery and attacking his uncle. The charge was up-rated to murder when William passed away.
Anderson was tried at Leeds in the 11th and 12th of July before Mr. Justice Croom-Johnson.
There was no appeal and he was hanged at Durham at 8.00 a.m. on Thursday the 31st of July 1941 by Thomas Pierrepoint and Herbert Morris. He weighed 150lbs and was given a drop of 7’ 5”.
42 days from crime to punishment - swift justice indeed!
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