Jeremiah Corkery

On 7th  March, PC Lines and PC Fletcher called into a Birmingham public house and arrested a man for burglary. As they took the man away, a group of his friends, led by Corkery, began taunting the officers and as they headed from the pub, one shouted: 'Let's give it to the pigs.' One of the men was seen by a witness to draw a knife during the disturbance, and both officers were subsequently stabbed. Although the witness couldn't positively identify the man, he claimed that the attacker had been struck over the head with PC Lines' truncheon. Corkery received treatment for a head wound later that night. A group of men, including Corkery, was paraded before the wounded officers as they lay in hospital, but he wasn't picked out as the assailant and was released.

On 20th  March, PC Lines died and soon after Corkery was arrested and charged with the murder. He protested his innocence but was convicted despite the victim being unable to identify the attacker and a lack of any other evidence linking him with the crime. He was convicted at Warwick Assizes by Mr Justice Field, and declined the court's offer of mercy as he maintained his innocence. Four other men indicted for the riot were sentenced to life imprisonment. On the 27th July 1875 twenty year old Corkery was hanged by William Marwood in Warwick, innocent or guilty we shall never know.