Charles Wood Whittaker

Charles Whittaker was convicted of the murder of his girlfriend Elizabeth Range 43 and sentenced to death.

He stabbed her at 99 Husband Street, Collyhurst in Manchester on Saturday 8 August, 1903.

Elizabeth Range was married but had separated from her husband and gone to live with a man for a time. They had married in 1895 but she had left him in 1896 and travelled the country with the man for 5 or 6 years. However, her husband who worked at the Newton Heath Railway Works, said that she could come back and live with him as long as she promised to reform which she did. However, when she returned she had a son that was not her husbands and although they lived in the same house, they did not live as man and wife. Her husband noted that although he had taken her back, Elizabeth Range had been drinking ever since. He said that for the last two months that Elizabeth Range had been drinking heavily and abusing him and that they had slept in separate bedrooms and were not on speaking terms.

Although she had returned, Charles Whittaker would visit Elizabeth Range secretly while her husband was away or at work. They had known each other for about six months.