Michael James Johnson

On Boxing Day, 1868, the landlord at the Cambridge Arms, Salford, evicted twenty year old Michael James Johnson from the pub because he was drunk and being abusive to other customers. A police officer arrived but after promising him that he would go home to bed, Johnson returned to the pub and asked the landlord to come outside and fight. An itinerant musician and casual barman in the pub, Patrick Nurney, told Johnson that he would be wise to go home and went to close the door, but as he did so Johnson drew out a knife and stabbed him fatally in the shoulder. He was arrested the next day hiding under a bed in his cousin's house. He was convicted at South Lancashire Assizes and hanged by William Calcraft on March 29th 1869 at Manchester.