Joseph Jones

Joseph Jones murdered his 28-year-old son-in-law Edmund Clarke and was sentenced to death. He cut his throat and battered him at Quarry Bank, Stafford on 1 December 1906. Joseph Jones had been a stock keeper at an ironworks and had fathered a daughter with his wife who had died a lot younger. When his daughter grew up and married they moved in with him at 18 Victoria Road, Quarry Bank. When Joseph Jones made over the cottage to Edmund Clarke they began to row. On the day of the murder Edmund Clarke's wife went out to do some shopping leaving them together in the cottage but when she returned she found Edmund Clarke dead. Joseph Jones said that Edmund Clarke had set upon him. He had been beaten and had his throat slit. Edmund Clarke was a haulier and had a horse, wagonette, dog cart and a heavy cart. He was mainly a carter of fuel. After giving the house to Edmund Clarke, Joseph Jones began to think that Edmund Clarke was trying to get him out of the house. They would often argue over it and Joseph Jones who was short of money would ask Edmund Clarke for money which he refused making him even more angry. The wife left the house at 8.45 leaving her husband Edmund Clarke dozing on the sofa under the kitchen window. When she got back at about 9.15 she found the door locked. After banging on it for a while Joseph Jones opened the door and let her in. She then saw her husband on the floor in the kitchen near the fire with his head beaten in and the floor swimming in blood. She thought he was still alive and went out to get help. However, Edmund Clarke was dead when help arrived. His head was battered in on the right side with the brains being visible with several other major head injuries and his throat had been cut from ear to ear. Both actuaries had been completely severed and the windpipe partially. On the floor there was a blood soaked razor and a heavy poker. Another blood-stained razor was later found. It was determined that he had first been struck whilst lying on the sofa because there was major staining to the leather sofa arm where a blow would have met. The sofa was heavily stained with blood and the kitchen looked like a slaughterhouse. In court Joseph Jones said he never threatened Edmund Clarke and that it was Edmund Clarke who had threatened him. However, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. He was executed at Stafford on 23 March 1907. Joseph Jones had a fear of the workhouse. When he was child, in the Staffordshire village of Pesnett, he had seen his grandfather being dragged off to the institution. The old man survived just four weeks. As he grew up so he went through the normal cycle of life, got a job and worked hard, married and bought a modest house at Quarry Bank, a few miles from where he was raised. In 1880 his wife died soon after giving birth to their daughter. He never remarried but concentrated on bringing up the child. Life continued as normal and, when she was twenty-one, Ethel married Edmund Clark, a chain-maker. The young couple moved into the Quarry Bank house. For four years this situation prevailed with everything in perfect harmony. Then the old man lost his job at the steel-mill. Old Joe had always enjoyed a social drink and a little 'flutter' but with time on his hands these small pleasures turned into habits. Joe was a proud, independent man and had made reasonable provision for his old age but he soon worked his way through all his savings. Edmund came up with an offer to buy the house from the old man. Again, he was back in the bars and it didn't take too long before he was broke again. Edmund Clarke returned home from his Saturday game of football at 6pm on 1st December 1906 and stretched out on the sofa for a nap. The old man was out so Ethel nipped out to do a bit of shopping. When she returned at about 8 o'clock it was to a nightmare as she found the living-room dripping with blood and the body of her husband with its skull smashed and head almost severed. Old Joe was sitting calmly in his chair. She screamed until her screams alerted the neighbours. Without any fuss the old man calmly walked the short distance to Brierly Hill police station to give himself up. His trial opened at Stafford Assizes in March 1907 and lasted less than a day before he was found guilty and sentenced to death. When Pierrepoint arrived to pinion the old man and escort him to the gallows, Old Joe is said to have commented, 'This is a damned sight better than the workhouse'. Victims:- Name:- Edmund Clarke Age:- 28 Location of Murder:- Quarry Bank, Stafford Date of Murder:- Saturday, 1st December, 1906 Method of Murder:- Battered/Cut Throat Relationship to Killer:- Son-in-Law