Mark Shawcross

Mark Shawcross murdered his girlfriend Emily Ramsbottom 27 who he strangled on a footpath near Pink Bank Lane, Gorton, Manchester on 12 May 1909.

Emily Ramsbottom was married but was seperated from her husband and had been living with Mark Shawcross for 4 years. They had argued a number of times but in May 1909 they argued and she left him.

On 13 May 1909 Emily Ramsbottom was found dead in a field having been strangled with a hankerchief.

On 13 May 1909 the police recieved an unsigned letter confessing to her murder. He also wrote a letter to the foreman of a works where he had been employed saying that he might as well die for two as well as one and saying that there would be little of him left in a week and to expect a visit.

Mark Shawcross denied murdering Emily Ramsbottom saying that he had made up the letters based on reports he had read in the newspapers. However, witnesses said that they had seen them out walking together that night although he said that he had left her alive at 11pm on 12 May and after he had gone to Todmorden looking for work.