Hiram Thompson

Hiram Thompson was convicted of the murder of his 49-year-old wife Ellen Thompson and sentenced to death.

He cut her throat and battered her to death at 11 Brandforth Street, Bamber Bridge, near Preston on 25 April 1922.

Hiram Thompson had been a labourer and was said to have always been addicted to drink.

He married Ellen Thompson in 1894 and they had four children:

1. Daughter, married, aged 26.
2. Son, aged 24.
3. Daughter, aged 17.
4. Son, aged 11.

For some time Hiram Thompson had done little regular work and there were constant quarrels between him and Ellen Thompson owing to his drunken habits.

In 1912 his wife summonsed him for persistent cruelty, but the case was settled. She again summonsed him in 1916, and the case was adjourned for 28 days to see if he would do better and was then settled.

Hiram Thompson was said to have constantly assaulted Ellen Thompson and their eldest son gave evidence stating that he had on several occasion thrashed Hiram Thompson back when he was assaulting his mother, the last occasion when he protected his mother being at the beginning of April 1922.

On 25 April 1922 Hiram Thompson obtained 2/- from a farmer who employed him to do an odd job on the garden.

Hiram Thompson had four pints of beer with that and then went home.

Ellen Thompson had been alone in the house at the time, except for a 9-month-old baby whom she had taken in to nurse.

At about 5.40pm their younger daughter returned home and found Ellen Thompson lying on the floor. She then raised the alarm and the police found her lying dead in the kitchen, her head having been severely battered with a smoothing iron which was afterwards found in a boot in the kitchen.

She also had an incised wound to her throat 3½ inches deep, which had evidently been inflicted with a razor, the blade of which was later found in the ashes in the fireplace.

Hiram Thompson was arrested about 6pm and at once asked:

When he was charged with her murder, he said:

However, it was noted that bloodstains were found on his clothes and blood and hair adhering to the clamps of one of his clogs. It was said that nearly every external article of clothing that he had been wearing was splashed with blood.

The medical evidence was that Ellen Thompson had first had her throat cut, and that she had afterwards been struck with the iron and kicked with the clogs.

When Hiram Thompson gave evidence, he said that on returning home he told her to make him some 'tommy', something to eat, and that she replied:

He said they then quarrelled over that. He then said:

However, the police report described Ellen Thompson as a hardworking, respectable woman, and said that it was highly improbable that she struck him as he described.

Hiram Thompson was convicted of her murder with no recommendation to mercy at the Manchester Assizes on 8 May 1922 and executed at Manchester on 30 May 1922.

It was noted at the trial that when the sentence of death was passed that the judge had appeared more moved than Hiram Thompson, it being his first time he had pronounced the death certificate.