Thomas Henry Shelton

Thomas Henry Shelton was convicted of the murder of his 25-year-old girlfriend Ruth Surtees Rodgers and sentenced to death. He cut her throat with a razor at the door of her home at 30 Abbey Street, Gateshead on 29 January 1925 after becoming jealous of her association with another man at work. Thomas Shelton had been a fitter and had lived with his mother and sister in Gateshead and had known Ruth Rodgers for years and they had been regarded as engaged, the understanding being renewed on 1 January 1924. He had lost the use of one of his eyes in an accident some years earlier. However, about six weeks before the murder, he became intensely jealous, telling several people that if he could not have Ruth Rodgers no one else would, and that he would kill her and himself. xxx2xxx Thomas Shelton was also heard to say on 28 January 1925: xxxqxxx I belong to Ruth and she belongs to me, we are all in all to each other, if I do not get her no one else will. xxxqxxx He was especially suspicious of the office manager at Ruth Rodgers’s work. However, there was no evidence that the office manager had paid her any undue attention. However, it was later noted that the office manager later attempted suicide between the magistrates’ hearing and the trial, but the judge ruled that as irrelevant. Ruth Rodgers had been employed as a wages clerk by a linoleum company and the office manager had recently joined the works in the same office as Ruth Rodgers and Thomas Shelton became very jealous of him and his relationship with Ruth Rodgers, which he suspected to be growing between him and Ruth Rodgers. On 29 January 1925 he told a bus conductor that he was going to have a private detective put on Ruth Rodgers, and it was noted that about the same time he had spoken to a private detective and asked him to take up a case to watch a girl to whom he was engaged. The private detective said that Thomas Shelton had been rather excited and had told him that rather than anyone else having her, he would do her in and himself also. On the evening before the murder Thomas Shelton visited Ruth Rodgers’s mother’s house. The next day he met Ruth Rodgers as she returned from work and walked her home. Ruth Rodgers left work a few minutes after 6pm. She was seen by a colleague outside the door and he walked with her a few yards and then he saw Thomas Shelton standing under a lamp, at which time Ruth Rodgers went over to him and they started to walk off home. They were seen later at about 7pm nearer Ruth Rodgers's home, however, at the door he slashed her throat to the bone, severing the carotid artery. They were seen to struggle on the doorstep, after which Ruth Rodgers ran out into the road. Thomas Shelton then followed her and caught her but she got away. However, he then caught her again and they struggled again after which Ruth Rodgers fell to the ground with Thomas Shelton on top of her. He then made a superficial effort to cut his own throat. Ruth Rodgers's sister then came out and found Ruth Rodgers lying on the step and Thomas Shelton standing in the street bleeding from his trivial wound. He then said to her: xxxqxxx I have done her in. xxxqxxx A razor was found in the street close to the door of the house. Ruth Rodgers was then taken upstairs, but she died before the doctor arrived from a 4½in wound across the front of her throat that had cut the jugular vein and common carotid artery. In his pocket was a small book containing letters to his mother, to Ruth Rodgers's mother, one asking that he and Ruth Rodgers be buried in the same grave, and one 'to whom it may concern, claiming he had been having regular intercourse with Ruth Rodgers for four or five years. The last two letters were not read at trial. One extract read: xxxqxxx Ruth is the only girl and friend I want, and if I cannot get her nobody else will have her if I can help it. xxxqxxx The doctor said Ruth Rodgers was not pregnant and his impression was that she was virgo intacta. Thomas Shelton’s defence was insanity. However, the Prison Medical Officer found no sign of insanity, and other witnesses gave evidence stating that they had spoken only to a naturally depressed and worried man. Thomas Shelton's antecedents showed that he was born at Blyth, Northumberland and that for the previous 22 years he and his family had been resident in Gateshead. He left School at the age of 14 years, at which time he was in Standard 5 and for a while he was employed as an Errand Boy in Newcastle, and then, at the age of 15 he commenced an apprenticeship as a fitter and turner at the Close Works, Gateshead. About 12 months later he sustained an injury which occasioned the loss of his left eye and for some months afterwards he was paid compensation at the rate of 10/- per week. He left the Close Works at the age of 18, and joined the Royal Air Force, in which he served for about 18 months and then returned to the Close Works, where he remained until he was 21 years of age. He made an application for compensation for the loss of his eye and was offered the sum of £100 or a permanent situation. He accepted the money, and terminated his employment there, but didn't tell his mother how much money he had received. xxx1xxx He was then unemployed for some time, but subsequently obtained work with an uncle at Hebburn. At that time he had left home and was lodging elsewhere, owing to some disagreement with his mother in consequence of keeping late hours, but his uncle advised him to return home, which he eventually did. The work his uncle was engaged with having finished, he was again out of work for a while. He next obtained employment with the By-Product Company, in Dunston-on-Tyne, County Durham. However, he left there after a short period and was again unemployed for a short time until he obtained employment as a labourer with his uncle at Blyth, where he was engaged until his arrest. He had attended his work regularly until about the second week in January, when he absented himself from work for two days, the last time he was at his work being 26 January 1925. His father died 6 years earlier of cancer of the bladder, and there was a sister at home with his widowed mother at 51 Southway, Sheriff Hill, Gateshead. Recently Thomas Shelton had been going home late at nights and having to rise early in the mornings for his work, and as a consequence he had not been getting sufficient sleep. He had not been charged with any offence previously and was not known to have taken any drink, and was believed to be honest, but to have a quick temper and it was thought that no doubt the loss of his father had resulted in him not having the proper control necessary for a young man of his age, with regard to his late hours. The allegations regarding Ruth Rodgers were looked into and it was concluded that there was no evidence for suggesting that she had wanted to break off their engagement, and it was stated that it had been Thomas Shelton himself that had made a nuisance of himself to Ruth Rodgers by quarrelling with her when they were together, owing to his jealousy, it being noted that the following mornings he would invariably sent notes to her apologising for his conduct. When convicted, there was no recommendation to mercy and his appeal was dismissed, and he was executed at Durham on Wednesday 15 April 1925. Abbey Street has since been demolished, but was in the area where St Edmunds Road is today, a few meters to the east.