James Winstanley

James Winstanley was convicted of the murder of his 27-year-old girlfriend Edith Horrocks Wilkinson and sentenced to death. He strangled her on the Towpath of the Leeds/Liverpool canal, near the Navigation Inn, Shevington, on 7 May 1925. She was reported missing after failing to return from a day out. James Winstanley had been a collier and about nine years earlier had become friendly with Edith Wilkinson and kept company with her for some years until she went off to work on munitions, at which time she became acquainted with another man by whom she had a child. However, the man went off to America in 1922 and Edith Wilkinson took up again with James Winstanley, and up until the time of her murder they remained on intimate terms, constantly having sexual intercourse. Since the war, Edith Wilkinson had been employed as a barmaid at various public houses, and latterly, since 2 March 1924, she had been at the Shakespear Hotel in King Street, Wigan. James Winstanley had been a collier and had lived at 588 Warrington Road, Goose Green. Meanwhile, the other man that had gone to America, who admitted paternity of the child and paid for her maintenance, often wrote to Edith Wilkinson and wished her to join him in America, but by then it appeared that she had become infatuated with James Winstanley and refused to go. However, James Winstanley appeared jealous of the other man and on one occasion Edith Wilkinson said that he had assaulted her because she had been wearing a scarf that the other man had given her. However, it further seemed that James Winstanley had also been tiring somewhat of his intimacy with Edith Wilkinson , or rather her letters to him in which she reproached him for not meeting her, etc, gave that impression. The police report noted that there was evidence given at the trial, as well as statements said to have been made by Edith Wilkinson which could not be given in evidence, to show that on more than one occasion Edith Wilkinson had had marks on her neck as though James Winstanley had gripped her, possibly at the moment of, or just after connection. Edith Wilkinson, who had lived at the Shakespear Hotel had left the hotel on 7 May 1925 for a day out, having borrowed a blouse, hat and gloves, from another maid with whom she shared a room, telling the maid that she was going to the pictures both afternoon and evening. On the afternoon of 7 May 1925, Edith Wilkinson met James Winstanley by appointment and, after visiting and having drinks at two or three public houses, they found their way to a spot near Gathurst beside a canal. There, according to his statement on arrest, James Winstanley had connection with Edith Wilkinson and then strangled her with his hand. James Winstanley didn't give himself up to the police, but made statements to his father and brother to the effect that he had killed Edith Wilkinson and in consequence of that the police went to his brother’s house in Orrel in the early morning of 9 May 1925, where he had been sleeping, and on being told that they had heard that he had made a statement to his father to the effect that he had killed Edith Wilkinson, he said: xxxqxxx I won't run away. I am not afraid to die. I will take you where she is. She is dead enough. I throttled her on Thursday night about midnight. She asked me to do it often. xxxqxxx He then took the police to the spot where her body lay, and once there, said: xxxqxxx There she is. I want to kiss her. We used to come here always, she always took her bloomers off before we got down to it. You will find her bloomers about here. I had connections with her before I throttled her, see the marks on her neck. She was always following me about. She asked me to do her in. She was jealous of me. I am not sorry and would do it again. xxxqxxx When the police went to the location indicated they found the condition of her body in every way confirmed James Winstanley's statement that he had had connection with Edith Wilkinson and had then throttled her. It was thought probable that he had done it with his right hand whilst holding his left hand over her mouth. There were no signs of a struggle, but Edith Wilkinson's bloomers had been torn in two and only one leg was found near her body. Her hat had been thrown into the canal. xxx1xxx There was no evidence whatever to support James Winstanley's statement that Edith Wilkinson had asked him to do her in, and the tone of her letters was altogether inconsistent with such a statement. When James Winstanley was asked whether he had anything to say why he should not be remanded, he said: xxxqxxx It is all right, hang me. xxxqxxx At his trial, his only defence was one of insanity, based upon the sadistic nature of the crime and that the murder was due to an impulse that owed its origin to cruelty and lust. However, the Lord Chief Justice disposed of any such suggestion by saying: xxxqxxx The combination of cruelty and lust was precisely the kind of thing with which the criminal law had to deal, and it was idle to say that a man was innocent because he suffered from such a combination. There was nothing in the appeal except that it arose out of a charge of murder. xxxqxxx He was tried at the Lancashire Assizes and sentenced to death with no recommendation to mercy, and executed at Walton Gaol on 5 August 1925. He was given a drop of 7ft 4in and his death was described as instantaneous.