Richard Wigley

Richard Wigley was convicted of the murder of his girlfriend Eliza Mary Bowen 28 and sentenced to death.

He cut her throat at The Lion Inn, Westbury, Shropshire on Saturday, 30 November 1901.

Richard Wigley was a slaughterman and married but had separated from his wife and had started to see Eliza Bowen, having first met her around 1898 or 1899.

It was known that around June 1900 that Eliza Bowen had gone to live at a certain man's home and that whilst there she had started to become very close with Richard Wigley and that sometime later Richard Wigley had procured lodgings in Shrewsbury for Eliza Bowen. At the time the reason he gave for doing so was in order that Eliza Bowen might have a place where she could mend her clothes and get her things in order before moving on to another situation. It was noted that that there was no doubt that during the time that Eliza Bowen had been in the lodgings that Richard Wigley had been a frequent visitor.