8

‘Send for a policeman, I have murdered that bitch’

Manchester, 1863

Eighteen-year-old Levi Taylor lived with his mother in Failsworth, which was at the time a small town near Manchester. He was employed as a furnace attendant in a glass works and was apparently a sober, respectable, hard-working young man and a good son until October 1862, when he decided to spend his half-day off in Manchester.

There the naïve and somewhat innocent young man met a prostitute named Mary Ann Bradbury. Like many before him, he was easily persuaded to spend some of his hard-earned money on her services but Levi was unable to walk away after the experience, declaring himself in love with Mary Ann. His friends were appalled and the reaction of his mother to her son’s new girlfriend can only be imagined. However, Levi was a determined young man and in spite of his friends’ attempts to dissuade him, he married Mary Ann at Manchester Cathedral in early December 1862, taking her back to his home in Failsworth. Fellow prostitute Theresa Sheridan acted as bridesmaid at the wedding and within hours of the ceremony, she and the bride were entertaining soldiers at a nearby hotel.

The ink on the marriage certificate was barely dry before Mary Ann abandoned her husband and returned to her life on the streets of Manchester. There are numerous suggestions in the contemporary newspapers as to why the marriage failed so quickly some report that Mary Ann was unwilling to give up prostitution, while others suggest that she was unable to live with her mother-in-law, who couldn’t accept her son’s choice of bride. What does seem certain is that Levi lost his job and was unable to support his new wife. Regardless of the reasons why, on 27 January 1863, Mary Ann appeared at The Jolly Hatters public house in Edge Street, Manchester, and told landlord Thomas Schofield that her husband would have nothing more to do with her and so she would have to fend for herself in future. Schofield, who had known Mary Ann by sight for two or three years, offered her a job as a barmaid, although since the pub was also a brothel, this title was just a front and the landlord was later to admit that he had engaged Mary Ann for ‘immoral purposes’. Yet, far from having finished with her, Levi visited his wife every day at The Jolly Hatters and the couple seemed on the friendliest of terms, with no evidence of any ill-feeling between them.

On Saturday 31 January, Levi arrived at The Jolly Hatters to find that his wife wasn’t actually there but was in another public house in Corporation Street, where she was entertaining some soldiers. A message was sent to that pub and, hearing that her husband had come to see her, Mary Ann immediately returned to the Hatters. Together with several other people, she and Levi sat in the taproom at the pub and at Levi’s request one member of the group began playing an organ. Beer was ordered and although there was a minor argument between Levi and his wife because he didn’t order a drink for her, he was quick to rectify that, eventually buying her two glasses of beer.

Although Levi had tried his hardest to persuade his wife to abandon what he referred to as her ‘inconsistency and her dissolute life’, he now seemed ready to give up the fight and was resigned to accepting that his marriage was over. As he prepared to go back to Failsworth, he asked Mary Ann to sing a particular ‘farewell song’ for him, which she did. Then, as the time for the departure of his train home approached, he asked her to go upstairs with him for a few minutes to say a proper goodbye, adding that this was the last time that they would ever see each other.

Mary Ann asked Schofield’s permission to take her husband to her bedroom and he agreed, saying that they could do as they liked seeing as they were a married couple. Mary Ann led the way to a garret room she shared with another ‘barmaid’, while Thomas Schofield, who was feeling unwell, went to lie down on a sofa in the kitchen. He heard the couple walking upstairs then after five minutes, there was a sudden scream and seconds later Mary Ann burst into the kitchen, the front of her dress saturated with blood. Mary Ann tried to speak but was unable to form words although when Levi followed her into the room she stretched out her hand and pointed to him. His own hands covered with blood, Levi calmly announced, ‘I have done it. Send for a policeman, I have murdered that bitch,’ before asking Schofield if he might go into the yard to wash. He returned almost immediately, his unwashed hands still red with gore and was seized by Schofield who, with the aid of a customer, David Wood, managed to restrain him until the police arrived.

Meanwhile, Schofield directed someone to fetch a cab and, when it arrived, Mary Ann was placed inside and sent to hospital, with Theresa Sheridan in attendance. Sadly, Mary Ann was dead by the time the cab arrived at the Manchester Royal Infirmary, where surgeon Mr W.O. Jones found two wounds in her throat. One three to four-inch-long cut extended from beneath her left ear to the centre of her throat, dividing all of the main blood vessels and the windpipe. There was a second wound on the right-hand side of Mary Ann’s neck, running from the angle of her jaw to the centre of her throat. Mary Ann had bled to death and Jones bemoaned the fact that there had been no attempt made to stem the bleeding by applying a bandage to the wound. Although the surgeon stressed that this would not necessarily have saved the dead woman’s life, it may have slowed the flow of blood until she could receive proper medical help.

While his wife was drawing her last breath, Levi was taken to the police station, where he was described as ‘excited’. He was smiling and appeared happy and his speech was rambling, so much so that an officer spent the night in the cell with him for fear he might harm himself. However, once his initial excitement had worn off, Levi talked about the murder with great coolness and complacency. ‘It is well I have done it,’ he mused, describing how he had placed his hand under his wife’s chin and lifted her face as if to kiss her, before cutting her throat. Realising that he hadn’t killed Mary Ann outright, he cut her again on the other side of her throat in order to ‘finish the job’. Levi told police that he had hidden the knife in the ash pit in the pub yard and a black-handled clasp knife with a bloodstained blade was later retrieved by PC Trueman.

An inquest into nineteen-year-old Mary Ann Taylor’s death was held by coroner Mr E. Herford on 2 February, at which the jury returned a verdict of wilful murder against her husband. He was tried at the South Lancashire Assizes in March 1863, with Mr Baron Martin presiding over the trial, Mr Sowler prosecuting and Ernest Jones defending.

The prosecution suggested that the murder was premeditated and produced a pub landlord who claimed to have heard Levi threaten to take Mary Ann’s life if she wouldn’t live with him, even if he later swung for it. However, almost every other witness produced in court disagreed. Numerous witnesses were called to state that Levi had an irreproachable character and police enquiries in Failsworth had failed to find anyone who had a bad word for him.

The defence rebutted any suggestion of premeditation or malice, reminding the jury that Levi made unceasing attempts to persuade his wife to abandon her chosen lifestyle and live with him. Almost up until the moment before he killed her, the relationship between Levi and Mary Ann had been friendly and affectionate. Ernest Jones suggested that the jury should consider acquitting the prisoner on the grounds of insanity, saying that the whole of Levi’s previous life suggested that, in his ordinary condition of mind, he was simply incapable of the diabolical act alleged against him and therefore it must have been done under conditions of temporary insanity. Failing that, Jones asked the jury to consider reducing the offence from murder to manslaughter, suggesting the probability that some aspect of his wife’s conduct had awakened a sudden impulse of passion within his client, inducing him to commit an act that he had never before that moment intended to perpetrate. ‘This man had grounds for irritation – his wife had crushed all his fondest hopes,’ maintained Jones, adding, ‘The whole aspect of the case showed that there was no malice in the heart of the prisoner against his victim but that the provocation which had been offered to him induced him to do the terrible deed.’

In his summary of the case for the jury, Mr Baron Martin effectively discounted both of the defence counsel’s arguments, telling the jury that there was not a particle of evidence to show that the defendant was insane at the time of the murder, nor was there any justification for reducing the offence from murder to manslaughter. The jury deliberated for less than ten minutes before returning their verdict that Levi Taylor was guilty of wilful murder, although they made a strong recommendation for mercy on the grounds of his youth, his previous good character and the provocation he had received from his victim before the killing.

Mr Baron Martin addressed Taylor prior to pronouncing the death sentence but the young man fainted and was eventually carried out of the court unconscious and taken to Kirkdale Prison in Liverpool to await his execution. The inhabitants of Failsworth immediately got up a petition for mercy and a second petition attracted more than 5,000 signatures, including several clergymen and eighteen members of the bar. Taylor’s sentence was commuted to one of life imprisonment and he was eventually transported to Western Australia, setting sail aboard Merchantman on 29 June 1864.

Note: Official records show that Taylor’s mother was either Rose or Rosa Taylor, whose husband is named as James Taylor. However, by 1861, Rose is shown as Rose Schofield and her husband as Thomas Schofield, presumably the landlord of The Jolly Hatters. This suggests that Schofield may have been Levi’s stepfather but this relationship – if indeed a relationship exists – is not mentioned in accounts of the murder in the national newspapers.