Legacy and Remembrance

Hello there and welcome to Myrnamos British. I'm Zach Hi welcome guys. I'm Rachel Merry Christmas. Happy holidays. Ho, ho, ho. I should be saying Merry Christmas You should say happy holidays. Well you guys say happappy Christmas Yo Merary I usually hear people just saying Py Christmas. It's Merry Christmas. I I say Merry Christmas? Yeah. It's my influence, just like I keep getting you just say tomato No. I have to correct myself if I say anything How Americans say it? I'm so compelled to correct myself It's crazy. now No, it's not tomato, it's tomrow. It'sack my hand Well, yeah, because they're so This one's coming out on Christmas Eve And so from the top This is a Christmas related case, isn't it? Yeah So hopefully Everybody Have a great Christmas. And happy New Year but we do have an episode coming out on Do Year Sve. So look out for that one Yep, before we begin, just a small request from us. If you enjoy listening to our true crime stories Please give us a like, a follow, and a five star rating Also follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Mrermost British and on Facebook at MMB Podcast You can also join us in the public Crit chat, our free discord channel. where you can talk about cases, share theories and read the latest news from the archive Your support helps the archive grow and ensures no story is ever forgotten Tonay's story It includes a brutal killing at Christmas time and the forensic work that followed and then also an execution. So some listeners may find parts of this account distressing. so please take care while listening Now let's get to the story Christmas Day, nineteen oh nine Pollyhead lies beneath a hard frost. Harbor lights winking like distant candles. Coal smoke drifts over the narrow streets and from the chapels of Nury Street comes the steady murmur of Him and prayer Out on the edge of town The wind moves through fields glazed with ice carrying the sound of the sea against the breakwater By the time Dawn returns quiet will have been broken A walk through the winter dark will go unfinished And the frost that settled so gently over Hollyhead will bear marks and it was never meant to hold This is the story of Gwen Ellen Jones and of how one peaceful Christmas night in a coastal town became beginning of a case that would echo far beyond Hollyhead all the way to the last execution in a Carnarvan jail. Gwen Ellen Jones was born in eighteen seventy four in the slate mining town of You're gonna have to help me out with this Zac because it's a social eed struggle. It is a beautiful Welsh name, yes. Blind eyed Festinog I do believe We used that and wasn't that in another case that we done Yeah. I believe we remember the An Sabine, I believe it was. That's the one Yeah ye The youngest daughter of John and Jane Parry older sister also named Gwen Died at the age of ten and the new baby was given her name in remembrance 's beautif It is a very sweet thing to do, isn't it? Yeah It's like where one life ends, you've got another life Yeah, it's really sweet. Life in the quarry, districts were hard and often short and Gwen grew up in a family where grief and heavy work were simply part of the day to day. In the eighteen nineties, that fragile stability broke GQwuin's mother Jane died Her father, John, Aing and in poor health moved the family east to Blair v Vecan Hopefully, I caught that They are really true. That's a tough to say, you know, especially if obviously you're not speaking it on a regular basis. A lot of Welsh words are pretty tricky. Yeah. I think once you get like the hang of it, you know, But anyways, that's where he found lighter work as a laborer in the stone quuarry The scenery changed from slate valleys to shoreline. the money didn't quite improve that much In eighteen ninety eight, Gwen married Morrice Jones, a quarry labourer, about twenty years older than she was. They settled at for Tanablanc in plan V via weacon. Yep Close enough, I think I'll practice. I'll keep practising all these Welsh towns and places which was a cramped three room cottage that soon filled up John Parry moved in So did Gwen's younger sister, Jane To keep everyone fed, Gwen took in two lodgers It was crowded, noisy, and poor By all accounts she was the one holding the household together. Around nineteen hundred She took on even more. Gwen adopted a two year old girl named Gladys It is spelled G W L A D Y S. So just a different way of spelling I guess, but if I got it wrong, sorry She was born in Clan Rust workhouse and abandoned by her mother Bringing another mouth into the house already struggling was a serious decision Gwen did it anyways Gladys grew up calling her mother And everything in the surviving record suggests Gwen treated her as exactly that In nineteen oh two, a new name entered the story, William Murphy He started bringing his wash into the house powerfully built, well travelled man who had served with the East Lancashire Regiment in India and South Africa And later with the Royal Anglea, Royal Engineers People who knew him described two sides The joker who let himself be tied with ropes for Mday sport. and the man no one wanted to cross when he had been drinking. No. one of the an angry, angry drunk That Jekyll and Hyde kind of character. That's not a good combination there Well, an affair began between Gwen and Murphy We don't know precisely when But we do know what followed the nineteenth of january nineteen oh three Gwen gave birth to a son William John Morris Jones eventually registered the child as his own timiming and later testimony strongly suggested Murphy was the father Delay in registration became a point of gossip One more sign that the marriage and Gwen's reputation We're under strain After that, the pattern of Gwen's life changed sharply Murphy group possessive and violent Her father later testified that Murphy had beaten her black and blue There were accounts of him cutting her shoes off with a knife threatening her with that knife kicking her and attacking her in the straight. She left him more than once, retreating to her father's cottage in Bethesa. or to cheap lodgings in Hollyhead Poverty, scandal, and fear kept pulling her back into his orbit cllose to the end of the decade Gwen's world had narrowed She rented a top floor room in a common lodging house at fifty one Baker Street in Hollyhhead crowded ore and known locally for his roughness She moved between there and twenty one K star. in Bethesda where her father now lived Her children were sometimes with her, sometimes with him sometometimes left in the reluctant care of others papers began to label her a hawker or beggar. a neat way of ignoring the circumstances that had pushed her there We had hawkers in our family on my side of the family. Yeah That's crazy I mean to be able to go back and see all that. Yeah, see, I never thought, you know, when they say Oh beggar. And I think I hang aute. That's not very nice. Hwkers are like people that sell shit,' it? Yeah. like selling wres and whatnot Pretty much, I guess. Yeah. I'd have to look that up, but ye it is, yeah. I think they sell sort of really and at the house. But yeah In nineteen oh nine. While Murphy was away working in Yorkshire Gwen tried to break away properly. She began living with another labouorer. Robert Jones Their arrangement seems to have been one of survival rather than romance. A way for her to manage without Murphy's money or control two weeks or so before Christmas, Murphy went looking for her He told her father and even her adopted daughter that if he saw Gwen with another man, he would kill her No That's not good He's probably getting all liqured up and getting all fired up over it and stuff. and she's like, I don't want this. I want you know more. and he just won't give up bad. bad bad It' just one of those, you know, how serious do you take it? You know, how how serious do you does the father in law his comment on that, you know, because A lot of people say things like that out of Jess because they're like, oh, you know, if I find him cheating or her cheating or, you know then I'd kill them. Do you know what I mean? L a lot of the times Do say that sort of stuff in jest that Yeah, not really meaning that they'll kill it, but they're just like they're going pay for that. Exactly. give them what for because they're right to you kind of confront them and be like, you know, how dare you sort of thing follow through with that actual threat, but Well, I think her We're going to find out Soon after he turned up in Hollyhead. He was lodging at forty Baker Street just doors away from work Gwen sometimes stayed Witnesses later recalled him beating her in the street, threatening her with a knife and a rope. and telling people she would get one or the other if she didn't go away with him One man remembered him saying, quote She would not live to eat her Christmas dinner am pretty pretty drastic, I think and pretty like I would be this is where you'd be like We need to go to the police, you know, but I'd say probably back then they're not going to be able to do a whole lot. they would just be like tell them to Move on, buddy. Yeah Polllyhead in december nineteen oh nine was the town of Transient Ferries to island, casual labour packed lodging houses along streets like Baker Street and Nuray Street That's where Gwen spent her last weeks, sometimes with Murphy, sometimes trying to avoid him Always balancing on the thin line between escape and sheer necessity On Christmas Day, Gwen spent the evening drinking first at a pub near the station with her friend Lizzy Jones. Then at the Bardsley Island Inn outside that second pub. At about half past eight Murphy appeared. He asked Gwen to walk with him Lizzie moved to go with them, but Murphy stopped her. saying he wanted to see Gwen alone The two of them set off together up Newy Street singing as they went It was the last time anyone saw Gwen alive Rain had soaked Gwen's clothes. She'd stumbled as they walked. In her drunkenness, she told Murphy that she liked him remembering perhaps the early days of their affair She still wore her hat and the little boa around her neck Whatever fragile peace existed between them On that walk ended somewhere in the darkness beyond Nuri Strait. No witness reliably saw her after that. There was no confirmed sighting of her crossing the field No constable reporting a cry he could pinpoint No neighbor could say, She came home safely What is certain is that she never returned to her lodgings In that frost covered field, the truth of the night emerged The quiet of Hollyhead was broken. And Gwen Ellen Jones, a woman who had lived so much of her life on the margins was suddenly at the center of a tragedy the whole town would have to face You're just having a good time at Christmas, you know, and then He comes back Nice in intoxicated and you're like, o, remember the good times and I think we've all been there here and there. You know Yeah You're like, o, remember the good times we had and I wish we could go back to that and stop all this fighting and all this. and then he just snaps on her Definitely sounds like a toxic relationship sort of But not always, you know, obviously. She was pulled back. you know, on occasions for the good times because the good times have brought her back and You know, I think we have all tried many a times to try make things work and Yeah, you're trying to salvage what you had from that relationship And those good those good memories. Yeah. And it just you should have just left and Buts she's got to remember obviously the, you know, the controll and behaviourors and things like that. It's not all and all the physical abuse and that But then Obviously this is back in nineteen oh nine. you know nowadays we have more so of like coercive behaviours and things like that is a little bit more noticeable. so or a little bit more aware Nowadays, I think Yeah, and helping women in trouble and stuff like that. G away from these kind of guys But on boxing Day, that broke slowly over Hollyhead Frost clinging to the rooftops as pale light crept across the harbour The town was still heavy with the quiet fatigue of Christmas when two residents crossing the field between Newery Street onn their way to fetch coal, notice something laying near the hedge row At first they took it for a bundle of clothing, or perhaps someone sleeping off the holiday drink But even from a distance, the shape looked wrong. They stopped clloser and saw it more clearly a body laying partly in the ditch. Motionless in the frost A neighbour was fetched and the police were summoned at once The first officer arrived carrying a lantern When he lowered it toward the ground, the full scene emerged a woman lying on her back clothing wet pushed aside Throat cut almost to severance The frost around her was broken and churned into mud Marks on the ground showed she had fought desperately A trail of disturbed earth indicated she had been dragged a short distance. Something later confirmed by the police surgeon who noted mud on her back and injuries consistent with her being pulled toward the ditch More officers arrived quickly, along with the police surgeon He examined the body there in the field. Gwen had been dead several hours The injuries were clear and brutal signs of manual strangulation. Bruising to the neck fractured cartilage. followed by a deep cut. head nearly severed the throat, sparing only the spine. Temporary accounts noted that the wound had been inflicted with such force that the blade damaged the vertebrae Her hands bore clear defensive injuries broken nails deep scratches and bruising to her knuckles Terrible this is brutal. Ientification came sooner than expected A neighbour recognised the hat and the little baua Gwen had been wearing earlier that evening And another resident confirmed that the clothing matched her own It was enough for the police to believe that they knew who she was, but not enough for the official record In her pockets they found a small purse, a pawn ticket Two letters and a handkerchief The letters included her father's address in Bethesda. Once they were dried and logged into the station A telegram was sent to the Bethesda police to notify him The officers then supervised the removal of the body from the field noting the dragging marks beneath her before taking her to the mortuary room at the station By the afternoon, Gwen's father had arrived in Hollyhead It feailed to him to make formal identification the one the coroner and the court would later rely on confirming that the woman found in the frost behind Nury Street was indeed his daughter By mid morning, Hollyhead police began door to door inquiries along Newy Street, Wyn Street, and Baker Street Witnesses described raised voices near the field shortly before midnight Many assumed it was drunken quarrelling from holiday drinkers. A sailor returning to his lodgings recalled seeing a lone woman in dark clothing near the meadow, around Past ten. No one reported hearing footsteps returning from the field The frost showed a clear line of footprints leading into the meadow but no distinct trail coming back out As officers paceed together Gwen's last movements One name surfaced repeatedly William Murphy A laborer lodging at fifty one Baker Street Several witnesses said he had been drinking heavily on Christmas nights in the railway tavern, liverpool arms and public houses near the docks before leaving around ten o'clock in the direction of Nuri Strait Others spoke of the escalating violence of his relationship with Gwen The threats he had made in the days before Christmas and his declaration that she would get one or the other the knife or the rope Yeah, I think there's a pretty clear sign for the placeice to go Hm I think we need to look into this guy.. defeinitely a suspect. Yeah, clelear signs of violence and probablyrob on the record. they've probably been there you know splitting up domestic you know incidents and that Yeah, and it's not just one person saying that he said these type of stuff You know, they've got multiple sort of witnesses stating that his He said things like this. Yeah It's not just one busybodyody going Yeah know. he was really mean or whatever. It's like a bunch of people going, This guy is bad news. Yeah, it definitely corroborates the toxic type of relationship they had. defefinitely. mean you know, they in relationships, you're going to have fights shouting or whatever But when he's beating her black and blue and cutting her shoes off with a knife and and just be the sh out of her. Yeah If if there's a history of violence, you definitely it's the go to. you're going to look at this person a possible suspect So well, when officers visited the lodging house, fellow residents confirmed that Murphy had returned in the early hours of the morning in a distressed and disheveled state One lodger told police he saw Murphy washing himself repeatedly at the basin, muttering and in a dreadful way Another described seeing his face scratched and swollen Marks later matched to the defensive wounds on Gwen's hands Shortly after washing, Murphy left again By the time police began searching the dogs, the railway line and the main roads east He had disappeared but not for long That afternoon on booxing dayay The front door of Polllyhead Police station opened and a man walked in Pale shakaking Constable Hughes on duty at the desk later recorded his arrival in the station journal Before any question was put to him, the man spoke. I did it killed the woman asked where, he replied. In the field by Newy Street. Asked how putut my hands to her throat When pressed fervor, he added the same explanation he would repeat for days afterward was in me M Well later that day, officers recorded another remark he had made after the killing before any formal statement was taken. Murphy told them he was not sorry for it. Glad that he had done it adding that he would get a bit of rest now. It was a jarring contrast to the flat tired answers he gave in the station That's crazy. He's V veryy sure of himself and confident in saying. Yeah he didn't handu this of L like yep, I did it. Go aad I did it And he knows where he's going now. he's going straight to the hangman W Obviously, that man is William Murphy Officers moved him into a side room They noted the scratches on his face and neck. Deep gouges consistent with what Dr. Owen would later describe as Gwen's desperate fight and the dried blood on his clothing. When they searched him, they found only a few coins and a pawn ticket. The police later noted that Gwen also carried a pwn ticket, though the two were not identical, but Consistent with the poverty they both lived in He was cautioned placed into the cell Word of the confession spread quickly By early evening, a lot of townspeople had gathered outside the station Some saw the surrenderer grim confirmation of what they had already believed Others wondered why Murphy had given himself up so abruptly Contemporary papers noted that voluntary surrender was not uncommon in rural murder cases at the time Particularly when the suspect feared being hunted down or believed a confession might weigh in his favour Inside the station, Murphy grew quiet He asked for writing materials and produced a short statement I done a wicked thing May the Lord have mercy. The next morning he appeared before the Hollyhead pololice court reporters described him standing very still bowed end's class applying in a low voice when The charge of willful murder was read allowoued Yes I've done it. He was remanded to Carnarvan jail to await the winter Asises. I is back then was like a crown court Crown Court established in the nineteen seventies. Yeah When he was escorted to the train for the journey east Several townspeopople stood silently along the narrow street outside the station According to the officers who traveveled with him, Murphy spoke very little What he did say over and over with some variation of the same admission that he had killed her drrink had driven him to it in january nineteen ten They open hard and wite across Anglea Snow lay over Bomaris. blazing the roofs that sloped toward the courthouse The Winter Assises convened under Mr. Justice Fillamore Newly arrived from London On the docket were routine cases of petty theft and assault Dominating that list was the most serious charge the court heard R B William Murphy accused of the willful murder Gwen Ellen Jones on Christmas night Rort has travelled in from Bangor, Carverven, Liverpool and even Manchester Newspapers described Omaris as a town filled with solemn expectation Crowds gathered long before the doors opened Women in shawls waited at the gates. Several men climbed through the windows to secure a view inside the courtroom When court officials ordered the woman out warning that disgusting details would be heard The decision caused what papers called quote, G disorder and commotion Outside the crowd surged so violently that several small children were injured The press later reported pololice had as much as they could do to keep the mob from attacking Murphy That's like it is now. Hasn't really changed. but it's all on TV. Yeah. Yeah. Look at the OJ trial God that was There was an event. everybody was watching it. That was a big trial though. that was that was a big interest in that trial. Yeah. And then just recently with Diddy Yeah man, so many people are watching that. And then like the live tweets from, you know, from the core as it's going. Yeah, I followed that test. Yeah. Everybody did. thing is I think, you know Even if there's a police for H toized past, I think people do still You I follow it basically and you know, are watching and kind of shouting stuff and You know, But even you're you're just kind of Sometimes like me, I was just like you were in it with Diddy and I was kind of peripheral. I was like getting, you know, a little bit of updates. I was like, oh, what you know interested, you know. But I wasn't that invested. Yeah, yeah, I wasn't that invested in it, but I was still curious. So a lot of these people I think we' just really curious and like, whoa killed lady on Christmas day, you know, that's crazy. almost cut her head off, you know. and It's S Also sort of a sick thing as well. It's entertainment. Yeah You know, especially back, you know, they didn't have TV and all that. you know, it wass like, o, wow, it's something crazy fucking happened. It is just human nature as well, isn't it? Just to kind of be You want to know what's happened You know, you're very curious to know details about what happened to this, you know, why did it happen? And then obviously making sure that you see that the justice has been done You know, so Th I think that's another thing is Did they get it right? Yeah. You know, us arm chair you detectives or armchair prosecutors, they like Well, they should have done this or that it's one of those weird things So Murphy was brought from Carnarvon jail, wearing a dark suit, his collar neatly pressed He stood in the dark pale and expressionless, hands glack clasped in front of him Porters noted the reaction from the gallery burst of loud hissing as he entered the courtroom One newspaper claimed he answered it with grrin, like a villain in a Victorian melodrama. A gesture that unsettled even the court officials For the Crown, Mr. Trevor Lloyd opened the case in a slow, deliberate sweep He reminded the jury that Murphy and Gwen had been seen together shortly before her death on Christmas night. He detailed the injuries found on her body clelear sence of manual strangulation and the deep knife wound that has severed nearly everything except the spinal column pointed to witnesses who saw Murphy returning to Bak street in the early hours with torn clothing and to the confession that he gave the following afternoon confession that matched the medical findings precisely Lloyd also highlighted the threats Murphy had made in the days before Christmas, heard by several people warning that Gwen lived with another man, He would kill her. Civilian witnesses came next The men who found Gwen's body described his position in the ditch and the terrible state of her throat A neighbor confirmed her clothing, but the most significant civilian testimony came from the Hollyhead residents who had witnessed Murphy's behavior in the days before the murder Lizzy Jones, Gwen's friend, testified that Murphy had repeatedly threatened Gwen evenven showing her a knife and warning she would get one or the other. if she refused to go with him During her testimony. Murphy showered across the courtroom That's the woman that caused her death pointointed at Lizzie and continued I'd knowed she'd been a bad And when I saw her with this and No, she was worse Lizzy shouted back You are a liar. Hanging is too good for you That must have been pretty disruptive in a courtroom like They're like Well, well settle down now Yeah I don't know. I mean, maybe like theyd probably say that now, but they're probably just left a little bit of ruckism' was like, you know ' like screaming me. Another So another witness, John Griffiths, testified that on the twenty second of December, three days before the murder Murphy had beaten Gwen, quote thrashing Wow struck her on the nose and told him directly I will do for her if I can't get her away from that old man He also recalled Murphy saying Gwen, would not live to eat her Christmas dinner This testimony was crucial in establishing premeditation Murphy's own adoptive daughter, eleven year old Gladys, was forced to testify Newspapers described her breaking down in tears in front of the packed courtroom blesseress as heartbreaking. Yeah, it's not ideally not a place for a young child to have to go through all of that and I think they had enough to get to convict him, obviously, and he's confessed that he did it. I don't see why they really had to get her up there to say. I mean, quite tragic. I mean, at the end of the day, it was his daughter. so adoptive daughter. but yeah, it's one of those things where she's already probably traumatized anywaysays from the years of their fighting and him abusing Gwen Yeah they're losing the mike Yeah. and they're both gone now. Yeah. prettytty much veryy dramatic for a child Police witnesses followed. Detective Inspector Williams read from his notebook the exact words of Murphy's confession at the Holllyhead Police station Under cross examination, he insisted no threat or inducement was used Another officer testified that in the days before the murder, Murphia told neighbors, You've seen the last of Gwen A threat now understood. part of the pattern of intimidation leading up to Christmas Dr. Owen, the police surgeon, provided the most harrowing evidence. He describes bruising consistent with manual strangulation, a violent struggle and a throat wound five inches across. severing everything but the vertebrae He explained that the wound had been widened by hand One woman in the gallery fainted during his testimony. Oh gosh, that's brutal. V very scqueamy Beautiful Jz Wh just by hand. I mean I mean, the cut itself is bad enough, but Did you really need to get your fingers in there and pull it, you know? Yeah, because if, you know he's obviously tried to strangle her prior to using the knife. Because why would you if you've used a knife and caused such a wound would you then go and try and strangle? you know, So Clearly trying to strangle her after the wound. Just a fit of rage of like trying to pull her apart. God knows. That's crazy. God knows, but that is gruesome. I'm not surprised the lady fainted Well, then came the physical exhibits, the pieces of evidence carried from the field behind New Ry Street to the courtroom in Balmaris One by one officers laid them out before the jury The clasp knife recovered from Murphy torn cuff from his shirt, the small items taken from Gwen's pockets, and the pawn tick is found on each of them Even the letters discovered tucked in her clothing were produced and the ones police had used to contact her father on boxingay morning When it came time for the defence, there was almost nothing to say Murphy's councsel called no witnesses. No alternative explanation was offered Murphy stood only once, he rose slowly in the dock, bowed his head, and said, guilty, my lord H a drun I'm sorry for the poor woman Then he sat back down, eyes fixed on the floor, never once looking toward the gallery With the admission given so plainly And with days of testimony supporting premeditation The jury's task was brief Theyve retired at three o'clock Bes by three o three They were back The foreman spoke a single word. guilty So Three minutes. I think it was just a formality. They had to leave and say, yep, everybody in agreement. Yp, rubber stamp. Three minutes. He pretty much he pretty much admitted that he did it, you know, so they just have to say, yes, the jury agreed withith all the testimony. againain, you know, I mean, where's the time to just be like, right you know Has he been coerced into this? you know, like is he just saying this because of blah, blah, blah? you know, there's just no No. They've just literally took him saying, yeep, I did it as gospel and you know Well, look at it with the gentlemen from the Aardleamont Mystery that we did, you know He's a gentlem You know, likeike you take him at his word but like B think, you know It's more of like you take someone at their word and he's like, yeah, I did it. and they got all this evidence. It's probably the mindset as well. Why would you say something, you know say that you did something if you didn't. So But yeah, Justice Fillamore delivered the formal summation, quoted in the Bangal Mail This was a wicked and cruel deed committed on the night of Our Lord's nativity when the world should have been at peace May the Almighty have mercy on your soul placed on his wig and sentenced was passed byy hanging can off in jail Murphy showed no reaction as he was led out. Porters noted several spectators crossing themselves as he left the dock There's one cool little thing that I learned is like when you guys still had the death penalty So whenever he was like, say You were now sentenced to death So they would have to put a black cls over the top of their hit on the judge. Oh, okay. Yeah. I didn't know if you meant on the prisoner's head. No on the judge. They put the black cap on or black cloth over their wig to then give the sentence of death. So black, you know, black hood over the prisoner's face, you know, like No I never knew that. Yeah. It was pretty c in. Yeah. I mean, like what what was that symbolizing, you know, like is that protecting them from posossibly. I didn't look into it that much. like religious, you know, like Godd's kind of passing judgment. Yeah, you know, for to kill a man Wh I'm guessing Tell us in the comments. Yeah, you know why they used to do that It'd be interesting to find out So execution morning was Tuesday, the fifteenth of february nineteen ten. Cararin awoke under snow The Mana is straight, muted and gray. The executioner, Henry Pierrepont had arrived from Manchester the night before as standard He had taken Murphy's height, weight, and neck measurements and calculated a drop of seven feet nine inches Wow. had to be precise T too long They could drop too far. their head off ly. And if it wasn't long enough I hit the floor because they wanted to get it to where when they drop it breaks their neck and then they die. But if it's not long enough, it won't crack the neck And then they We'll just sit there and strangle as it this time nineteen ten? was this where they done public hangs and stuff or is was this like this was out the jail. Yeah, this was out the jail and and they can't remember I did look it up. I forgot now, sorry. like when they stopped really doing the public stuff. Let us know in the comments. Yeah, so this guy he was hung lay at the dail Yeah away from sort of visit eight AM the Bell of Stt Mary's Tld Once Murphy walked to the scaffold between the governor and the chaplain Witnesses said he was calm It's moving in prayer And when the white hood was placed over his head, he spoke clearly. Lord have mercy on me and on the poor woman The lever was pulled was instantaneous. The time of death was recorded at eight hundred two AM The body was certified by the prison surgeon and buried in an unmarked grave inside the jail walls The North Wales Chronicle printed a single line. Execution was carried out this morning without incident Murphy met his end calmly So A bit of history, I love, a bit of history Henry Pierpont carried out Murphy's execution later trained his brother Thomas Pirpon Who went on to execute Buck Ruxton in nineteen thirty six? That's episode three three.ase that we'd done. Yeah. Yep, that's our episode three. If you haven't heard it, go back and get out that one He executed him in nineteen thirty six at Strangeways Henry's son, Albert Pierrepont, became the most famous British hangman of the twentieth century Together Pierrepont conducted hundreds of executions quuietly linking cases like William Murphy's. Buck Roxton through a single family line. Wow. Family business of executioners. farmers, you know, you train your kids to be far like the next generation of farmers. Obviously, you know, he's training his family members to be executioners. Yeah Oh he's like, Hey son. H's good job for you. Yeah. I mean, it paid well. Yeah. mean and they had to be good. Back then, obviously, you know, they They had to have a good job in order to not live in poverty like. you know, many people back in them that time. Yeah There was a lot of poverty So ye, but you also had to be really good at it because if you did stuff like it was those too long and and it his head off or it wasn't long enough and he's just sitting there, you know, struggling and did try to make it to where it Yes, it hung them it was snap jk. Yeah, it wasn't full on torture. Yeah But yeah, they had to be really, really good at it. and it was just a family business of executioners, babbe. Also, I mean It takes certain people to do it Yes. Do you know what I mean? You have to be strong people mentally to be able to even know that you're doing that to another being, you know? I don't think I could actually pull a lever and hang somebody myself But it's also But it's also a sense of justice You know, they are the end of the line for justice. and someone has to do it and they have to do it well You can't just be any Joe off the street and be like, Yeah, here's a rope guys, you know? Yeah. Well, let's get back to the story. In the days that followed, Canarth and J all fell quiet Murphy's cell was stripped Possessions destroyed Those who followed the case did not forget his details The struggle in the frost, the surrender in the station doorway, and the winter morning on which justice was carried out by the Meno eye straight Justice, as the law understood it in nineteen ten, was done Swift Final and public But the contradiction remained Christmas murder answered with a February execution on an equally frozen ground Gwen Ellen Jones was laid to rest on the twenty ninth of december nineteen oh nine in the mortuy cemetery. Maz of Rid. just four days after her body was discovered It was a quiet burial held before the public storm that would surround the case The service was conducted by the retired Reverend David Powell Richards who happen to be visiting the area for Christmas No crowds gathered No procession followed Gwen was laid in an unmarked grave Pollyhead did little to mark her passing. The final journey of a woman now at the center of a national headline' past almost unnoticed Pretty sad I'm marked for it. I'marked for grave Well, They pretty much call it like a paper's grave. So it's just It's obviously in poverty, so obviously they wouldn't have been able to and maybe her family members didn't have the money to Kind of like a state funeral, I'm guessing back in the day Yeah. I mean, they can only cover It's the gravevedigger to go out and grave and put her in it, you know, and put her to rest, but They didn't have much to do anything other than that In the weeks after Murphy's execution in february of nineteen ten Tension shifted from Hollyhead to the broader debate unfolding across Britain The Liverpool echo questioned the purpose of the gallows, arguing that the swiftness of justice consoles does not reform Letters to the editor revealed the moral split of Edwardian society, some calling for Christian mercy Others insisting that the scaffold was necessary for order Bangore mle reflecting a more conservative view asserted that the execution had restored moral order to a town troubled by drink, instability and transient labouorers This debate echoed a wider unease Britain in nineteen ten stood at the beginning of a long, slow shift in attitudes toward capital punishment Murphy's case, a Christmas murder, a rapid confession, and an execution less than eight weeks later became one of the examples cited by ministers and commentators questioning whether a nation celebrating the nativity You should also perform executions within the same season. At Caron Jail, the final rituals were stark. Murphy's cell was scrubbed. His few belongings were burned The gallows, the old Hanging toower, was dismantled later that same year, never to be used again Records confirm he was the last man executed at Carvon Jail Closing a chapter of Welsh penal history, stretching back generations When the prison shut in nineteen twenty one The yard was cleared Today, only a small plaque marks where the scaffold once stood. Back in Hollyhead, the physical traces vanished quickly The field behind Newery Street patch of ground their head held the frost and the struggle was eventually built over New housing cover the line of the old boundary Gwen's father died a few years later His name entered beneath hers in the parish ledger The small fragile family that had survived so much hardship simply disappeared into the archives. No memorials were raised, no annual services were kept Only absence settled in Yet the story did not vanish. It lingered first in conversation, then in the town's small folklore. By the nineteen thirties, children in Hollyhood whispered about. Christmas ghost A woman said to sing on stormy winter nights One version claimed that if you walked along Nuri Street after midnight mass pas near the old field boundary You might hear a woman's voice singing Bide with me Some said the sound drifted from the sea Others thought it came from the chapel steps Even sptical locals admitted the strange coincidence very hymn had been heard drifting from a tavern The night Gwen had died And it was the him Murphy was reported to have hummed in his cell before dawn on the morning that he was hanged When folklorists collected oral histories in the nineteen seventies, Seververal versions of the tale resurfaced Most residents described it as a haunting but Reminder A way of keeping memory of what the town once endured He was a good woman, one elderly resident told them. And they said she still walks home from Chapel when Christmas comes. Modern Nuuri Street shows almost nothing of what happened there. It is now a row of houses with garden walls, wheelie bins and everyday noise The meadow long since gone But on old property maps, the outline of the original boundary remains visible a faint crooked line across the page marking where Gwen's final steps once fell In two thousand nine, a century after the murder The local history group had placed a small metal plaque near the site of her former hollyhead lodgings. recognition of the life she lived notot just the manner of her death It simply reads In memory of Gwen Ellen Jones, eighteen seventy four to nineteen oh nine. Visitors pass it rarely Yeah each December, flowers appear at the cemetery wall in Hollyhead And a sprig of holly is sometimes laid by the plaque No one announces it No one claims credit It simply happens quiet thread of remembrance woven through the town Sen from the harbour wall, Hollyhead looks much as it did that winter The chapels still standing The slate roofs leaning towards the sea The salt wind moving through the alleys The events of nineteen oh nine belong to a different world of polic and punishment and social judgment The echo persists Each retelling raises the same enduring questions how a community balances justice with compassion and why violence so often finds its moments in the hours meant for peace One later retelling closed with a line that feels like an epitaph for both of them May she rest in peace? And may he find it More than a century later, the sea still beats against the breakwater as it did that Christmas night. The harbor lights flicker through the mist And the wind that moves over Hollyhead in winter still seems to carry something of that night a faint unsettled note in the air lingering where her footsteps ended So that was the story of the Hollyhead Christmas murder And if Gwen Jones. Ellen Jones. such a brut brutal killing. Yeah. That's just it's just crazy. And I think he just accepted it you know,, but I do like that line where, you know May he rest in peace and may he find it It sort of reminded me of the Green mile when They do one of the executions. I do believe it was the Native American guy And that little shit Percy It's like, how see hell chief and all that shit Yeah. And The other prison guard comes over and he's like, What the fuck are you doing? You know, he's he's square with the house now. He paid his is dead. Yeah, you leave alone and let him be at peace, you know And I think that's a little bit people want to dog on things and what it was like paid his he paid his price where his life. Yeah, and obviously Christians play, you know, there's a hell, you know, he may even end up down there and, you know Yeah, pay you even more down there? Well, I think that You know, he paid his his due and And, you know, obviously the chaplain was there when he was, you know, maybe that They prayed together and for forgiveness and you know, who knows what happens after that, but you know I do hope they both found peace after all of this. but Yeah. It just such a sad outcome too suchuch a tragic, you know, toxic relationship On and off But it also him to go that step too far. Yeah, but it also mirrors things today, like things have changed in the sense of we've got more support for for women in that in alsoso There are some men that are abused as well. Oh of course, ye. I think it's more it's come to light more more so after the most recent sorts like years There are men and boys that are abused as well and it's nice to see You know, that they are and actually speaking out because I think probably back in these days It happened you know, to where men and boys were abused, but they never said anything. You know, through shame or S And there's more work to do, but I think it's always going to be work to do going in the right direction? Yeah, I definitely think nowadays There is a lot more support for people humans, you know, men anded women and Bys and girls, you know? Yeah. And I'd say seek help I say. Yeah. and I'd say yeah, I'd say that anybody out there that's that you're having a problem like this or whatever Go get help that it is it is not worth staying in something like that. get some help get out of that situation. And also just anything really, any You know, anything going on in your lives that is not necessarily making you happy seek some support, you know, there's people out there that can Sit, listen Yeah there's no to find solutions to making your lives feel a little bit better. so You're never alone. Yeah. there's no shame in going in and seeking help and talking to someone But thanks for listening It was Tragic story, but it was definitely it was nice to talk about this case of Gwen and there bring it. into modern day and just kind of inform everybody of her situation and keeping her memory alive really And putting it out there for help. Yeah, you know, for help for people like, hey, this was going on back then. Yeah. If you're going through this now, seek help. Yeah, deffinitely If you'd like to support the work we do here in the archive, Please take a moment to follow the show and leave us a five star rating. It really helps others discover the stories that we tell and keeps the archive growing shharing the podcast with someone who loves true crime alsoso makes a huge huge difference Yeah, most definitely. You can also follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Murder Most British and on Facebook at MNB podcast And if you want to chat with us or other listeners, come and join us in the public Crypt, our free discord space with case discussions, theories and updates from the archive. Everything you need, socials, discord, and more is in the link tree below. so Wait, have a happy Merry, whatever you want to say, Christmas. Merry Christmas, Happy holidays, happappy was is it H Honuah? Is it? Is that a Christmas thing? Yeah. Just like everything if you're cr whatever celebr Festive time and stay safe. stay curious guys Thanks for listening. Bye.