Walter Millar

On 9th  May, a man called at the house of thirty five year old  Reverend Elias Huelin, claiming to be his nephew. He ordered the removal of some furniture which included a trunk. Neighbours later reported that Huelin and his aged housekeeper. Mrs Ann Boss, had disappeared and enquiries led the police to a furniture warehouse where the bodies of the missing couple were discovered; they had ropes around their necks and had been battered to death with a blunt instrument. Walter Millar. a plasterer from Chelsea. was identified as the man who had organised the removal of the goods, and in spite of his claim that he was merely acting as an agent and was innocent of any crime. he was charged with the double murder. He was tried at the Old Bailey in July. convicted on circumstantial evidence and sentenced to death. He tried to cheat the hangman by hurling himself head first at a stone wall in an attempt to bash his brains out but succeeded in only causing cuts and bruises, and had to be carried to the gallows tied to a chair. This caused Calcraft to give him a drop that was shorter than intended and as a result Millar struggled for several minutes on the rope.  The sentence was carried out on the 1st August 1870 in Newgate.  Millar was thirty one when he died.