Christopher Edwards

Christopher Edwards was a thirty four year old  locksmith who brutally murdered his wife, Rosanna, at Willenhall on 20th April 1872. The crime was carried out in a fit of drunken jealousy and with no compassion he brutally beat her brains out with a poker. It was her screams that alerted the neighbours who rushed in to find her dead on the floor. While their  two children lay asleep in an adjacent room. Edwards had frequently beaten her and in order to protect herself she had started carrying a knife in case he tried to assault her. The jury at Staffordshire Assizes on 28 July took less than ten minutes to return a guilty verdict and he was hung on the 12th August 1872. He was hanged by George Smith at Stafford.