Thomas Corrigan

On 3rd  November 1873 twenty three year old Thomas Corrigan, an Irish born loafer and occasional dock worker, returned home after drinking all afternoon and went to bed. On waking, he heard his mother moaning about his girlfriend sleeping in the house, an arrangement his parents disapproved of. He went downstairs and demanded his supper but when told it wasn't ready he knocked his mother onto the floor and began kicking, stamping and jumping on her, all while his father and a couple of neighbours stood by! When his mother crawled upstairs to bed, he followed, and threw her back downstairs, this final act too much for her to take and she died. No one had dared interfere with Corrigan but when he walked out into the street, a policeman was called and he was arrested. He was convicted at Liverpool Assizes and after sentence of death was passed, Mr Justice Quain told him to expect no mercy. On the 5th January 1874 he was hanged by William Calcraft.