William Jackson

Twenty nine year old William Jackson was a soldier discharged from the 77th Regiment after serving in India. Soon after moving back in with his parents, he began to have frequent arguments with the family. These altercations were mainly caused by Jackson's heavy drinking. After one particularly fierce series of rows, he packed his bags and told his parents that he was leaving home, and on 5 May he set out for Ripon. On the journey he came across his sister Elizabeth who was sixteen years old; the next morning her body was found dead in a field with a cut throat. From letters on her person the police suspected that Elizabeth's boyfriend was the murderer and he was detained but later released when other evidence led them to her brother. Jackson was later detained and charged. No motive was clearly established but he was convicted, and hanged by Askern inside York Castle on the 18th August 1874.