John Walter Coppen

Thirty seven year old Coppen was a coffee house keeper, who was addicted to drinking in excess and on the night of 27th  August he again returned home drunk. Seeing the condition that her husband was in, his wife Emma Skevington-Coppen who was younger than him at thirty five, refused to share his bed and slept in another room. The next morning Mrs Coppen was getting ready to leave after breakfast when her husband rushed at her with a butcher's knife he had borrowed earlier from a neighbour. and stabbed her. At his trial at the Old Bailey, Coppen claimed that he had been aggravated into carrying out the crime, which was not premeditated. The evidence of the knife being procured on the morning of the attack suggested to the jury that the crime was planned and they returned a guilty verdict. On the 13th October 1874 he was hanged by William Marwood in Horsemonger lane.