John Darcy

D'Arcy was a clock cleaner who was convicted at York Assizes on 7th May, for the murder of William Metcalfe an old man of eighty five, a gamekeeper from Oulton, near Leeds. On 4th March two women heard a cry of murder coming from a cottage on an estate, and saw a man robbing the elderly gamekeeper. Also in the vicinity were a father and son named Mosely, the younger of whom grabbed the cottage door handle to prevent the man escaping while his father rushed for assistance. Before the police could arrive, the robber pulled out his gun and threatened that he would kill them if  the door was not released. Mosely sensibly complied and the man fled, leaving Metcalfe dead on the floor. He had been battered to death. Metcalfe's niece told police she had seen John D'Arcy at the cottage earlier and he was arrested in his lodgings at Hunslet, Leeds. Upon identification by witnesses, he was charged. He was sentenced to death and hanged by William Marwood on the 27th May 1879 in York.  He was just twenty two when he died.