Owen MGill

Murder of wife; Cheshire

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1886
February 22nd: Owen McGILL (39)
Knutsford
Early in the morning of 31 October 1885, Owen McGill, an Irish farm labourer, drove a cart of corn into Birkenhead from his home at nearby Lincarton. He was accompanied on the journey by his wife, and on the way back they called at a couple of public houses but both were sober when they returned home. Later that afternoon, his wife Mary stopped him getting into a fight with a couple of farm hands, calming him down and preparing his tea. In the evening a neighbour saw Mary McGill run screaming from the house, and soon afterwards, another neighbour saw Owen standing over his wife and telling her to get up. The next morning, he visited his cousin and asked her to come quickly as his wife was ill, but when she arrived she found Mrs McGill dead. McGill told the police that she had fallen off the cart the previous day but his story didn't tie in with what witnesses had reported,
and as it was apparent that she had received a vicious beating, McGill was arrested and charged with murder. Sentenced to death by Lord Chief Justice Coleridge on 3 February. he became the first man to be hanged at Knutsford prison which had taken over from Chester Castle as the execution prison in Cheshire. Hanged by Berry