George Sargent

Sargent, a railway labourer and sometime poacher from Copford, had been married to his wife, twenty one year old Annie, for just a year when she left him and returned to her mother's at Wakes Colne, near Colchester. She had become increasingly fed up with his drunken moods, and eventually packed her bags when he smashed all their furniture. On 17th July, Sargent called at her mother's house and pleaded with her to come home, adding that he would stop drinking and would work overtime to replace the furniture. She refused to listen to him, and in a rage he grabbed her by the hair, and locking her head between his knees he cut her from ear to ear with a clasp knife, almost severing her head. He ran away after the crime but was caught hiding in fields near the house. He was hanged by James Berry in Chelmsford on the 15th August 1888.