Age: 66
Sex: male
Crime: murder
Date Of Execution: 21 Dec 1898
Execution Place: Derby
Method: hanging
Executioner: James and Thomas Billington
Source: http://greggmanning.scstamps.co.uk/Murder1/docc.htm
Sixty six year old John Cotton was a boatman who was sentenced to death at Derby Assize Court for the murder of his thirty six year old third wife, whom he beat repeatedly over the head with a poker. He claimed that the motive was extreme provocation through jealousy but in the condemned cell he confessed to his guards that he had also murdered his first two wives. He was hanged by James and Thomas Billington in Derby on the 21st December 1898.