William Pugh

William Pugh, a collier, called at a farm at Brackenfield, Derbyshire, where Miss Elizabeth Boot who was nineteen years old, was a housekeeper. A young girl at the farm told how she saw Pugh persuade Elizabeth to accompany him to a barn, where she was later found beaten to death. Pugh was arrested and denied the murder, claiming: 'Why should it be me, what motive could I have?' He did confess to helping a friend move the body, hence the bloodstains found on his clothing, but the jury were not convinced by his story and he was convicted. He was hanged in Derby by James Billington on the 5 August 1896 aged just twenty one.