Edward Hartigan

Edward Hartigan was convicted of the murder of his wife Catherine Hartigan 45 and sentenced to death.

He battered her to death in Stockport on 7 August 1906.

They were both addicted to drink and frequently quarrelled. On the evening of 7 August 1906 Edward Hartigan went home drunk and later Catherine Hartigan was found battered about the head and lying in a pool of blood with a bloodstained coal hammer by her side.

Edward Hartigan later surrendered himself to the police telling them that he had dashed his wife’s brains out.

His defence said that Catherine Hartigan had been so violent that Edward Hartigan had been afraid of her and that on one occasion she had thrown a lighted lamp at him and that he had not been right in the head ever since. The defence also stated that Edward Hartigan was so exasperated and so mad with drink that he was not the master of his understanding.