Age: 44
Sex: male
Crime: murder
Date Of Execution: 5 Aug 1908
Crime Location: Hamsterley
Execution Place: Durham
Method: hanging
Executioner: Henry Pierrepoint
Source: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
Matthew James Dodds was convicted of the murder of his 50-year-old wife Mary Jane Dodds and sentenced to death.
He strangled her in Hamsterley on 20 February 1908. After strangling her he placed her in the fire to make it look like she had fallen in and burned to death. At her inquest an open verdict was returned but her body was later exhumed and it was determined that she had been strangled and Matthew Dodds was charged with her murder.
see National Archives - HO 144/883/167254
see Homicide 1908
