Leo George ODonnell

Leo O’Donnell was convicted of the murder of William F Watterton 48 and sentenced to death. He shot him in Aldershot on 1 January 1917. William Watterton, a lieutenant, was the father of Leo O’Donnell’s girlfriend. Leo O’Donnell was a Sergeant in the Royal Army Medical Corps and had proposed to William Watterton's daughter that day. William Watterton was found dead in a trench on 1 January 1917 with head injuries and his pockets had been gone through. It was heard that Leo O’Donnell had robbed him to get a pass key so that he could go into the quartermaster's office where patients' valuables were kept and steal them. On the night of the murder he had been to the hospital and asked to be let into the store saying that William Watterton had sent him but they refused him. William Watterton had a key to a safe that was known to have hundreds of pounds in it but the key was missing on 2 January. Leo O’Donnell went to see his girlfriend at William Watterton's bungalow around 11.30pm that night where his girlfriend was waiting for her father and Leo O’Donnell said that William Watterton had gone out earlier on an urgent appointment which aroused the suspicion of his girlfriend because it implied that Leo O’Donnell had been to the bungalow earlier. Whilst in jail Leo O’Donnell offered a friend £250 if he would offer him an alibi. Leo O’Donnell said that the real killer was a blackmailer who was blackmailing William Watterton over a relationship he had with a Spanish girl. A private who shared the same room as Leo O’Donnell said that he heard movements from Leo O’Donnell’s bunk in the night between 10.30pm and 11pm including the sound of a Macintosh being done up and saw him sat on his bed around 7.30am the following morning dressed and said that he had not been to sleep. In the morning in the canteen a Sergeant spoke to Leo O’Donnell and asked him why he had not been at the social the night before but Leo O’Donnell didn’t reply. However, he did say that Leo O’Donnell said to him, 'Have you heard about the affair at the Isolation Hospital? Two offers were seen to drink three bottles of whisky in ten minutes and one of them who is now absent was last seen walking about with a truncheon in his hand.' When told of the murder in the morning Leo O’Donnell told another sergeant that, 'In my opinion he was knocked down by a car and the body must have been dragged there, but the unfortunate part of it is that they found my truncheon there. I had no idea he had it'. Leo O’Donnell said that he left William Watterton's bungalow at around 8.20pm drunk and didn’t remember anything until waking up in his bunk around 10.30am the following day. Twenty two year old Leo George O'Donnell was a Sergeant in the Royal Army Medical Corps convicted at Hampshire Assizes on 9 February of the murder of a Lieutenant William Watterton at Aldershot. On New Year's Day 1917, O'Donnell announced his engagement to the daughter of Lieutenant Watterton, a quartermaster ofTicer at a nearby hospital. Later that day, Miss Watterton, who served in the Women's Auxiliary Service, obtained a night pass so that she could celebrate her engagement with a girlfriend. After a night's drinking, the girls returned to Lieutenant Watterton's bungalow, expecting to find him home. He was not there and they decided to wait for him. At l 1.30pm, O'Donnell called round and said that the Lieutenant had left earlier that night for an urgent appointment. The statement implied that O'Donnell could have been at the bungalow earlier; and his sudden return so late made the two women suspicious. Shortly before midnight, O'Donnell left and headed for the hospital where he asked to be shown into the quartermaster's office - where patients' valuables were kept - claiming to have been sent by the Lieutenant. Unable to produce the pass key, O'Donnell was refused entry and he returned to his billet. The next day, William Watterton's body was found in a trench on a nearby training ground. He had been battered to death - there were over twenty four cuts to his head - and his pockets had been rifled. O'Donnell was arrested at once when it was learned that he had tried to gain entry to the offices. While held on remand, he offered a friend £250 if he would provide him with an alibi. Tried before Mr Justice Darling, O'Donnell denied the murder. The prosecution said he had committed the crime in order to obtain the key to the quartermaster's office and thereby steal the valuables within. O'Donnell claimed that the real killer was a man blackmailing Watterton over an alleged affair with a young Spanish girl. He was hanged, at Manchester, in a prison uniform by John Ellis and Robert Baxter on the 29th March 1917 at Winchester.