Frank George Warren

Frank George Warren was convicted of the murder of 26-year-old Lucy Nightingale and sentenced to death. He strangled her at 13 Prah Road, Finsbury Park, London on 28 July 1919 whilst robbing her. Frank Warren had been a ship's cook and although he had no previous civil convictions, he had a bad army record and had been a deserter at the time of the murder. He was charged with the murder of Lucy Nightingale along with a 19-year-old ship's steward, but the ship's steward was acquitted. Lucy Nightingale had been a young married woman who had been living apart from her husband and lodging as a prostitute with an old brothel keeper at 13 Prah Road in Finsbury Park. She was noted as having been of a saving nature and to have had a balance at the Post Office of £9-11-0 concealed in the house. Frank Warren, who had actually been calling himself Frank Burke at the time, and the ship's steward travelled up to London from Cardiff on 25 July 1919 with a prostitute who had been passing as Frank Warren's wife. The prostitute herself had previously been convicted of thefts of jewellery from lodgings three times. Upon arrival in London on 26 July 1919 Frank Burke and the prostitute secured lodgings at 142 Allison Road, Harringay as Mr and Mrs Warren, whilst that night the ship's steward spent the night with Lucy Nightingale at 13 Prah Road. It was noted that during their search for lodgings that they had made the acquaintance of the brothel keeper whose brothel the ship's steward stayed that night at. It was noted that prior to coming to London that Frank Warren and the ship's steward had been concerned together in the theft of a large quantity of whisky and cigarettes from their ship. It was noted that the facts, so far as they affected the question of Frank Warren's guilt, were fairly clear, and that although they were established to a large extent by the statements and evidence of the ship's steward and the prostitute they had come to London with, there was said to be sufficient independent corroborative evidence to leave no doubt whatever that Frank Warren was present when Lucy Nightingale was murdered and had possessed himself of her trinkets. The established case was: That on the morning of Sunday 27 July 1919, that the ship's steward returned to Frank Warren's lodgings in Allison Road and told him that he had slept with Lucy Nightingale and that she had done him out of 30/-, but that he meant to get it back. However, it was noted that the ship's steward denied that, saying that he had said nothing of the kind and that he had given the brothel keeper 10/- for the room and Lucy Nightingale £2 for herself. In the evening Frank Warren and the ship's steward set out to revisit 13 Prah Road, with each of them blaming the other for having suggested that enterprise, but it was noted that both of those discrepancies could be disregarded. Frank Warren said that he had never been near Prah Road on the night in question and it was noted that the brothel keeper, who had been very drunk, said that he never saw him. However, three independent witnesses identified Frank Warren as having been at a public house near Prah Road in company with the brothel keeper and Lucy Nightingale at about 7pm. It was noted that the brothel keepers evidence throughout was hopelessly unreliable. It was said that what happened in the early hours of the evening at Prah Road was not very clear, but it was said that it seemed that Lucy Nightingale might have been entertaining a third customer, a 'ginger-haired man', for a short time. It was further stated that, according to the ship's steward, it had been arranged that Frank Warren should sleep with Lucy Nightingale, whilst he dossed it with the brothel keeper and that he sat downstairs talking with the brothel keeper in the kitchen. The ship's steward said then, that at about 1am, that he heard a noise above and then a scream and that shortly afterwards Frank Warren came down and hurried him off the premises and then back to Allison Road where the prostitute that had accompanied them from Cardiff was waiting for them, 'very cross'. The ship's steward noted that Frank Warren had told him that he had 'tied the woman up and left her'. The prostitute from Cardiff said that she noticed a scratch on Frank Warren's chin that was bleeding, and asserted that it looked like the scratch of a woman. Both the ship's steward and the prostitute from Cardiff said that they saw Frank Warren wash the cuffs and front of his shirt in a basin before he went to bed. The following morning, Frank Warren presented the prostitute from Cardiff with three rings which were later found to be undoubtedly those of Lucy Nightingale, and the prostitute from Cardiff handed them over to the police shortly after Frank Warren's arrest. The ship's steward also said that Frank Warren broke up and threw away a small cameo from a brooch that had belonged to Lucy Nightingale. The following morning Frank Warren also shaved off his moustache. He later claimed that he had done that because he was worried about being identified for the robbery from his ship in Cardiff, but it was noted that if that had been the case then why did he do it two days after arriving in London and not immediately. At about 2am on the same morning of the murder, the brothel keeper reported to the police that he had found Lucy Nightingale lying dead on the floor of her room. However, it was noted that he had still been drunk and that his details as to finding her at 9.30pm could be disregarded. It was thought that he had probably gone up just after Frank Warren had left. When the police arrived they found Lucy Nightingale lying dead on her back on the floor with her head on a pillow. She was naked but for buttoned-up combinations and stockings, and had apparently been assaulted before any connection with Frank Warren had taken place. Her head was bandaged with seven separate bandages that, had however, left the nostrils free and the mouth only partially covered with a handkerchief similar to those found in Frank Warren's possession. Her wrists were also tied together behind her back and she was also tied up round the knees and ankles. She was then covered with sheets and tied together. She was found to have bruises on the bridge of her nose and under her left eye and on her back and the medical view was that she had been knocked down by blows on the face that had rendered her unconscious and the bruising on her back by her falling, after which she had been tied up. However, it was noted that her death was actually caused by strangulation by a hand grip on her throat. There were no signs of a struggle in the room, but in another room, an attache case had been torn open and the contents scattered about as though in search for money. It was noted that as a matter of fact that Lucy Nightingale's £9-11-0 savings book had been concealed in an orange box and had remained undiscovered. The police report stated that they were inclined to think that the thief or thieves, having knocked Lucy Nightingale down unconscious, had tied her up so that they might search for money, and had been disturbed by her regaining consciousness and perhaps screaming and that she was then strangled to quieten her. At the trial, the ship's steward went into the box and told his story and was acquitted. However, the police report noted that they were not convinced that he had had no hand in the crime, but that whether or not he had was immaterial as regards to Frank Warren. It was also noted that not only did Frank Warren not give evidence, but that his counsel's cross-examination of the ship's steward was limited to suggesting that he had gone upstairs and had sat on the bed and that he himself, the ship's steward, had tied up Lucy Nightingale's ankles and assisted in the search for the money. Counsel further contended in their speech that there was a 'large element of doubt whose hand it was that did the crime'. As such, the police report noted that that amounted to a plea of guilty by Frank Warren at least to assault in concert with intent to rob, and would not have saved him from the consequences, even if it were the ship's steward's hand that had strangled Lucy Nightingale, which the police report noted, they didn't believe. It was further noted that a curious feature about the murder was the recklessness that Frank Warren had shown in killing Lucy Nightingale when he knew that the ship's steward and the brothel keeper were both in the house and would be well aware that he had done it. However, it was suggested that it seemed probable that his intentions had not been to kill Lucy Nightingale, but to merely render her unconscious and rob her and that he had gone too far, either by miscalculating the amount of force necessary to choke her into helplessness without killing her, or because she resisted violently, it being noted that Frank Warren had later said to the ship's steward, 'She was a strong girl'. It was further noted that if he had originally meant to kill her that it was difficult to see why he should have taken the trouble to tie her up so elaborately, it being noted that the fastenings round her mouth and throat were no doubt meant as a gag. It was further thought that either way, it was a reckless proceeding, but considered that he probably thought that the brothel keeper was too drunk to give any coherent evidence against him and that the ship's steward was too much under his influence to split on him. Additionally it was noted that a story of a robbery told by a prostitute and a drunken brothel keeper would be heavily discounted, as well as the fact that neither Lucy Nightingale nor the brothel keeper had his address and would find it difficult to trace him. The police report went on to state that they didn't have the least doubt that whatever the true facts might be with regard to the ship's steward, that it was Frank Warren who had played the chief, if not the sole part in the murder. The police report noted that Frank Warren's smuggled letter to the prostitute from Cardiff urging her to buy him saws with which to escape from Brixton was further, not the act of an innocent man, it being noted that he had written, 'I really do not think I have any chance to beat this case'. As such, the police report stated that they saw no reason whatever for any interference with the sentence of death. Frank Warren was tried at the Old Bailey and convicted on Thursday 18 September 1919 and sentenced to death and later executed at Pentonville Prison on the morning of Tuesday 7 October 1919. It was stated that Frank Warren had walked to the scaffold quite calmly.