Frederick William Storey

Frederick William Storey was convicted of the murder of his 32-year-old girlfriend Sarah Jane Howard and sentenced to death.

He battered her to death at Maiden Hall Allotments, near Ipswich on 6 February 1920.

He denied murdering her, but a blood stained hammer, clothes and scraps of newspaper were found at his home and he was arrested and charged with her murder.

Frederick Storey had been a motor tram driver at Ipswich and had served in the Army in Belgium, France, Egypt and Salonika.

He had been married with seven children and at the date of the murder his wife had been expecting their eighth child. He had lived in Gower Street.

On demobilisation Frederick Storey resumed his employment as a tram driver and later met the acquaintance of Sarah Howard, a tram conductress. Sarah Howard had been a single woman and had already given birth to one or more illegitimate children.

Later in August 1919 Sarah Howard left her job and took a place as a housekeeper to a man at 133 Camden Road in Ipswich. However, she had been pregnant at the time and when her master found out in January he arranged that she should leave him the following month.

It was noted that she appeared to have told her master that Frederick Storey had been responsible for her condition.

At about 7pm on Friday 6 February 1920 Sarah Howard left her master's house as she usually did in the evening and boarded a tram running from Cornhill down to Bourn Bridge past some allotments, one of which was the allotment of Frederick Storey.

She was seen by the driver and the conductor of the tram and she left the tram at the Black Bridge and walked off in the direction of Bourn Bridge, it being then about 8.10pm.

The tram then went on to Bourn Bridge where it turned and came back, and at about 8.18pm the tram driver saw Frederick Storey near the Lifeboat public house walking in the same direction that Sarah Howard had gone, namely Bourn Bridge.

The tram then went back into town and then turned and made the same journey, and at about 9.08pm, at a point near Bath Street, the tram driver again saw Frederick Storey walking back in the direction of the town. When he passed, the tram driver said that he called out to Frederick Storey, 'Did you have a good time?', meaning, a good time with Sarah Howard.

A little later, at 9.15pm, Frederick Storey meta police constable with whom he entered into conversation and walked along with as far as the turning to his house in Gower Street.

It was heard that according to the evidence of Frederick Storey's family that he had left his house at about 7.40pm and returned about 9.20pm. He was said to have gone straight to the water closet at the back and then after a few minutes, to have gone back out again to the Conservative Club where he remained until about 11pm.

Sarah Howard's body was found the following morning lying in a field by the side of the railway at a point about 150 yards past the allotments. Her head had been battered by at least nine blows with a blunt instrument, fracturing her skull. It was thought that she had probably been dead for about 12 hours.

She had been about eight months pregnant at the time.

Her master reported her missing to the police after she failed to return home by 11pm and on the following morning went to see Frederick Storey, who was driving a tram, at about 10.30am, and asked him whether he knew Sarah Howard and when he had last seen her. Frederick Storey told him that he only knew her to speak to and that he thought that he had last seen her on the Sunday the week before.

When Frederick Storey was asked by the police to account for his movements, he said that he had left home at about 7.55pm and walked down from the Cornhill to a point between Croft Street and the Black Bridge, where he had then turned and gone back again, later meeting and speaking to the police constable at about 8.15pm.

It was noted that it was clear that the walk that Frederick Storey said he took would not nearly account for the time between 8pm and 9pm, with it being added that his daughter said that she thought that he had left at 7.40pm.

It was further noted that there was also the evidence of the tram driver and the tram conductor who placed Frederick Storey much further down the Bourn Bridge Road at 8.18pm, at which time he had been walking in the direction of the spot where Sarah Howard was found.

When his light McIntosh and cardigan were examined they were both found to have many bloodstains containing red blood corpuscles of mammalian blood corresponding in character and measurement to human blood. However, it was noted that the stains were not sufficiently large or dense enough to enable the analyst to swear that they were human blood.

Also, on a hammer found at his house, analysts found similar stains on the shaft, with it further appearing that similar stains had been washed off the hammer head.

However, it was additionally noted that bloodstains found on two pieces of newspaper that were also found at Frederick Storey's home in the empty fire grate were larger and denser, and the analyst said that he was certain that they were human blood.

It was also noted that the blood stains on the garments were such as would be caused by the spattering of blood from rapid blows to the head.

In response to the evidence, Frederick Storey attempted to account for the bloodstains in various ways. He said that his nose had been bleeding recently, as it did, especially when his wife was about to have a child and that he was accustomed to blow his nose by placing one finger against the nostril, and that he might have spattered himself that way. He added that the blood on the hammer would have been the result of using it to cut up a pair of rabbits that they had had for dinner about a week previously. However, it was noted that in fact the hammer was one that was usually kept in a shed at the allotment, and not one that was used in the house.

He also said that he had cut himself shaving that day and that the blood on his cardigan might have come from that cut.

As regards to the blood found on the pieces of newspaper, Frederick Storey said that he could not account for them. However, his daughter, who was a witness for the prosecution, suggested that the rabbits might have been wrapped up in the newspaper. However, on top of that, it was noted that the analyst had said that he was certain that the blood on the two pieces of newspaper was human blood.

At the trial at the Suffolk Assizes, the jury spent a quarter of an hour considering their verdict and when the judge passed sentence, he said, 'In my judgement that verdict is thoroughly justified on the evidence'.

After the jury returned their verdict, Frederick Storey said, 'I didn't do it'.

It was noted that there was also a considerable body of evidence to show that Frederick Storey had been carrying on with Sarah Howard, and had on at least one occasion, in June 1919, written her a love-letter making an appointment to meet him.

The police report into his conviction noted that Frederick Storey didn't appeal and that neither did he petition, and it was stated that it wasn't thought that there was any doubt whatever as to his guilt, and clearly no grounds for interference with the sentence.

Frederick Storey was executed at Ipswich on 16 June 1920.