James Ellor

James Ellor was convicted of the murder of his 42-year-old wife Ada Ellor and sentenced to death.

He battered her to death at 8 Travis Street, Hyde on 27 March 1920.

James Ellor had been a hat worker.

In 1907 he married Ada Ellor who had been a widow and seven years older than him and had two children. However, their marriage from the start had been an unhappy one as James Ellor drank and frequently assaulted Ada Ellor, and on two occasions she left him although he persuaded her to come back.

In September 1914 James Ellor enlisted in the Cheshire Regiment, but was discharged on 3 November on account of 'heart disease'. However, he reenlisted in the Labour Company in December and served till March 1919. He also served abroad and was gassed.

After his return to his wife at Hythe their relations seemed to have been rather better, but in March 1920 when James Ellor's step-son returned from the Navy he found James Ellor and his mother to be on bad terms.

Ada Ellor's son said that Ada Ellor showed him a black eye and a few days later her false teeth which James Ellor had broken. On another occasion Ada Ellor called her son up to her room as James Ellor had his hands on her throat and was trying to strangle her.

On 23 March 1920  a police constable was called in and warned James Ellor to behave himself.

On 25 March 1920 Ada Ellor applied for a separation order on the ground of persistent cruelty, and that day she took two of her children and went to live with a woman at 8 Travis Street whilst her son took charge of her other two children.

However, James Ellor obtained Ada Ellor's address from his step-son and on 27 March 1920 he had two interviews with her at 8 Travis Street. On the second occasion the woman heard James Ellor begging Ada Ellor to return, going on his hands and knees with tears in his eyes.

The woman left them together about 2.30pm and shortly after James Ellor gave himself up to a police constable in the street, saying, 'I have just murdered my wife in the back kitchen of 8 Travis Street. I hit her on the head with a hammer. She has separated from me. I tried to get her to return but she refused'.

He later said, 'She told me to go and put my head under a train, and said she was going to enjoy herself tonight, so that did it'.

It was noted that James Ellor seemed to have been, or pretended to have been jealous of Ada Ellor, however, the police had not been able to find that he had any ground to suspect her of infidelity. In a letter written by James Ellor to his wife in March 1918 he admitted that another woman was pregnant by him and at the same time accused Ada Ellor of misconduct, however, that letter was not put at trial.

Ada Ellor was found in a small pantry. Her head had been battered by five blows with a hammer and she died a few hours later.

The hammer used had been one used to break coals and had belonged to the woman whose house it was. It had been kept lying on a slab in the pantry and close to it there had been a hatchet hung upon a nail. It was noted that the hatchet had not been disturbed.

The police report stated that on James Ellor's behalf it could be urged that he went to ask Ada Ellor to return to him without any intention of murdering her and that he took no weapon with him. However, the report noted that on the other hand there were marks of violence on her neck and it seemed probable that Ada Ellor had taken refuge in the pantry, which was described as little more than a cupboard opening off the scullery or back kitchen, and that he had followed her in, and seeing the hammer, had attacked her with it.

James Ellor was convicted with no recommendation to mercy, with the judge noting that James Ellor's statement reflecting on his wife's character was made merely to excuse his crime.

James Ellor appealed based on a plea of provocation caused by Ada Ellor's alleged remark, but his appeal was dismissed.

The police report concluded by stating that the case was a common one in which a man had been persistently ill-treating his wife and had then murdered her when she had been on the point of obtaining a separation and said that they didn't think that there should be an interference with the sentence.

James Ellor was executed at Liverpool on 11 August 1920.