Matthew Frederick Atkinson Nunn

Matthew Frederick Atkinson Nunn was convicted of the murder of his 20-year-old girlfriend Minetta Mary Kelly. He cut her throat at Bushfields, Tantobie, Tanfield on 11 September 1923. At his trial he said that he had been attacked by her, and in later letters suggested that they were both attacked by a third party. Matthew Nunn had been a miner. Minetta Kelly had been keeping company with another man for about 2½ years, until June 1923, when she ceased to walk out with him and took up with Matthew Nunn. Matthew Nunn was said to have seduced Minetta Kelly, or at any rate become intimate with her, and in August 1923 she was pregnant by him. Matthew Nunn asked Minetta Kelly's mother if he could marry Minetta Kelly, and the mother replied: xxxqxxx I am willing if she is. xxxqxxx By 9 September 1923 Minetta Kelly's mother was aware that her daughter was pregnant. However, Minetta Kelly was unwilling to marry Matthew Nunn, and on the evening of 10 September 1923 she saw her old boyfriend and told him that she was pregnant by Matthew Nunn. Her old boyfriend then accompanied Minetta Kelly to her father's house, arriving at about 11.30pm. However, Matthew Nunn was already there waiting for them, having been there since 5pm. Matthew Nunn met them at the door, and in the presence of Minetta Kelly's mother, said: xxxqxxx Well, Matt, you've managed to separate us at last. xxxqxxx Matthew Nunn then replied: xxxqxxx Well, I'll marry her tomorrow if she will have me. xxxqxxx However, Minetta Kelly said: xxxqxxx No, I do not want you. xxxqxxx The old boyfriend then said: xxxqxxx Yes, so would I marry her with my parents' consent. xxxqxxx The old boyfriend then went on, saying: xxxqxxx Are you a man? xxxqxxx Which was a reference to Minetta Kelly's pregnancy, to which Matthew Nunn replied: xxxqxxx Well I have got an opportunity and that was the only way I could get her. xxxqxxx On the following day, 11 September 1923, about 5.30pm, Matthew Nunn went to Minetta Kelly's house where he saw Minetta Kelly, and stayed until about 6.30pm. When he left, he said to Minetta Kelly: xxxqxxx See me up the road. xxxqxxx Minetta Kelly hesitated, and then put on her coat, but no hat, and went with him. It seemed that they then went to Matthew Nunn's house where they stayed for about 30 minutes with Matthew Nunn's brother, appearing to be quite friendly together. Then at 9.30pm they left the house, after which Minetta Kelly was never seen alive again. About 2am on 12 September 1923 Matthew Nunn stumbled into a man's house with a bad cut to his throat, which according to the medical evidence was self-inflicted. He could hardly speak, but when asked by a police constable: xxxqxxx Who has done this? xxxqxxx He replied: xxxqxxx A girl. xxxqxxx And when asked where, he said: xxxqxxx Bush Blades, High Dykes. xxxqxxx He then wrote on a piece of paper: xxxqxxx Minn the lass has done this. xxxqxxx When asked when, he counted 11 on his fingers. The police then went to Bush blades where they found Minetta Kelly lying dead on the slope of a dyke with her throat cut to the spine and her head nearly severed and the razor lying in her lap. The haft of the razor was found about 6ft from her body. The razor had belonged to Matthew Nunn's father, who said that Matthew Nunn had left with it on the night of 11 September 1923, putting it in his pocket as he left the house at about 9.30pm, saying that he intended to lend it to Minetta Kelly's father. Matthew Nunn later said that he thought it was safer to put the razor in his pocket rather than give it to Minetta Kelly then as a few days before she had made a statement that she : xxxqxxx Would not put up with this much longer. xxxqxxx Matthew Nunn then claimed that Minetta Kelly suddenly attacked him with the razor, cutting his throat, and must have then cut her own. However, the medical evidence made it quite clear that Minetta Kelly's injury could not have been self-inflicted, and that Matthew Nunn's injury was self-inflicted. Several letters by Matthew Nunn were found. The first was a letter sent by Matthew Nunn to Minetta Kellyon the day of the murder in which he proposed to marry her, but added that if she would not, and married her previous boyfriend, that she would have his dying curse from the day she married and would have none of his money. He further wrote however, that if she would not marry him and didn't marry her previous boyfriend that he would arrange for her to be put into a home and a slight operation would put her all right. The letter was returned to him by Minetta Kelly at her house just before she set out to see him up the road. He wrote another letter to his mother, saying that he was going away for a time. The third letter was a short note to his mother which read: xxxqxxx Dear Mother, this is the end. Think kindly of me and tell Minetta Kelly's mother that I am sorry but it is the only way out of it. xxxqxxx Matthew Nunn was convicted of murder but with a strong recommendation to mercy and his appeal was dismissed. However, it was noted that the judge had described the relations between Matthew Nunn and Minetta Kelly incorrectly, stating that they had been keeping company together and that it was her old boyfriend that had come onto the scene and that Minetta Kelly had preferred him. Both the police report and the judge’s opinion to the Secretary of State found no grounds however for interference with the sentence, with the police report stating: xxxqxxx It appears to me to be a very bad case in the category of murders of sweethearts and, according to out precedents of such cases, it is certainly one in which the law should be allowed to take its course. xxxqxxx Whilst awaiting execution, Matthew Nunn sent several letters, which were intercepted and stopped. In a letter to his aunt, he stated that the outcome of the trial would have been different if he had been the son of so-and-so, with further commentary on the social system of the country. xxx1xxx He wrote: xxxqxxx Those that have got the money are the rulers of us poor devils and we have to do as they say and not what we want. xxxqxxx xxxqxxx There would have been no war if certain people in England had not been afraid of losing what they had, so they got us poor devils to fight for them. xxxqxxx xxxqxxx They have no further use for us until they have another war. Then they will get us to do the dirty work. xxxqxxx In a letter to his father he compared his case to that of Madame Fahmy, saying: xxxqxxx We are just mere dust for them to walk upon and trample further into the mire, and then they are not content with that, they have to take a person's life. xxxqxxx In a letter to his mother he wrote: xxxqxxx If I had been the son of some titled lady of this country I would have been reprieved, but because I am poor I have got to go to the wall. xxxqxxx xxxqxxx There is only one law in this country and that is for the rich. There is none for the poor. xxxqxxx In a letter to another aunt, he claimed that the law was entitled to be carried out at the expense of an innocent man's life, and inferring that a third party cut their throats, saying: xxxqxxx I am innocent and the guilty is left free, but I am put in a funny position. Dear, I would not speak although I know it would save you all at home this trouble and save my own life. If a certain one of this earth should read this letter or of my death in the paper it will know that I did not expose the facts that did take place that night, and they are safe as far as I am concerned. xxxqxxx xxxqxxx The police said that no-one sat on the right hand side of the girl as the grass was not trampled down, but they are wrong as they have been all along, that was the side I was sitting on, but they are blind. xxxqxxx However, it was noted that in his former statement, he had said that he had been sitting on her left hand side. The police report stated that they felt that it was right to stop all the letters. Matthew Nunn was executed at Durham on 2 January 1924. Matthew Frederick Atkinson Nunn was sentenced to death on 14th November for the murder of his sweetheart, Minetta May Kelly, at Tantoble, Newcastle. Reports suggest that Miss Kelly had become friendly with another man, and it was alleged that while she was walking with Nunn through a field, he cut her throat and then attempted to commit suicide. He was hanged by Thomas Pierrepoint on the 2nd January 1924 in Durham at the age of twenty four. Charles Duffs book The Handbook of Hanging records the following: 'From the moment Atkinson was sentenced to death he diligently applied himself to preparation for the happy life to come after the hangman had finished with him. At the ceremony when the drop fell there was a rattle, a crash, a 'horrible' thud, and the criminal had disappeared, and from the gallows was seen the broken end of the rope dangling in the wind. A half strangled man, conscious of all that had taken place was below the drop, bound hand and foot, his jaw to use a euphemism 'horribly wrenched'. Twenty four minutes elapsed before the readjustments were made and the official parliamentary report concludes the second hanging was successful.