John Ryan

John Ryan was convicted of the murder of Joseph Baldwin and sentenced to death.

Joseph Baldwin had been a police constable in the Metropolitan Police.

John Ryan stabbed him during a disturbance in Wilmer Gardens, Hoxton in the early hours of 2 October 1898.

Joseph Baldwin and another constable had dispersed a crowd that had assembled outside the public houses in Kingsland Road after they had closed, it being shortly after 12 midnight.

The other police constable said that he saw John Ryan wrangling with Joseph Baldwin at the corner of Wilmer Gardens, and said that he went up and persuaded him to go away, and John Ryan went off down Wilmer Gardens. He said that he and Joseph Baldwin followed John Ryan who turned round to them and said:

The other constable said that he then went back to Kingsland Road, thinking that John Ryan was following him. However, he said that upon finding that he was not, that he went back to the corner of Wilmer Gardens and saw John Ryan struggling with Joseph Baldwin. He then ran to his assistance, whereupon Joseph Baldwin called out that John Ryan had a knife.

He said that Joseph Baldwin had had hold of John Ryan by his left hand and the back of his neck.

The constable then found that John Ryan had a knife in his right hand and he seized his right hand and closed the blade of the knife, which in shutting cut John Ryan's thumb.

Another constable then came up and Joseph Baldwin was taken to the police station where it was was found that he was bleeding from wounds to his body.

John Ryan, who had been drinking and being very violent was then brought into the police station and Joseph Baldwin said:

Joseph Baldwin was found to be suffering from four punctured wounds in the region of the heart, left lung and stomach and was taken to the hospital.

John Ryan denied the charge, saying that he hadn't had a knife on him.

Joseph Baldwin died the following day in hospital.

In his evidence John Ryan said that he had been going down the Kingsland Road into Wilmer Gardens when some men got round him and hustled him and that one of them put his hand into his pocket and took his money out. He said that he accused one of them who he thought had been the man that had done it then words got to blows and a struggle took place and that Joseph Baldwin then came along and arrested him.

He said that he did nothing to Joseph Baldwin at all and didn't stab him with a knife, adding that the other men had had knives and that he was wounded in the hand and that he hadn't had a knife.

At his trial, his defence stated that it wasn't proved that John Ryan had stabbed Joseph Baldwin and no one had seen him do so.

However, the jury found him guilty of murder and he was sentenced to death and executed at Newgate on 15 November 1898.