Samuel Morgan

Samuel Morgan murdered Mary Hagan 15 at Waterloo, Liverpool on 2 November 1940. He raped and strangled her.

Mary Hagan lived at 15 Brookside Avenue, Waterloo and had gone to the local shop to buy cigarette papers and an evening newspaper for her father at 6.45pm. When she hadnt returned buy 7.10pm her father became worried and she was soon found dead in a concrete blockhouse near Brook Vale Bridge.

There were several clues including a bandage left at the scene of the crime. Also, several witnesses remembered seeing a soldier standing about near the bridge and one boy new the soldier as being Samuel Morgan. However, Samuel Morgan had gone absent without leave. He was later arrested in London in Streatham Hill on 13 November when he was seen loitering in a doorway.

When he was arrested and returned to Liverpool they discovered the bandage was part of his field dressing kit at they found soild from the blockhouse matched soil fund on his uniform.

He said he had been drinking in the Royal Hotel in Seaforth at 7.40pm and was seen there by his brother and a friend and Mary Hagan was thought to have been murdered at 7.30pm. However he later changed his story and admitted meeting Mary Hagan at the bridge and taking her to the blockhouse and was was convicted and sentenced to death. He appealed saying that his statement had not been voluntary and that he had only indecently assaulted her and not raped her and as such as eligible for a manslaughter verdict but his appeal failed.