William Augustus Lacey

William Augustus Lacey was convicted of the murder of his wife Pauline Lacey and sentenced to death.

They married at Easter 1900 but had a stormy relationship and she later felt compelled to write to her father who replied on 4 July 1900 to offer her a place at his home.

However, each day William Lacey refused to go to work saying that he thought she would see another man while he was out and on 6 July 1900 he cut her throat.

At first he confessed to killing her saying that she had told him that she would be missing when he got home from work, but her later changed his story twice, the first time saying that Pauline Lacey had tied to kill herself and cut her own throat and that after seeing her injuries he had finished her off and then that she had taken her own life and he had had nothing to do with it.