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Joseph Wilson

Age: 60

Sex: male

Date: 7 Oct 1911

Place: Lintz Green Railway Station

Joseph Wilson was shot dead at Lintz Green Railway Station in a suspected robbery.

He was shot through the heart whilst on his doorstep which adjoined the station buildings. Joseph Wilson usually took the takings home with him at about 8pm and it was thought that his killer had waited until he had seen the last train to Newcastle off and then followed him back to his home next to the station. However, the days takings were still in the safe in the railway station and were left untouched. He had crossed the railway line and gone into his garden where sand was thrown in his eyes and an attempt to gag him with a linen cloth was made before he was shot in his breast. The shot went through him and became embedded in the woodwork of the door.

The shot was heard by four miners who had got off the last train and had only gone a few yards from the platform. They went to Joseph Wilson's home and found him on the point of death. His daughter, who kept his house, had heard the scuffle and came out at about the same time the miners arrived. They moistened his lips with brandy to get him to give an account of what had happened but his life was ebbing away fast and he was unable to speak a word.

It was thought that after his killer realised that Joseph Wilson didn’t have the money he had fled through the trees and brushwood that surrounded the station.

A man was later arrested but no evidence was offered against him in court and he was discharged.

Joseph Wilson was a widower and a keen horticulturist and had won numerous prizes under the scheme of the North Eastern Company which offered prizes for the decoration of wayside stations.

Lintz Green Railway Station was at a small village about eight miles West of Newcastle on the Derwent Valley branch of the North Eastern Railway.


*map pointers are rough estimates based on known location details as per Place field above.

see en.wikipedia.org

see Dundee Evening Telegraph - Wednesday 20 November 1912

see Derby Daily Telegraph - Monday 09 October 1911

see Illustrated Police News - Saturday 14 October 1911

see Coventry Evening Telegraph - Monday 09 October 1911