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Thomas Hates

Age: unknown

Sex: male

Date: 31 Oct 1907

Place: Lily Street, Gorton

Thomas Hates was robbed on his way home after winning a piece of meat at a pub in a game.

Whilst being robbed he was kicked and later died about a fortnight later.

He was a firewood dealer and had lived on Lily Street, Gorton.

His wife said that he made several rounds of public houses on 12 October, and when he had got home he told her that at the last pub he had called at he had won a game of corks.

He had told her that he had won a piece of meat and whilst going home he had been stopped by two men, one of whom had threatened him in the public house saying that he would not take the meat home. He said that one of the men tripped him and took the meat while the other kicked him in the stomach before they ran off. He had said that the public house had been in Dark Lane and had had an electric piano.

However, a man that had been with Thomas Hates on the night he was attacked said that he didn't know any public house in Dark Lane where there were either cork games or an electric piano.

His wife also said that Thomas Hates had won a teapot three weeks before in a similar competition and had told her a similar story saying that the same 'tall man' who was called 'Paddy' had threatened him.

However, the wife of the licensee of the Duke of York public house in Dark Lane said that they had an electric piano but that there were no cork games and that she didn't know Thomas Hates or know anybody named 'Paddy'.

A man who saw the attack described 'Paddy' as a tall dark man who he would recognise again.

The police said that they were unable to find which public house Thomas Hates had been at on the evening of 12 October but they had arrested a man although the man who saw the attack was not able to identify him as the man that had attacked Thomas Hates and they had had to set him free. The man who was a carter said that he had been in the Duke of York on the Saturday evening but didn't know Thomas Hates, knew nothing about any cork throwing and didn't go by the name of 'Paddy'.

The doctor stated that Thomas Hates had died from peritonita resulting from a rupture of his bowels caused by a kick.

The coroner said that he could not help thinking that there was a widespread conspiracy in the neighbourhood in regards to the affair and was satisfied that something out of the sort had been going on at the public house.

He noted that Thomas Hates's description of the man that had attacked him tallied entirely with the carter that had been arrested even though the witness had positively asserted that he was not the man that he had seen kicking Thomas Hates. The coroner also noted that the fact that the carter had recently shaved off his moustache might have had something to do with the carters inability to identify him.


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

see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

see Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser - Thursday 31 October 1907