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Ada Stennett

Age: 25

Sex: female

Date: 1 Nov 1912

Place: Chaucer Street, Nottingham

Ada Stennett was found in a passage off of Chaucer Street with a black scarf twisted around her neck.

She had however died from an injury to her head and an open verdict was returned.

She was found in a passage at the back of Holborn Villas, Clarendon Street off of Chaucer Street.

When she was found she had been dead for sometime and the black scarf twisted around her neck had to be cut off.

Ada Stennett was a married woman but separated from her husband and lived at 20 Middleton Street in Radford with her aunt who recently died and male cousin in separate parts of the house. She had frequently gone under the name of Ada Smith. Ada Stennett and her husband had been separated for two and a half years.

Ada Stennett was known to have fits and seizures and had had one at her sister's not long before her murder.

The cousin who lived at 20 Middleton Street with Ada Stennett said that he last saw her at about 8.45pm on the Thursday night. He said that she had come home from work at about 6.50pm and had received a postcard making an appointment . He said that he knew who the card was from, saying that it was a woman who had visited the house once and said, 'Meet me at 8.15'. However, Ada Stennett went out at 8.45pm. The cousin said that he remarked on it to Ada Stennett before she left.

Ada Stennett's body was found by a printer's fitter at 5.30am on the Friday. He said he was passing along Chaucer Street when he observed a body on the left side of Chaucer Street about a yard from the opening of the passage. He said he went to examine it and saw that it was the body of a woman huddled up and that he spoke to her but got no answer. He said that he then went round the corner into Clarendon Street where he found a policeman.

The policeman said that when he saw Ada Stennett her head was on the right hand wall and her body was fairly prone. He said her clothing was complete and nowhere disarranged. He said she had a black mercerised silk scarf around her neck, twice round and knotted once. He said that it was pretty tight and fastened under the right hand side of the chin. However, he said that he did not think that she had been strangled by it.

He said that all he found in her pockets was a door key and a pocket handkerchief. There was no purse and no money. He said that he had passed the end of the passage earlier at 3.15am but had seen nothing to draw his attention to it.

The police surgeon who carried out the post-mortem said that her body was well nourished but there were present indications of a disease of the blood. He said that on the left hand side of her chin there were three distinct scratches and on the right side of the neck a slight discolouration caused by compression although he said that in his opinion he didn't think they were sufficient to cause strangulation.

He said that on the top of her head at the front there was a well defined bruise the size of a halfcrown, with other superficial abrasion. Her stomach contained no food, but a small quantity of liquor, strongly alcoholic in smell. the heart was in a very weak state. There were traces of disease in one or two  of the other organs. Just below the skull there was a small clot of blood, and the skin covering the brain was bruised throughout the whole area. He said that in his opinion great force must have been applied to have produced the injury to the head. He said that that force must either have been inflicted by the woman falling against some projecting hard substance or by a blow administered by some other person.

He said that death was due to heart failure and that the injury to the head might have brought about the heart failure.

When questioned, the police surgeon said that the injury to the head was immediately on the top of the crown and that such an injury was in 99 cases out of 100 caused by somebody other than the injured person and that it was not impossible that it could have been caused against something hard or projecting, like a fall against a mantelpiece. He did say however, that it could not have been caused by falling on the ground. The police surgeon also said that he had seen the passage where her body was found and said that it would have been impossible to cause the injury by falling onto something there. he also added that Ada Stennett's hat and the paper padding in it would have served to act as a buffer to break the force of the blow.

When the coroner asked the police surgeon if he thought that the injury was caused by some other person he said, 'Certainly'. When the coroner asked the police surgeon if he thought that her death was due to the interference of another person he said, 'That is the conclusion I have come to, putting everything together.'

A doctor said that he thought that Ada Stennett had walked or staggered up the passage and had not been carried there. It was also noted that the walls in the passage were weathered and that there was a white deposit on the bricks but none of it had been displaced as though there had been a struggle and nobody had heard any noises in the night.

A barmaid at the Rutland Arms Inn on Wollaston Street said that she knew Ada Stennett well and said that she would come to the house every night during the week including the Thursday. She said that Ada Stennett arrived between 10 and 10.30pm in the company of a gentleman but only stayed for a few minutes. She said that Ada Stennett said she felt ill and had a brandy and soda. However, she said that she didn't know the man and had never seen him before but thought that he came from the Sutton way.

The inquest heard that when Ada Stennett left the pub she had a purse with 2 shillings in it and that a 2 shilling piece was all she had.

A chauffeur for Messrs Jilley and Company said that on the Thursday evening he drove Ada Stennett and two gentlemen from Nottingham to Sutton-in-Ashfield leaving Nottingham at 11pm. He said that when they got to Sutton they told him to pull up and the men got out and told him to drive Ada Stennett back to Nottingham and paid their fare. Ada Stennett then asked him to drive to Derby Road and he said he went back via Mansfield as he knew the way better. He said then that outside the Rudge Whitworth shop in Parliament Street at about 2am Ada Stennett tapped on the window and asked him to pull up saying that she didn't want to be seen driving home in a taxi and paid him with a shilling out of her purse. The coroner asked if that had been the only money that she had had in her purse and the taxi driver said no, that she had had other money too. He said then that Ada Stennett walked off up Parliament Street and that he drove off.

The taxi driver was questioned by a police inspector about his route, he said that the taxi driver had said that when he reached Nottingham he had driven along Shakespeare Street and up Bilbie Street. The inspector then asked why he didn't go up Sherwood Street and he said that it must have been a sort of instinct as one of his men had had an accident there some time before. The inspector questioned the taxi driver further and he said that when he drove home he had gone back down Sherwood Street. The inspector then said that the reason why he had asked the questions was because Bilbie Street was very near where the body of Ada Stennett was found.


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

see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

see Nottingham Evening Post - Monday 18 November 1912

see Nottingham Evening Post - Monday 04 November 1912