Jane Doley

Jane Doley was found dead on the bank of the Birmingham Canal at Wolverhampton in the early morning of Monday 22 December 1902.

She had been terribly injured and outraged and then murdered.

She was a middle-aged woman and had lived at 28 Stafford Street in Wolverhampton.

She was last seen alive at about 11pm on the Sunday night.

She was found by a blacksmith who had been walking along a private path in the dark when he stumbled on something afterwhich he struck a match and saw the body of Jane Doley. He had been going to work at the time along the road that ran between the Birmingham Canal and the London and North-Western Railway, near to what was known as the Victoria Basin. Her body lay in an angle formed by the gable end of Messrs Dank's and Walker's nail factory and a small corrugated iron structure adjoining it.

All around there were splashes of blood.

Her clothing had been torn in several places and her legs had been tied and her face was badly bruised and she looked as though she had been kicked about. There were also signs of a struggle having taken place on the towing-path. Her body was described as having been stretched out face downwards in the mud of the towing path and her head battered as if she had been kicked by someone wearing hobnailed boots. Her hair was also dishevelled and clotted with mud and blood.

The spot where she was found was an unfrequented one although singularly enough, several boatmen and their families that had been with their boats through the night nearby declared that they had heard no outcry.

Jane Doley was described as having been poorly clad and to have apparently belonged to the labouring class. She was later said to have earned a precarious livelihood by going out washing and charing.

A man's silk neckerchief was found near her body which was described as having a variegated pattern such as worn by boatmen.

A boat unloader was arrested in connection with her murder but later released due to insufficient evidence. When he was charged on remand at the Wolverhampton Magistrates with wilful murder he said, 'All I have to say is, I am not guilty of this charge'.

It was said that on the Saturday night, whilst drunk, that he had told another man that he had killed the woman down by the canal and didn't know what to do. It was heard that they had known each other and had previously lived together but she had left him and that he had threatened her because she had refused to live with him again.

It was later reported that he had been the cause of his own arrest after he had exclaimed in a drunken fit to a friend that he had murdered a woman and could not rest.

Jane Doley's inquest returned a verdict of murder against some person or persons unknown.