Rose Render

Rose Render was found lying on the footway in Upper Yardley Street, London, with a stab wound to her neck.

She was taken to the Royal Free Hospital but died. Her post-mortem revealed that she had no fewer than nine wounds to her heart, head and body.

A man was tried for her murder and sentenced to death but he appealed and his conviction was quashed because of the judge’s misdirection of the jury.

The man had lived with Rose Render around twelve months earlier but they had quarrelled a lot and had been parted. Her father said that the last time that he had seen the man was four months before when he had seen him in a pub and he had hit him and the man had then run away. When Rose Render's father saw the man at the magistrate’s court he said, 'If I could only get hold of you!'.

An oilman that had premises at 1 Upper Yardley Street in Wilmington Square said that he heard Rose Render shouting 'don’t, don’t!'. However, he said that he didn't take much notice of the incident which he said was not an unusual one for the neighbourhood at that time of night.

Her body was found soon after. Her head was on the pavement and her feet were on some steps against a doorway outside 1 Upper Yardley Street. 1 Upper Yardley Street was noted at the time as being three houses down from Attneave Street.

The man tried for her murder was said to have confessed, having said, 'She drove me to do it'. It was also shown that he had bought a long-bladed knife the day before.

A policeman said that during their investigation, observation had been kept on a small restaurant in Soho and that when he went in to look around, although he did not know the man, he had stood up and said, 'It is me you want'. He said that when he asked him to confirm his name he said,  'Yes. The missus tells me you have been here, so I thought I would wait'. The policeman said that when he told the man that he was going to arrest him on suspicion of murdering Rose Render he had said, 'I don't know anything about it'. The policeman said that on the way to the police station the man said, 'I did not come out till ten o'clock. I was at a person's place till 2.30. I have been home ever since, and went to a fire at Tottenham Court Road'.

Whilst his conviction was quashed on a technicality, the Appeal Court pointed out that in quashing the verdict no view was expressed as to his guilt.

It was heard that the principle evidence for the prosecution had been provided by a man who could have been considered an accomplice before and after the act and required corroboration. However, at the trial the judge had said in his summing up that his evidence was corroborated by a statement that he had made to the police immediately after the murder. However, it was noted at the appeal that in fact the statement he made to the police was not put in evidence at the trial, and omitted many important particulars that were given by him during his evidence at  both the magistrates and at the Central Criminal Court.

At the time the primary witness had been living at 78 Stanhope Street in Hampstead Road with two girls that were both also primary witnesses in the case. He said that they were dressmakers but that at the time he believed that they were earning their living by prostitution.

He said that he had been with the man when he had bought the knife that he was said to have stabbed Rose Render to death with and that he had told him that he was going to find an Italian boy that he was going to do for taking Rose Render away from him. The man said that he said to him that if that was what he wanted to do that he could go by himself and that the man then went off alone. 

However, he said that later on whilst he was in bed with the two girls at home that the man came to his house and knocked on his window and told him that he had 'killed her stone dead'. He said that he let him in and that whilst in his room with the two girls sat up in bed that he had told him that he had stabbed Rose Render, saying, 'I have killed Rosie. She drove me to it', and had then asked him to go out for a coffee with him.

The primary witness said that he looked at the knife and saw that it had blood on it and that the man's eyes were glaring and that he was sweating all over and told him that he had run all the way from Clerkenwell to his place.

However, because of the technical issue with his evidence the man’s appeal was allowed and he was acquitted.

Rose Render had been an eating-house employee although at the time she had been working the streets and had previously been giving the man money.