Arthur Edwards

Arthur Edwards was run over outside a dance hall in Salford in Manchester and his body then dragged nearly three miles beneath the car to where it was found in Norfolk Street, Moss Side.

When he was found, a trail of blood was traced from the point at which he was found extending for a considerable distance back along several streets to Great Jackson Street.

Medical evidence showed that a large area of his scalp had been worn away and that there was a hole in his skull.

He had been to a dance on the night of 31 December 1936 at Cross Lane Barracks in Salford. It was said that he had appeared to have had some drink but was described as a man that did not habitually drink too much.

A man that had been at the dance said that he had spoken to Arthur Edwards who he said was under the influence of drink and said that Arthur Edwards had said to him, 'If you think you are a better man then I am, then come outside'. He said that Arthur Edwards then touched him on the side of his face and knocked his glasses off.

The Coroner noted that it appeared that Arthur Edwards had been dragged by the car from the dance hall to Norfolk Street. It was asked at the inquest whether he could have managed to sit on the luggage or spare wheel carrier of a car and for it to have driven off without the driver being aware and a police inspector said that it was possible.

The police said that every possible enquiry had been made to trace the car but that it could not be found.

When the police were asked whether it was likely that a man that was knocked down in front of a car would get caught in the machinery underneath and be dragged, the police inspector said that he could not give an opinion on that, stating that some motorists said that it was possible, whilst others said that it was not.

The city analyst that examined Arthur Edwards's body said that judging on the general condition of Arthur Edwards's clothing, that he thought that he had been dragged violently along head first in the direction that the motor vehicle had been moving.

An open verdict was returned stating that Arthur Edwards had died by being knocked down and dragged by a car.

He added, 'I think it is extremely discreditable that certain organs of the press, in search of notoriety and making scares have started all this rubbish about a murder without any evidence to support it, and without knowing the full facts. It is a thing which, of course, no reputable newspaper would start, and it is to be very much regretted that a paper should publish that sort of rubbish'.

Arthur Edwards was the father of six children. His wife had died a year earlier.