Mary Ann John

Mary Ann John was found dead on a piece of waste land by the roadside near Laleston, Bridgend on Thursday 5 October 1911.

It was supposed that she had been knocked down by a motor car and also suggested that she had been murdered and her purse and money stolen.

She was found about five minutes' walk from Laleston and about 300 yards from her house.

Her body was described as having been terribly disfigured with her face battered, and it was thought that she had been moved into a field out of sight after having been knocked down, possibly by the motorist that knocked her down in order that he could get home to safety before her body was discovered.

Her head was said to have been resting in a pool of blood and her cheek bones on the left side were smashed to a pulp and her nose was broken and knocked round to the side of her face.

It was said that she could not have been thrown into the position that she was found by a motor car and that her clothes had been much torn. The inquest heard that an undergarment had been recently torn.

A doctor said that her death had taken place about 12 hours before her body was found and sometime after her injuries were inflicted.

It was also considered that she might have been murdered although it was noted that she had had no enemies.

Her son said that Mary John had had a new purse when she had left the house on the night she died and had recently cashed a cheque and that since her death he had failed to find the purse or the money. He said that her basket had also not been found. He said that he had considered the theory that she had been killed by a car but that judging by her injuries that he didn't think that she could have been killed so.

The railwayman that found her body further discredited the motor-car theory.

The police said that no money was found on her body.

Mary John had been a widow and had lived in Twynllatau.