Mary Anne Elliott

Mary Anne Elliott was found dead in Portobello Street, Sheffield in a pool of blood with her throat cut almost from ear to ear on 26 March 1921.

A 32-year-old soldier was tried for her murder at the Leeds Assizes on 6 May 1921 but acquitted.

She had lived with her husband and four children at 38 Abney Street.

The soldier had lived at 6ct 1hse, Fawcett Street in Sheffield.

It was said that he had been seeing Mary Elliott even though she was married and had sent her a few letters addressed to another woman that lodged with Mary Elliott and her family. The letters had been sent from Pontefract and had started to arrive soon after December 1920. However, the lodger, who had worked as a servant at a public house, said that Mary Elliott's husband had not known about the letters.

She said she had seen two of them and that they had been love letters.

She said that the last one to arrive would have been about March 1921, noting that she didn't get one about Easter.

She noted that Mary Elliott used to drink a bit and that since the soldier had been coming she had been staying out late on different occasions.

She noted that she had passed the scene of the murder about 20 minutes before it happened and didn't see anyone about or anything unusual.

An electroplater said that he saw Mary Elliott in the White Horse dram shop in Solly Street about 9.15pm with the soldier and that they both left about 10pm, heading off in the direction of St George's Church, noting that he left in the opposite direction.

A woman that had lived in Beech Street said that whilst with her husband she saw Mary Elliott in Siddall Street about 10.30pm talking to two men, one of whom she thought was a civilian, but said she could not be sure about the other.

However, the woman's husband said that the other man had been a soldier.

A police constable said that he had been on duty in Portabello Street at 11.40pm when he saw a man run from the doorway of Christopher Johnson's Works (not Laycocks). He said he had been about 30 yards from the man, who must have seen him coming, and that there had been a gas lamp between him and the man. He said that he couldn't say how the man was dressed, and that he gave chase, but on coming to the doorway he found Mary Elliott lying there.

He said she was still breathing, and had been lying on her right side, with her head upon her arm and her feet towards the roadway, her head being about 3 or 4 inches from the wall. He said that her clothing was not disordered and that there was a lot of blood.

When her body was taken to the mortuary a letter was found in her clothing, addressed to the lodger, which started:

And some other passages that included:

There were some crosses at the bottom of the page, and the remark:

A police sergeant said that he made a search the following day of the works where Mary Elliott was killed and under the doorway found a ring. At the trial, a dozen rings were produced and the police sergeant identified the ring he had found, it being a silver-gilt ring with a buckle.

The ring was later identified by two privates in the York and Lancaster Regiment stationed at Pontefract as belonging to the soldier on trial. One of them said that he had given the ring to the soldier and they both said they had seen him wearing it. They both also identified the ring from eleven others shown to them by the police.

The soldier’s father said that he went to bed between 10pm and 11pm and that his son went in about 11.30pm. He said that his son had been wearing a soldier's uniform when he had gone out that evening and that he had never seen Mary Elliott and knew nothing of there being anything between her and his son.

With regards to the movements of Mary Elliott's husband on the night of the murder, evidence was given by his two sons and the lodger, to the effect that he had been in the house shortly after 10pm and had remained there until news of his wife's death was conveyed to him.

The court heard that Mary Elliott's husband had met the soldier about a year earlier, when he was with his wife. He was said to have said:

To which the soldier told him that he was going to get a solicitor, and to which Mary Elliott's husband replied:

The soldier then said that he would:

However, Mary Elliott told her husband that she didn't understand what the soldier had meant about the solicitor, or his remark about 'having her'.

The pathologist that carried out the post mortem examination said that the wound to Mary Elliott's throat was 6½in long and that she would have only lived a few minutes after receiving it.

At the inquest the soldier said that he was willing to go into the box and give evidence, saying:

However, the Coroner then said that the soldier and his father would not give evidence, stating that he thought it better that he and his father were legally advised.

The Coroner then added that the evidence about the ring was not conclusive. He noted that the soldier had been in Mary Elliott's company earlier that evening and that he might have given it to her then and that he had not been on the scene of the crime at all.

He further noted that there was no evidence about the weapon, and that no weapon had been found, and that in his view the evidence against the soldier was far from satisfactory.

The soldier was later tried at the Leeds Assizes on 6 May 1922, but found not guilty.