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Robert Charles Linford
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Robert
Post Number: 2502
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 11:42 am: | 
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Hi all
I found this item about Kitty Ronan :
THE TIMES
TUESDAY JULY 20 1909 pg. 10
WHITECHAPEL MURDER CONFESSION
At Bristol yesterday Harold Hall, labourer, gave himself up to the police confessing to having murdered Kate Ronan in a room at the top of a house in Commercial-street, Whitechapel, on July 1. He stated that he caught the woman rifling his pockets and strangled her with his hands and stabbed her in the neck. He was brought up at the Police Court and remanded. In the course of a circumstantial story to the police the man said he arrived at Bristol on the 14th inst., and stayed at Stapleton workhouse until Friday, being on Friday night at the Salvation Army, Tower-street. He had arrived in Liverpool on October 22nd, 1908, from Spain, in the steamship Thelma, by working his passage over. Then he took the weekly boat to London as a stowaway, and entered Greenwich Hospital under the name of William Johnson.
Robert |
Robert Charles Linford
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Robert
Post Number: 2510
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, June 05, 2004 - 3:28 pm: |
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Two more reports on the Ronan murder :
THE TIMES
WEDNESDAY JULY 28 1909
THE POLICE COURTS.
Alleged Murder in Whitechapel.
At Old-street yesterday, before Mr. Cluer, HAROLD HALL, 32, a labourer, of no fixed abode, was charged on remand with the murder of Kate Ronan at Miller’s-court, Duval-street, Whitechapel. The prisoner confessed to the murder at Bristol in circumstances reported in The Times on July 20 and 21.
Mr. F.J. Williamson, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, said there was ample corroboration of the confession. The prisoner’s history showed that from the time he was sent by the Guardians of the Strangeways (Manchester) Union – he having been born in the workhouse there – to Canada he had roamed over many parts of the world. He called himself a seaman ; and for some months before the murder, on his plea of misfortune, illness, and loss of ship, he had been helped a great deal. He arrived in England from South Africa in October last, landing at Liverpool, where he alleged that he had been robbed of 30 pounds by women. He came to London from Liverpool by ship as a stowaway, and at Greenwich Hospital was treated as a seaman in distress. Afterwards he was treated for five weeks in a convalescent home. About the time of the murder the prisoner had been assisted by the Salvation Army, and lived at their home in Spa-road, Bermondsey. From that Home came the first corroboration of the prisoner’s confession, for while working as a paper sorter the prisoner found a pocket-knife which a witness, who worked with him, identified. This knife had been handed to the police as the weapon used to cut the woman’s throat. There was further corroboration by a market porter, who stated that on the night of the murder he saw the deceased with a man near Duval-street. He had identified the prisoner as that man.
After hearing the evidence for the prosecution, Mr. Cluer committed the prisoner for trial at the Central Criminal Court.
THE TIMES
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 15 1909
Central Criminal Court.
Harold Hall, 27, a seaman, was found Guilty of the wilful murder of a woman named Kitty Ronan in Whitechapel, in July, and was sentenced to death.
Robert |
Paul Williams
Sergeant
Username: Wehrwulf
Post Number: 34
Registered: 7-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, June 13, 2004 - 9:35 am: |
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There's no record of Hall being executed for this. Anyone know why he was reprieved? |
Robert Charles Linford
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Robert
Post Number: 2545
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, June 13, 2004 - 6:54 pm: |
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Hi Paul
So far I haven't found any "Times" mention of a reprieve or an execution. I've also checked the death registers up to the end of March 1910, without success. It's a bit of a puzzle!
Robert |
Chris Scott
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Chris
Post Number: 1268
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - 11:04 am: |
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Here's the fuller account from the Times of the Sept 14 trial:
Times (London)
15 September 1909
CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT, SEPT. 14.
(Before Mr. Justice Coleridge)
The Spitalfields Murder
Harold Hall, 27, seaman, was indicted for the wilful murder of Kitty Ronan. He pleaded "Not Guilty."
Mr. Muir and Mr. Leycester prosecuted for the Director of Public Prosecutions' Mr. H.D. Harben, at the request of the Court, appeared for the prisoner.
On July 18 the prisoner went to the police at Bristol and said he wished to give himself up for the murder of Kitty Rooney (sic) about midnight on July 1, in a room at the top of a house in a street off Commercial road, Whitechapel. He explained that he had read a newspaper account of it, and he believed Kate Rooney was the woman's name. He went on to say that he saw her draw her hand from his inside coat pocket, whereupon he said, "Is that your game?" and, flying at her in a rage, seized her by the throat and thrust the knife in the side of her neck. The prosecution suggested that there were circumstances corroborating the prisoner's confession. The bloodstained knife was identified as his, there were points in his statement which, as far as the police knew, had never been mentioned in any newspaper account of the murder, and the prisoner was picked out by a witness named Wilkins from among a number of other persons at the police station as the man he had seen entering the court with the woman and coming away alone. In the course of his statement the prisoner said that in South Africa a French woman had robbed him of all he had - £30. He did nothing to her, but he made up his mind if it occurred again what he would do. He had, while employed as a paper sorter at the Salvation Army premises in Bermondsey, been seen working with a knife, one blade of which was broken and which corresponded with the knife found near the body of the dead girl.
The witness Wilkins now stated that he was not sure about the prisoner's being the man he saw entering and leaving the court. When he picked him out at the police station he (Wilkins) was recovering from a drunken sleep.
Mr. Harden, addressing the jury for the defence, maintained that it was a bogus confession, which the prisoner had now retracted by his plea of "Not Guilty."
The jury found the prisoner Guilty. On being asked whether he had anything to say why sentence should not be passed, he shook his head.
Mr, Justice Coleridge sentenced the prisoner to death.
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Robert Charles Linford
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Robert
Post Number: 2559
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - 12:32 pm: |
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Thanks for that, Chris. Any idea what happened to him?
Robert |
Robert Clack
Chief Inspector
Username: Rclack
Post Number: 619
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 09, 2005 - 8:53 am: |
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Hi all,
I found this illustration from "The Illustrated Police Budget" July 10 1909
The bottom line reads:
HANDSOME GIRL FOUND DEAD WITH HER THROAT CUT IN A DORSET STREET HOUSE.
Dorset Street was actually named Duval Street at that time.
Rob |
Robert Charles Linford
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Robert
Post Number: 4750
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 09, 2005 - 11:58 am: |
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Rob, this reminds me of "The Fiend Surveys His Work" from 20 years previous! I guess these drawings don't change much.
Robert |
Robert Clack
Chief Inspector
Username: Rclack
Post Number: 621
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 09, 2005 - 1:45 pm: |
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Hi Robert,
Yeah, I think there was a set pattern for illustrations. I've got one for the murder of Mary Ann Austin and if you put the title "The Fiend Leaving Millers Court" no one would be any the wiser.
Rob |
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