Of interest in Shaw
John GRIFFITHS aka Jack was a 19 year old young man who was executed by hanging on the 27th February 1906 for the murder by strangling of a 17 year old Shaw girl. His executioner was Henry Pierrepoint
Kate Garrity, who was murdered in Shaw on December 19, 1905, was a 17-year-old who had been given two shillings by her mother and sent out with a jug and a bottle to buy beer and whisky from The Blue Bell pub.
Her route took her past the corner of Greenfield Lane and Moss Hey Street. Her body was found the following day by the father of Jack Griffiths who stabled a pony nearby. She was lying beneath sacking in an entry. Interestingly her body was taken to the Duke of York where she was examined and a post mortem was conducted.
John (aka Jack) Griffiths, Kate’s former boyfriend, was quickly arrested.
They had been dating for a while but Catherine had broke off their relationship after John Griffths had beaten her and also in another incident when he had beat a man who had stopped to talk to her.
He had been seen in a pub in Greenside Lane and
He had left two clear clog imprints where he had jumped from a wall. The clogs belonged to his mother and he’d borrowed them because he couldn’t afford a pair of his own. The right one showed a piece of clog-iron missing and that was the case with his clogs. He had also stood in paint at the scene of the murder and a trail of paint led in the direction of his house
Traces of blood also incriminated him. Kate had put up a struggle
He claimed to have been in the Temperance Hall at the time of the murder.
Throughout his trial John claimed his innocence but was convicted of murder. He continued to claim his innocence and a number of pleas for clemency were made but on the 15th of February John wrote a letter to his mother admitting his guilt and asking forgiveness he was later executed and placed in a paupers “penny coffin” and buried in the murderers cemetery.
The murder was reported widely throughout England and one such report featured in the Western Gazette newspaper Somerset with the below headline:
Murder of a SWEETHEART.— At Manchester Tuesday, John Griffiths was sentenced to death tor the murder Ins ..
... Murder of a SWEETHEART.— At Manchester Tuesday, John Griffiths was sentenced to death tor the murder Ins seventeen year old Catherine Garraty, at Shaw, near Oldham, strangling her. ...
Published: Friday 09 February 1906
Newspaper: Western Gazette
County: Somerset, England
Type: Article | Words: 28 | Page: 4 | Tags: none
The above has been taken from a number of publicly available sources and condensed for the purpose of this article. I cannot confirm complete accuracy and have produced the above for interest of the members of this group
