Having promised to marry 22-year-old Charlotte Cheeseman, George Woolfe, 21, changed his mind and wrote her a breathtakingly heartless letter:
Dear Miss Cheeseman: Just a line. On Monday morning I made the acquaintance of a young lady who I admire much better than you. Therefore you had better do the same and think no more of me. I hope you will take this as goodbye for good. G. Woolfe.
PS: I hope I shall never hear of you or see you again, as I am thankful I have got rid of you so easily. I have got the date I went with you, so if you find yourself in trouble, or I mean in a certain condition, it will be no good to put the blame on me. I pity the man who ever gets tied to you, but I am glad that I am free at last and now I have a chance of being my old self again.
For good measure Woolfe also wrote to Charlottes employers, falsely accusing her of dishonesty. But she was so besotted with him that she wrote back saying she forgave him.
Then on JANUARY 25th, 1902, he was seen with her in a pub in Londons East End. So had he had a change of heart? No chance. The next morning Charlottes body was found on Tottenham Marshes, her head bludgeoned with a chisel. The hunt for Woolfe ended when it was learned that he had joined the army under an alias, and he was arrested on February 6th.
At the Old Bailey two months later he was convicted of murder, and he became the last man to be hanged at Newgate Prison.