When Mrs. Ellen Kirk got a job as nursemaid to a local farmer’s wife, a Mrs. Robinson, her husband, 55-year-old William Kirk, seethed with jealousy, figuring that she was “nursing” Mr. Robinson instead.

As Mrs. Kirk left her home in the village of Sibsey, near Boston, Lincolnshire, for work on Tuesday, MARCH 21st, 1901, Kirk, his face red with anger, followed her into the street, caught hold of her, dragged her back through the house and into the back yard, where he put his right boot into her back, pulled back her hair and cut her throat with a razor.

The murder was “savage and deliberate,” said the judge at Kirk’s trial, particularly as there was no evidence of Mrs. Kirk having been unfaithful. Kirk was sentenced to death, but five days later he was certified insane and sent to Broadmoor.