Until August, 1949, the four-year-old marriage of Iwan Banik, 30, a Polish-Ukrainian refugee, and his wife Maria, 28, seemed happy enough. Then Maria left her husband, rented a cottage in Huggate, Yorkshire, and started having affairs. So many, in fact, that locals figured she was a prostitute.
When he heard about it Banik brooded for a couple of months. Then, on Saturday, MARCH 18th, 1950, he went to Huggate and stabbed Maria 44 times.
In the words of the judge, the jury at York Assizes took an extremely merciful view of the case when they found Banik guilty only of manslaughter. He was sentenced to seven years, and released four and a half years later.