She couldnt have chosen a worse lover. It was in 1912 that Florence Alice Bernadette Silles met Edward Hopwood, 45. She was an actress and music hall artiste whose stage name was Florence Dudley, and she soon realised Hopwood was violently jealous he gave her black eyes and bruises to prove it.
Then she discovered he was married, and by September that year shed had enough. On the evening of September 28th they met at a London café, took a taxi, and as it drove off Florence told Hopwood their affair was over.
The cab was approaching Fenchurch Street station when the driver was startled by the crack of a pistol shot. He pulled up, opened the door, and Florence fell out into his arms, where she died moments later. Inside the taxi there was a second shot, as Hopwood attempted suicide. He was arrested, and after treatment for superficial wounds at Guys hospital he was charged with murder.
At his trial he told the jury that when he and Florence were in the cab, she told him they had no future together. He took out his revolver to shoot himself, he said, but Florence tried to take it from him and it went off, shooting her accidentally.
He was convicted of wilful murder, sentenced to death by Mr. Justice Avory, and hanged at Pentonville Prison by Thomas Pierrepoint and Albert Lumb on JANUARY 29th, 1913.