See my bloodstained hands! cried a well-dressed young man, rushing into Londons Vine Street police station. The woman is in the cab.
In a taxi outside, officers found Alice Cheshire, a 22-year-old housemaid, dying from a throat wound. It was 2 a.m. on FEBRUARY 6th, 1923, and her cab ride to death had begun three hours earlier in Leicester Square.
The young man was 25-year-old Bernard Pomroy, a shop assistant from Hemel Hempstead. He had been severely maimed in the war, but his disfigurement hadnt hampered his love life. Alice had become infatuated with him, and her elder sister Mabel was also in love with him and was expecting his baby.
He readily admitted cutting Alices throat with a clasp knife. At his trial for her murder he rejected counsel, offered no defence, and was found guilty and sentenced to death.
On April 5th, 1923, he was hanged at Pentonville Prison by John Ellis.