When May Lewis, 10, failed to return home from school on March 10th, 1896, a search was mounted. Early next morning workmen walking through wasteland next to Vyse Street, near the jewellery centre of Birmingham, found her body. Her face was battered in and she had been raped.
Frank Taylor, a 23-year-old labourer, lived in Vyse Street, and quickly came under suspicion when witnesses said they saw him lure May into his house while his parents were out for the night. Later on the night of the murder he had tried to drown himself in the local canal, but was pulled out by a passer-by.
He was hanged on Tuesday, August 18th, 1896, in Winson Green Prison, Birmingham.