It was in the Welsh coastal village of Borth that, short of cash, home-on-leave sailor Thomas Richards broke into the cottage of his sister-in-law, Mary Davies. When Mrs. Davies woke up and started to scream, Richards smothered her with her own pillow. Among the things he stole was her wedding ring.

He was arrested a few days later, on September 25th, 1894, at the Falcon Inn, Neath, while he was enjoying the fruits of his plunder. He told police that he was the burglar, but he didn’t realise he had killed Mrs. Davies.

Richards’s life ended in a dramatic finale on the gallows at Carmarthen Prison on NOVEMBER 29th. In front of the executioner Billington he sang the Welsh hymn, “Yn y dyfroedd mawr a’r tonnau” (In the great seas and waves).