Im only 21, and thats too young for me to settle down, Jane Youell told her boy friend James Canning. Im going to spend the weekend with my friends in Peckham. Im afraid they havent invited you.
Canning, a 34-year-old former soldier employed as a male nurse in a mental home, who lodged with Janes parents in Delaford Road, Bermondsey, south-east London, went berserk. After a violent quarrel he grabbed his razor and cut Janes throat.
He pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey a month later, in May, 1895, and was hanged in Wandsworth Prison on Tuesday, June 18th, 1895.