Im going to kill you one of these days, John Baines, 41, a fish salesman, told his wife Ellen, 39. She had heard it so many times before that she took no notice. Finally, fed-up with the interminable domestic arguments, and after an all-night quarrel that went on into Christmas Day 1885, she packed her bags at their home in Barrow-in-Furness, and moved in with a neighbour.
Furious, Baines took a butchers knife and knocked on the neighbours door. When Ellen opened it he plunged the knife into her four times. As she lay dying he told the neighbour: If she isnt dead she ought to be.
At his trial a month later his defence counsel said, He was under the delusion that his wife was being unfaithful to him. The jury rejected an insanity plea, and Baines was hanged on Tuesday, February 9th, 1886, in Lancaster Prison.