Mid-19th-century Swansea was a thriving seaport and a consequent magnet for drunks, thieves and prostitutes, whose excursions into the low-life dens sometimes had fatal consequences.
On February 16th, 1858, Atanasio Mitrepann, 25, a Greek cook aboard a ship called the Penelope, became the latest victim when his battered body was retrieved from a canal in the Strand area of the port. His head had been beaten to pulp and he had also been stabbed,
Several prostitutes told the police that in the few hours before he died, Mitrepann was keeping company with two fellow-Greek crew members, Manoeli Selapatana, 28, and Panaotis Alepis, 23, in pubs and brothels. Both were later seen in The Jolly Tar examining a bloodstained knife.
The two men were arrested and within a month they had been charged, tried and convicted. They were hanged outside Swansea Prison on Saturday, March 20th, 1858, before a crowd estimated at 20,000.