Britain was at an economic low ebb in the late 1940s, and it wasn’t a good time to get married on a small budget. But that didn’t deter miner Kenneth Mulligan, of West Bridgford, and his fiancée, shop assistant Doreen. In December, 1947, when he was 20, and she 18, they walked down the aisle together, for better or worse.

It turned out to be for worse. Six years later Doreen moved out of the matrimonial home in Ashford Terrace. For the past 12 months she had had a lover, 21-year-old Harold Fowler, who became a frequent visitor to her new home in Henry Street.

When Mulligan found out what was happening he too decided to pay a visit to Henry Street. He found Fowler there, sitting on her bed, and overcome with rage, he punched him.

Fowler’s response was immediate and deadly. He produced a sheath-knife and plunged it into Mulligan’s stomach. The angry husband fell unconscious to the floor. He was rushed to hospital but died there next day.

Fowler was arrested at his lodgings in Flewitt Street, protesting that he hadn’t intended to kill Mulligan. The knife was on the table, he claimed, and he had picked it up because he was afraid Mulligan might use it on him and Doreen.

But the jury at Nottingham would have none of this, and found him guilty of murder with no recommendation for mercy – which in a crime of passion was unusual. Fowler was duly executed at Lincoln on Thursday, AUGUST 12th, 1954.