When a wife walks out, theres no knowing what might happen next. Ships carpenter Vincent Walker was sure he knew what was happening when his wife left their matrimonial home in Hull. She had gone to live with her friend Mrs. Lydia White, and Walker was convinced that Mrs. White was encouraging her to sleep around.
As rumours of Mrs. Walkers infidelities spread, Walker, 48, worked himself up into an enormous rage. First he bought an axe, announcing his intention to kill both women, before friends disarmed him. Two days later he brandished a sword in his local, and was again disarmed.
In February 1878, unable to contain himself any longer, he called on his wife at 37 Nile Street. Lydia White, the object of Walkers fury, opened the door and without a moments thought he lunged at her with his knife, stabbing her 30 times. She fell dying on the doorstep.
Terrified by her friends screams, Mrs. Walker fled from the house by the back door, which was as well, for Walker later told police he would have killed her too. He was caught fleeing down the road and brought back to the house, where he managed to break free and kick Mrs. Whites dead body.
He was hanged on Monday, April 15th, 1878, at York Prison. It was a botched execution, with the prisoner writhing in agony on the end of the rope while he died from slow strangulation.