Blind and elderly William Anderson lived with his nephew in Belmont, near Durham. He didn’t trust banks, so he kept his money upstairs at his home. On June 11th, 1941, his nephew took him his breakfast and then left at 7.10 a.m. to do his rounds as a postman.
When the old man’s housekeeper arrived three hours later she found the place locked, so she went to Mr. Anderson’s brother, who lived next door, and he entered the house through a window which had been left partly open. He found Mr. Anderson lying behind the front door, battered unconscious with an axe. The house had been ransacked.
His family knew he kept money upstairs, and the investigators focused on his great-nephew, 19-year-old Edward Anderson who on March 9th had left his job as a porter at Tynemouth’s Grand Hotel. Visiting his home in Hull, the police found a quantity of stolen property, and Anderson admitted attacking his great-uncle. He was arrested and charged with assault, which was upgraded to murder when Mr. Anderson died on JUNE 19th.
Convicted at Leeds Assizes, Edward Anderson was hanged at Durham Prison on July 31st, 1941.