He was a First World War soldier suffering from terrible shrapnel wounds and she, serving as a nurse, had fallen hopelessly in love with him. It was the stuff of many a romantic novel plot.
It was certainly the stuff of dreams. The nurse, Alice Pearson, 39, left her husband to live with her soldier hero, Herbert Salisbury, 35. When he was unable to find a job, she insisted they could live on her savings of £700.
When there is nothing left, we can both die, she said melodramatically.
The money lasted about two years. When they were down to the last three pounds, the couple walked along the River Alt embankment at Formby, said their goodbyes, and Salisbury shot her four times in the head. Then he went to a pub, got drunk, was arrested, and confessed the murder.
At the Liverpool trial on APRIL 22nd, 1920, hardly a word was said about Salisburys war wounds. He was hanged three weeks later.