Ill kill her and by God Ill swing for it, William Cassidy, 39, told his pub friends. He was to be proved right on both counts.
The object of his hatred was 33-year-old Rosemary Ann, his wife for many unhappy years. One night in November 1879, after a series of rows, he crept into the bedroom where she was sleeping at their Pendleton, Salford, home, soaked the bed in paraffin and set it alight.
Rosemary Ann woke up engulfed in flames and died in great agony from her burns. In January Cassidy was convicted of murder and hanged on Tuesday, February 17th, 1880, at Strangeways.