The defence at the trial of William Crouch, 26, claimed that a mystery woman had told him to kill his wife Frances, 28, at their home in Upper Marylebone Street, west London, because she had been unfaithful to him. So he cut her throat – the wound was nine inches long and laid her spine bare.

The jury deliberated too long for the judge’s liking, so he ordered them to be locked in their room without food until they came up with a verdict. That took two days to happen.

Crouch was hanged outside Newgate Prison on Monday, May 27th, 1844, before a crowd of “not less than 10,000.”