Medlock Hotel Rumney Road cc-by-sa/2.0 - © Sue Adair - geograph.org.uk/p/6521990 Late 19th century public house built adjacent to Kirkdale Gaol which was built in 1818 and demolished in 1897. This land became Kirkdale Recreation Ground but hid a gruesome past. |
From the Liverpool Mercury Tuesday, 23 Dec 1890
THE TERRIBLE CAB TRAGEDY - PENFOLD'S ANTECEDENTSInquiries yesterday resulted in little further information as to the identification of the murdered woman Stewart or Cowie. A considerable number of people have viewed her body, some of them have known her during the period of her life spent in Liverpool. Up till a late hour last evening she had not been identified, and her parentage and place of birth still remain a mystery. It is believed, however, that she was formerly resident in Glasgow or Edinburgh. As to her Liverpool life, it appears that until about five weeks ago the deceased woman was at a house of ill-fame in a court off Lambert Street.
The following are the antecedents of Arthur Edward Penfold, the full and correct name of the accused, which form quite a melancholy story. He was the son of a tollgate keeper, and was born in Hartfield, a pretty rural village on the borders of the Ashdown Forest, in the north of Sussex. His parents are long since dead. He served in the 5th Lancers, and was invalided out of the service with heart disease and afterwards joined the Sussex Artillery Militia under the name of Peter Bright. He appears to have won the good opinion of everyone with whom he came in contact, but was liable to give way to drink, and when he had only a small quantity he was "like a madman." Generally a teetotaller, he appears to have periodically broken out, and then he would leave his situation, however profitable it was, and, without warning, go away, often turning up in a most deplorable state of destitution.
Writing to his brother from Norwich Union Infirmary in 1888 [2], after speaking of his misery, the letter reads: "Sad to lead a life like this, you cannot wonder at my being laid up. What a fool I must be to do it when I might be settled down and comfortable. What a poor, weak-minded fool for yielding so easy to temptation. I feel as if there is no hope for me; it seems no use praying: there is no God to hear my prayer. I have sinned away my day of grace and must now take my chances. Oh that I had never left the proper path. It is too late for me now. I am glad you are all right, dear brother. Keep to that path and don't yield one inch to the devil, or he will surely soon be your master."
He returned to East Grinstead after that, and his old master, hearing that he was again in the town, sent for him, and without asking any questions as to his career during his long absence at once installed him into the old place of grocer's and draper's porter. Several month ago he had another outbreak, and not returning with a horse and van to his employer's shop, information was given to the police. Penfold was discovered drugged and insensible on Tunbridge Wells Common, and the horse and van on another part of the common not under control. He then admitted that he had given way to drink and to immoral women, with whom he generally got associated after taking even a moderate amount of liquor. He was brought up at the East Grinstead Police Court, and the charge was withdrawn, and strange to say, there were two former employers whom he had in his freaks forsaken waiting to offer him a situation, even, as one of them said, "if Penfold had done a couple of months' imprisonment," He went back into the employment of the of the draper and grocer, however, and went on properly until a fortnight ago, when he was sent to Horley with the horse and van. The morning was bitterly cold, and it was snowing fast, and there is no doubt that Penfold indulged in a little intoxicant to warm him. As usual, it got over him, and when he put up the horse and cart at Horley, after collecting an amount of £18, he went off and was not heard of until his name was identified by the East Grinstead police in connection with the Liverpool tragedy. He was then "wanted" for stealing the £18 alluded to. It may be interesting to state that though such a trustworthy employee when he kept to his temperance pledge, he occasionally complained of pains in the head, and was sometimes strange in his manner. It seems also that his grandmother was subject to epilepsy, and his mother died in an epileptic fit.
In 1884, Penfold had been before the Magistrates on the charge of attempted suicide - dropped on the grounds of insanity. In fact, he had attempted to take his own life on two occasions, once he had gone onto London Bridge with the intention of jumping into the river, the other time he put poison in his coffee.
Nor were those even Penfold's only brushes with the law, as noted on the record of the murder trial is a previous incarceration for 14 days at HM Prison, Lewes, having been found guilty at Brighton Petty Sessions, on 31 May 1886, of being drunk and assaulting a P.C., under the name of Arthur Carter.
THE CONVICT PENFOLD:
The Governor of Kirkdale Jail received the official document from the Home Office yesterday morning, announcing the respite of Arthur Edward Penfold, who was, at the recent assizes, found guilty of wilful murder. This decision of the Home Secretary was not only received with joy by Penfold himself, but by his brothers and others who, since the trial, have been indefatigable in their exertions to save the unfortunate man from the gallows.
- One of the witnesses at the inquest had said that she'd seen a letter from the victim's mother, addressed to Margaret Cowie, so this may have been her real name. Searches reveal that death certificates have been issued in all three names: Margaret Stewart, Isabella Cowie and Margaret Cowie, all with year of birth calculated to 1867 from her supposed age of 23.
- Records show Arthur Penfold being admitted to, on 21 Jan 1888, and discharged from, on 11 Feb 1888, St Andrew's Workhouse, Norwich.