Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in and around Swansea PDF
Preview Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in and around Swansea
TRUE CRIME FROM WHARNCLIFFE Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths Series Barking, Dagenham & Chadwell Heath Barnet, Finchley and Hendon Barnsley Bath Bedford Birmingham Black Country Blackburn and Hyndburn Bolton Bradford Brighton Bristol Cambridge Carlisle Chesterfield Colchester Cotswolds, The Coventry Croydon Derby Dublin Durham Ealing Fens, In and Around Folkstone and Dover Grimsby Guernsey Guildford Halifax Hampstead, Holborn and St Pancras Huddersfield Hull Jersey Leeds Leicester Lewisham and Deptford Liverpool London's East End London's West End Manchester Mansfield More Foul Deeds Birmingham More Foul Deeds Chesterfield More Foul Deeds Wakefield Newcastle Newport Newport Norfolk Northampton Nottingham Oxfordshire Pontefract and Castleford Portsmouth Rotherham Scunthorpe Shrewsbury and Around Shropshire Southampton Southend-on-Sea Staffordshire and The Potteries Stratford and South Warwickshire Tees Uxbridge Warwickshire Wigan York OTHER TRUE CRIME BOOKS FROM WHARNCLIFFE A-Z of London Murders, The A-Z of Yorkshire Murders, The Black Barnsley Brighton Crime and Vice 1800-2000 Crafty Crooks and Conmen Durham Executions Essex Murders Executions & Hangings in Newcastle and Morpeth Great Hoaxers, Artful Fakers and Cheating Charlatans Norfolk Mayhem and Murder Norwich Murders Plot to Kill Lloyd George Romford Outrage Strangeways Hanged Unsolved Murders in Victorian & Edwardian London Unsolved London Murders Unsolved Norfolk Murders Unsolved Yorkshire Murders Warwickshire's Murderous Women Yorkshire Hangmen Yorkshire's Murderous Women Please contact us via any of the methods below for more information or a catalogue WHARNCLIFFE BOOKS 47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS Tel: 01226 734555 • 734222 • Fax: 01226 734438 email: [email protected] website: www.wharncliffebooks.co.uk Contents Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter Swansea Crime: From Medieval Times to the Reign of Queen 1 Victoria Chapter The Baron Spolasco and his Miraculous Cures, 1838-1858 2 Chapter The Fighting Welsh and the Killing of John Bowling, 1842 3 Chapter The Rebecca Rioters at Pontarddulais, 1843 4 Chapter The Fighting Irish and Two Dead Welshmen, 1848 5 Chapter A Greek Tragedy: The Canal Bank Killing, 1858 6 Chapter The Deadly Stowaways: The Hecla and Yellow Fever, 1865 7 Chapter An Intemperate Woman: The Death of Mrs Lake, 1868 8 Chapter The Jealous Husband: The Killing of Mrs Duncan, 1872 9 Chapter Those in Peril on the Sea: The Caswell Mutiny, 1876 10 Chapter Suffer Little Children: Thomas Nash and his Daughter, 1885 11 Chapter Murder at the Gloucester Hotel, 1889 12 Chapter An Anguished Mind: The Murder of Mrs O’Neill, 1898 13 Chapter The Case of Sergeant Hopper, 1914 14 Bibliography and Other Sources Acknowledgments Much of the research for this book has been by way of the original press coverage in the Cambrian newspaper. In that respect I am very grateful to Mrs Marilyn Jones, Local Studies Librarian, Swansea City Council, and her team at the Cambrian Newspaper Index, an absolutely invaluable resource for any historian of nineteenth-century Swansea. Indeed, I would not have accepted the commission to write this book had I not known of the existence of the index. I am also grateful to Mr Kim Collis and his colleagues at the West Glamorgan Archive Service, Swansea, for their assistance in producing microfilm rolls, documents and photographs and for giving advice with their usual efficiency. Similarly, the staff at the Glamorgan Record Office, Cardiff, and the staff at Swansea’s superb new library also provided assistance and guidance. Friends and colleagues rallied around in various ways to help me. A great friend of long standing, Jim Knight and his wife Pat, kindly gave me the ‘Grand Tour’ of Pontarddulais and pointed out several memorials with Rebecca Riot connections. Dave Westron allowed me to use images from his photographic postcard collection of Swansea views. Noel Evans, Registrar of Cemeteries and Crematoria at Swansea City Council kindly granted me access to burial records relevant to the yellow fever outbreak at Swansea. Mrs Edith Morgan, Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages at Swansea, also provided advice and guidance in my researches. At the South Wales Police Museum, Bridgend, Ms Terina Shaw of the Visitor Centre kindly gave me permission to use images of numerous items relating to the Victorian police force that are held at the museum. Mr Mark Vivian, at the Mary Evans Picture Library allowed me to use two illustrations from the Illustrated London News. The Penllergare Trust at Swansea - dedicated to restoring the estate grounds of the Llewelyn family - kindly gave me permission to use images that are held by trust member Richard Morris. Richard is a descendant of the Llewelyn family and was very helpful, producing one photograph from as far back as around 1846. Mr Simon Lee of Cardiff provided me with information on the 1914 case of Sergeant Hopper, a by-product of his ongoing research into the 6th Battalion, the Welsh Regiment, in the Great War. Simon also contributed information to my earlier book on the Swansea Battalion. Mr Spencer Feeney, editor of the South Wales Evening Post granted me permission to use material from its predecessor newspapers, the South Wales Daily Post and the Cambrian, and similarly the editor of the Western Mail granted permission for material from early editions of that newspaper. Mr Rupert Harding at Pen and Sword Books, who asked me to contribute this volume to Wharncliffe’s Foul Deeds series, also deserves a mention. He has been a wise counsel and a source of ready encouragement. The production team at Pen and Sword Books have also produced this book to their usual high standards. I am grateful to all of the above and extend my warm thanks to them. Lastly, I must thank my wife, Elizabeth (Lib), for her willing support and cheery forbearance of a house and dining table once again all too often strewn with research papers, and a list of domestic chores that had temporarily been put on hold. Introduction Swansea is a city that has undergone a transformation in the last quarter century. Much of the industrial dereliction that blighted so much of the city has been swept away to be replaced by an enterprise zone, a marina and modern housing. The city centre is also undergoing major change while the impressive SA1 development is bringing back into use a previously long deserted and derelict docks hinterland. But while Swansea can look forward to a bright future it cannot escape its darker past. This book seeks to bring back into the spotlight some of the murkier deeds of its long and turbulent history. It covers the often violent actions of the Marcher lords and their enemies, as well as those of the sometimes grasping Tudor gentry. There is a quack doctor charged with manslaughter, a murderous mutiny on a Swansea ship, dangerous foreign sailors at loose in the Strand, and an unprecedented outbreak of deadly tropical disease in the town. Mixed in with these sordid episodes are those of the men who killed their own wives or children, as well as true tales of Rebecca Rioters, common murderers and vicious Victorian street gangs. All have their entrances and exits in Swansea’s rich and sometimes brutal history. Swansea may now be a vibrant and modern city that knows where it is going, but it has not always been so. This book looks back to times when things were not quite so certain and fear frequently roamed the streets. Swansea’s iconic poet, Dylan Thomas, famously called it an ‘ugly, lovely town’ and this book inevitably, given its subject matter, focuses on the ugly side of a lovely town that became a great city.
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