Charles Peace (14 May 1832 – 25 February 1879) was an English burglar and murderer, who embarked on a life of crime after being maimed in an industrial accident as a boy.

After killing a policeman in Manchester, he fled to his native Sheffield, where he became obsessed with his neighbour's wife, eventually fatally shooting her husband.

Settling in London, he carried out multiple burglaries before being caught in the prosperous suburb of Blackheath, wounding the policeman who arrested him.

Soon afterwards he committed a major burglary in Manchester, nearly killing a police officer who came to arrest him, and was sentenced to six years' penal servitude.

After moving back to the Sheffield suburb of Darnall, Peace made the acquaintance of a civil engineer named Dyson.

[6] In the dark, Peace escaped; two brothers living nearby, John and William Habron, were arrested and charged with the killing of Constable Cock.

"[3][4] That evening, a little after eight o'clock, Peace observed Mrs Dyson coming out from her back door and entering a nearby outhouse.

Peace was changing his appearance, concealing his missing finger with a prosthetic arm, and moving around the country to try to avoid detection.

In Nottingham, he met Mrs Sue Thompson, who became his mistress—but eventually betrayed his whereabouts to the police (who denied her the £100 reward on the grounds that her evidence did not lead directly to Peace's conviction).

On 10 October 1878, at about 2 am, a Constable Robinson saw a light appear suddenly in a window at the back of a house in St John's Park.

[3] From Pentonville prison, where he was serving his sentence, Peace was taken to Sheffield, where he appeared before the stipendiary magistrate at the Town Hall and was charged with the murder of Dyson.

However, the hearing had to be adjourned for a further eight days: on the journey back to Sheffield, Peace jumped from the train near Kiveton Park and was found unconscious beside the track.

[4] Mr Justice Lopes, summing up, said it had been clearly proved that no struggle had taken place before the murder and emphasised that the jury must do their duty to the community by the oath they had sworn.

[4][3] Having nothing more to lose, Peace made a full confession to the murder of Constable Cock in order to exonerate William Habron, who was later given a free pardon and £800 compensation.

Peace re-asserted that Mrs Dyson had been his mistress, but she strenuously denied this, calling him a demon "beyond the power of even a Shakespeare to paint" who persecuted her with his attentions and, when he found them rejected, devoted all his malignant energies to making the lives of her husband and herself unbearable.

On the day before his execution Peace was visited for the last time by his family; out of deference to their feelings, he did not ask to see Mrs Thompson, though he had very much wished to.

On the morning of his execution, Peace ate a hearty breakfast of eggs and salty bacon and calmly awaited the coming of the public executioner, William Marwood, inventor of the "long drop".