Trial of Mary Fitzpatrick
It followed the death of 24-year-old glass blower James Richardson, who was last seen alive in the company of rag sorter Mary Fitzpatrick,[1] aged 23, and was next seen dead in the water without his watch and chain.
[nb 1] She was the daughter of Richard Corcoran (b.ca.1829) a greengrocer and labourer, and his wife Catherine née Connor (b.ca.1832), both from County Mayo.
[nb 2][4] They were "respectable" Roman Catholics and "migrants from famine-torn Ireland ... a poor family struggling to make ends meet.
[6] The yards inhabited by the Corcoran family were ginnels or alleys inside the slum area around the edge of Quarry Hill.
[9] They were living in the Quarry Hill area, where at that time, many houses had "no piped water supply or proper sewerage system ...
[2][12] By the time of her 1882 trial, Mary was living in Lemon Street, Quarry Hill, and was separated from her husband,[1][13] who had emigrated to America amid the negative pre-trial publicity.
[2] At her 1882 trial, the judge said that she had already been convicted of three felonies in total,[15] and the Derby Daily Telegraph reported that Fitzpatrick had a "loose character".
[23] Richardson's mother Mary last saw him between eleven and twelve o'clock midday on the day of the Hunslet Feast, Tuesday 15 August 1882, when he "left home in company with a young man named James Ramsden", and his elder brother William saw him wearing his silver watch and gold Albert chain on the afternoon of that day, at the Feast.
[24] When Ryan saw them, [Fitzpatrick], who seemed to be sober, was standing at the bar of the taps in the [Exchange] public house," a place for working class men only at that time.
This might raise the question of whether Fitzpatrick was not in the inn for fun, but was planning to follow a selected stranger with a view to theft.
[16] By ten-thirty, Richardson and Fitzpatrick were spotted by a public house waiter, Samuel Holdsworth, "standing together in the passage of the George IV inn.
[25] The body of James Richardson was found on Saturday 19 August in the Old Mill Dam on the River Aire at Hunslet Carr.
"The next morning [Fitzpatrick] again went to the shop and obtained a further advance of 18s on the chain, stating that her husband had been locked up and fined.
The body was without the watch and chain, and without Richardson's gold ring and silk handkerchief when it was viewed at the Wellington Inn, Hunslet.
"[2] She then absconded, thus increasing suspicion of her guilt,[25] and was apprehended by Detective Easby in Hull on Saturday 9 September 1882.
"[1] On Monday 18 September she was back in the Town Hall, and charged on remand with wilful murder and stealing the deceased's property.
[26] On 20 September 1882, Fitzpatrick was charged on remand at Leeds Town Hall, firstly with wilful murder, and secondly with stealing and pawning a watch and guard.
[27] At the inquest held at the Wellington Inn, Hunslet on Thursday 26 September 1882, the Leeds borough coroner found "injuries to the head" and returned a verdict of wilful murder.
[23][28] Fitzpatrick was removed from Armley Gaol on 3 November 1882,[29] and her trial, on the capital charge of wilful murder,[27] began on Saturday 4 November 1882 at the Yorkshire Winter Assizes in the assize courts at York Castle, with the Grand Jury being sworn in at York Guildhall.
[1] Beforehand, the judge informed the jury that he expected them to give a true bill, or clear indictment, in all cases on that day.
[1] On Monday 6 November, a true bill for wilful murder had been returned against Fitzpatrick at the Yorkshire Assizes.
When sentencing Fitzpatrick, Justice Hawkins commented as follows:[15] "The prisoner had been convicted of the most daring and impudent robbery.
He found that not only was the prisoner leading the life of a common person, and walking about the streets and drinking with men, but on three different occasions she had been convicted of felony.
Her parents had left Leeds, so at the age of 30 years, around 1889, with the help of a charity she travelled to America to rejoin her husband.
