There's been a murder!

[dothawkes31]

Found a newspaper report of the murder of my kids great grandad's sister-in-law in 1939 in Torquay, the murderer was William George Wittherington aged 34 and he went to trial the same year, our generation were never told about this and all those that would have known are long gone, I wondered if it was wise to find out more.

[dothawkes31]

I think I've found his death in 1984 in Torbay

[dothawkes31]

He lived to the age of 78!!! There's justice for you, his victim was only in her early 40s, obviously they didn't hang him,

[sigma]

If it had occurred in 1739 or 1839 you would no-doubt be trawling the records to find out more. Because it occurred in living memory then problems and old wounds may be opened up. It is worth investigating if only "just for the record" for a future generation.
I recently found out that my Gt Gt Grandmother was frequently being fined for being drunk and served two sentences in jail for neglect of her children.The newspaper reports made unpleasant reading and when I showed this to my mother she tried to justify the actions and defend her Gt Grandmother even though she never knew her.

[dothawkes31]

I am now wondering if he was actually found guilty, as the newspaper item i have only says that after a 2 day hearing he was sent from the magistrates court to stand trial at Exeter and that he reserved his defence. Does that mean he refused to speak at the hearing?

[craft1948]

My grandad was murdered in 1956 but they never caught who did it. Considering he lived in a relatively small place on the Shetlands I found this quite suspicious.

[annie0000]

When starting to do our family tree, I found out that my Dad's parent's committed suicide within days of each other when he was 7. All we had ever been told was that they had died during the war - which technically they did. It made me really sad when i found out even though I never knew them and my Dad died nearly 10 years ago. Whilst it is all fascinating, I think it can still have an effect on the living when it is in recent history.

[dothawkes31]

Two very sad discoveries craft and annie, and of course it shows how families were determined to protect the children from these things, when did you learn about your grandfathers murder craft? You'd only be a small girl then, can you remember being told about it or how people reacted?
Annie did your dad every speak of what happened to him when he was small and lost his Mum and Dad?

[annie0000]

Never Dot - our family is not one for talking anyway! I am the youngest of 7, so can't really remember if it was my mum or one of my siblings that told me. I was always curious but never felt I could ask. I know that my dad did stay in touch with his brother who has also now died, but that he did not really have anything to do with his sister, I gather it was something to do with her being sent to be brought up by an Auntie and living a better quality of life, and the two boys basically being brought up by their maternal grandparents in fairly basic conditions. My Dads mum gassed herself and after registering the death, he gassed himself a few days later.

[craft1948]

Dot I was just told that my grandad had died and my father had to go home to sort things out. I remember that he had to borrow the money from my nan to get to the funeral.
It was only whilst researching the family tree that I found out about him being robbed, murdered, and dumped in Lerwick harbour.

[dothawkes31]

Sorry to get back to this so late, I've been struggling with computer problems and email problems!
It all follows the same pattern of protecting the children from things, today with so many ways that children can have access to news events it is very difficult to keep anything from them.
Families were left to cope with the aftermath themselves too, noone supported them either financially or emotionally. But people didn't expect to be helped either unless it was kept within the family.