The Awful Killing of Sarah Watts: A Story of Confessions, Acquittals and Jailbreaks

by Mick Davis, David Lassman

Overview

Before Road there was Frome . . . before Whicher there was Smith . . . before the heartless slaughter of four year old Saville Kent there was the brutal rape and murder of fourteen year old Sarah Watts.Taking place nine years earlier than the Road Hill case, made famous by the best-selling book The Suspicions of Mr Whicher and subsequent television adaptation, The Awful Killing of Sarah Watts: A Story of Confessions, Acquittals and Jailbreaks recounts the shocking details of this 1851 murder, on an isolated farm near Frome, and the incredible events that transpired from it.On Wednesday 24th September 1851, with her parents at market, Sarah Watts was alone at Battle Farm. Sometime during the afternoon, an intruder battered, raped and brutally murdered her.As the case gripped the nation, a London Detective was sent to investigate. The result was three local men all notorious felons with previous convictions were arrested and charged; but with a huge reward on offer, were they really guilty or just hapless victims of others' greed?When they did stand trial, it set in motion a series of riveting events that culminated a decade later in a sensational confession; but was this confessors sanity to be questioned and were they even in the country at the time of the murder?For the very first time, this sensational story is told in full-length book form, with the authors having meticulously researched newspaper accounts, court transcripts, prison records and eyewitness accounts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781526707321
Publisher:	Pen & Sword Books Limited
Publication date:	01/24/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	615,243
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

MICK DAVIS was brought up in Plymouth and Uxbridge before finding gainful employment with one of London’s top criminal defence lawyers. He and wife Lorraine first began to restore old buildings in the Frome area in the late 1980s before moving down permanently in 2006\. Mick now divides his time between dabbling in property, volunteering at Frome Museum and researching and writing full time. He is co-author of _The Historic Inns of Frome_ published by Akeman Press in 2015.
DAVID LASSMAN was born in Bath. He began his writing career freelancing for newspapers and magazines, before studying screenwriting at Bournemouth University. He spent three and a half years on a Greek island writing his first novel, is a former director of the International Jane Austen Festival and was a founding trustee of Frome Writers Collective. He is also the author of _Frome in the Great War_ and co-creator of _The Regency Detective_ series. He moved to Frome in 2011.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ix

Foreword x

Introduction xi

Part 1 (24 September 1851 - 6 October 1851) 1

1 The Murder 2

2 The Day After 8

3 The Inquest 14

4 Sergeant Henry Smith 20

5 The Investigation 25

6 The Arrests 30

7 William Maggs 36

8 William Sparrow 42

9 Robert Hurd 47

Part 2 (7 October 1851 - 4 April 1852) 55

10 The Magistrates' Court 56

11 Day One 61

12 Day Two 68

13 Day Three 73

14 Day Four 79

Part 3 (5 April 1852 - 7 April 1852) 85

15 The Assizes 86

16 5 April 1852 90

17 Prosecution: Preliminary Address 94

18 Opening Witnesses 100

19 Henry Smith 107

20 Sightings 112

21 North Bradley 124

22 Final Witnesses 130

23 Defence: Preliminary Address 135

24 Witnesses 144

25 The Verdict 148

Part 4 (8 April 1852 - 16 September 1861) 153

26 'Frome Bob' 154

27 'Bill' Sparrow 158

28 'Will'Maggs 164

29 Battle Farm 170

30 The Maggs Family 175

31 Frome Post Office Robbery 179

32 William Maggs - Resolution 183

Part 5 (16 September 1861 - 20 October 1861) 189

33 September 1861 190

34 Confession 194

35 Joseph Seer 198

36 The Other Sarah Watts 203

37 Disclosure 206

38 Resolution 211

Part 6 (Whatever Happened To…) 217

39 Joseph Seer 218

40 Maggs Family 222

41 Robert Hurd 224

42 William Sparrow 226

43 Leah Watts 230

Afterword 233

Appendix A Scenarios A-D 236

A Note on Main Sources 247

Selected Bibliography 250

Index 252

Editorial Reviews

"The Awful Killing of Sarah Watts is a true crime story with a gallery of colourful suspects, courtroom drama, sudden new evidence, gaolbreaks and more. Essentially a piece of local history, meticulously researched by two local historians, it has a wider interest as a detailed case study of law enforcement, criminal justice and the penal system at a formative stage in their development in Britain."

Historical Novels Review