Hung Jury Leaves Peasenhall Murder A Great Mystery - Time Machine Case from 1902

 

Around midnight on June 1st 1902, a brutal murder was committed in the little Suffolk village of Peasenhall. Rose Harsent resident domestic to the local Congregationalist deacon and his wife, was left lying in a pool of her own blood on the kitchen floor; a broken paraffin lamp dismantled around her. Her throat had been cut and an unsuccessful attempt was made to burn her body.

 When she was found to be six months pregnant, and an anonymous note by her bed showed that some man had made a secret assignation with her that night, suspicion fell on local Methodist William Gardiner. He had been observed engaging in licentious familiarities with the victim the previous summer by two peeping toms.

 A medicine bottle from Gardiner's house and a copy of the local paper to which he subscribed were discovered in the kitchen and despite the offering of an alibi supported by his wife and next-door neighbour, Gardiner was put on trial.

 The village was always certain that "Holy Willy" was guilty. He was a fine craftsman (a carpenter and wheelwright) but not especially popular as the foreman at the seeddrill works which employs most villagers. Rose Harsent by contrast was a great favourite. A good-natured girl, much admired by the young men of Peasenhall, she was not severely criticized for her adulterous liaison. 

 Young barrister Ernest Wilde won great acclaim for his spirited defence of Gardiner. he roundedly condemned the curiosity of the young men who spied on Rose and Gardiner's tryst, and established that another young man living next door to the girl pursued her with lascivious letters (to which the young lady accepted them in the lewd manner in which they were offered.)

 But although Mr Wilde demonstrated a lamentably low state of morality in rural Suffolk, suggesting that more than one man may have wanted to father a child on Rose, he had not proven his clients innocence. The jury could not decide, and Gardiner was scheduled for a re-trial in early 1903. A second jury failed to agree on a verdict either and the Crown abandoned the prosecution.