Ethel Lillie Major (189219 December 1934) was a British murderer. She was the only woman to be hanged at Hull Prison. She was known as the Corned Beef Killer.

Life

Ethel Lillie Brown was the daughter of a

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

gamekeeper In the United Kingdom, a gamekeeper (often abbreviated to keeper) is a person who manages an area of countryside (e.g., areas of woodland, moorland, waterway or farmland) to make sure that there is enough Game (hunting), game for hunting, or fish ...

on the estate of Sir Henry Hawley. The Hawleys had inherited the estate, known as Tumby or Tumby Lawns, from

Sir Joseph Paxton Sir Joseph Paxton (3 August 1803 – 8 June 1865) was an English gardener, architect, engineer and Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Member of Parliament. He is best known for designing the Crystal Palace, which was built in Hyde Park, London, Hyde ...

. The Browns lived in a modest lodge house on the estate. Ethel had three brothers. She left school at the then standard age of 14 and found work as a dressmaker. She fell pregnant in 1914 and gave birth to Auriol in 1915 (out of wedlock). The family decided to raise Auriol as Ethel's little sister rather than her child.Murder, Mystery and my Family: Ethel Major: BBC productions In 1918 she met Arthur Major, who had been invalided out of service in the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. She married Arthur on 1 June 1918 and after several years living with her parents in 1929 they moved to a

Council house A council house, corporation house or council flat is a form of British Public housing in the United Kingdom, public housing built by Local government in the United Kingdom, local authorities. A council estate is a building complex containing ...

in nearby

Kirkby-on-Bain Kirkby on Bain is a village and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. It lies on the River Bain between Horncastle and Coningsby, and just west of the A153 road. Close to the north is the village of Haltham. In 2 ...

, a small village in east Lincolnshire, where Arthur worked as a truck driver for Kirkby gravel pit. Lawrence Major, her son by Arthur, was born in 1920. However, Arthur heard rumours that Auriol was Ethel's daughter, not her sister. Ethel confirmed this and the marriage quickly deteriorated. Ethel went home to sleep at her parents' house every night.They Got Away with Murder, Mark John Maguire

Murder and trial

On a spring day Arthur sat eating his packed lunch with a colleague. He had

corned beef Corned beef, called salted beef in some Commonwealth countries, is a salt-cured brisket of beef. The term comes from the treatment of the meat with large-grained rock salt, also called "corns" of salt. Sometimes, sugar and spices are added to ...

sandwiches, but they tasted wrong. He threw them away saying to his colleague (in jest) that his wife was trying to poison him. A few weeks later, on Tuesday 22 May 1934 Ethel gave Arthur a cup of tea and corned beef sandwich. He felt ill and a doctor was called. The next day he felt slightly better and went to work. He started having convulsions and went home, a second doctor, Dr Smith, was called and thought the problem was epilepsy. Arthur died two days later on 25 May. The local medical doctor ascribed Arthur Major's death to side effects of

epilepsy Epilepsy is a group of Non-communicable disease, non-communicable Neurological disorder, neurological disorders characterized by a tendency for recurrent, unprovoked Seizure, seizures. A seizure is a sudden burst of abnormal electrical activit ...

. However, an anonymous letter to local police, signed "Fair Play" said that Ethel had poisoned Arthur. This (almost certainly from the neighbour) claimed that Ethel had poisoned the neighbour's dog with a corned beef sandwich and the dog had died. It accused Ethel of poisoning Arthur in a similar way. The police obtained a warrant to delay Arthur's funeral and an autopsy in London by Dr

Roche Lynch Gerald Roche Lynch Order of the British Empire, OBE FRIC DPH (1889–1957) was a British forensic scientist and public health analyst associated with several infamous murders as a medico-legal expert. An expert on poisons he appeared as an expe ...

found

strychnine Strychnine (, , American English, US chiefly ) is a highly toxicity, toxic, colorless, bitter, crystalline alkaloid used as a pesticide, particularly for killing small vertebrates such as birds and rodents. Strychnine, when inhaled, swallowed, ...

. An autopsy on the dog (which had also been requested and agreed by the neighbour) found the same strychnine. When the police interviewed Ethel she raised the issue of strychnine poisoning before they had mentioned it, greatly alerting them. Although no strychnine was found in her home there was strychnine at her father's home: in a locked box to which Ethel was proven to have a key. She was tried at Lincoln Assizes, the trial beginning on 29 October. She was defended by

Norman Birkett William Norman Birkett, 1st Baron Birkett, (6 September 1883 – 10 February 1962), was a British barrister, judge, politician and preacher who served as the deputy British judge during the Nuremberg Trials. Birkett received his education at ...

KC, and had a barrister Richard Chatterton. The neighbour, Herbert Maltby, gave evidence on how his dog had died on 24 May. A different neighbour, Elsie Roberts, said she had seen Ethel feeding the dog on 23 May, despite usually saying she hated it. Although the evidence was largely circumstantial, on 2 November the jury took one hour to find Ethel guilty. They recommended mercy but the judge sentenced Ethel to death.

Execution

On 18 December 1934, she wrote a letter each to Auriol and Lawrence. These were not delivered but instead were placed on her Home Office file.''Lincolnshire Live 19 May 2019''
Pleas for clemency went unheard. Ethel was executed at Hull Prison at 9:00 the following day, being hanged by

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...

and

Albert Pierrepoint Albert Pierrepoint ( ; 30 March 1905 – 10 July 1992) was an English Executioner, hangman who executed between 435 and 600 people in a 25-year career that ended in 1956. His father Henry Pierrepoint, Henry and uncle Thomas Pierrepoint, Th ...

. Ethel was buried in an unmarked grave in the prison grounds. Arthur lies in St Mary's churchyard in

Aftermath

Lawrence and Auriol lived in

Horncastle Horncastle is a market town and civil parish in the East Lindsey district in Lincolnshire, England. It is east of Lincoln. Its population was 6,815 at the 2011 census and estimated at 7,123 in 2019. A section of the ancient Roman walls rema ...

with their grandfather after Ethel's execution. The name Corned Beef Killer resurfaced in July 2025, when Rad Dad’s Podcast host Brett Baumback decimated The Mill’s supply of rueben sandwiches over the Buddies Fest weekend in Tillsonburg ON Canada.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Major, Ethel Lillian 1892 births 1934 deaths Criminals from Lincolnshire 20th-century British murderers