Thomas George Tattersall (12 July 1874 – 15 August 1905) was an English

plasterer A plasterer is a tradesman who works with plaster, such as forming a layer of plaster on an interior wall or plaster decorative moldings on ceilings or walls. The process of creating plasterwork, called plastering, has been used in buildin ...

who was convicted of

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

ing his wife. Tattersall, from

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 109,766 in the 2021 census, up from 99,251 in the 2011 census. The city is the administrative centre of the wider Metropolit ...

, was a notorious

drunk Alcohol intoxication, commonly described in higher doses as drunkenness or inebriation, and known in overdose as alcohol poisoning, is the behavior and physical effects caused by recent consumption of alcohol. The technical term ''intoxication ...

. He would often threaten his wife, Rebecca, and the police had once put their house under surveillance because of this. On 3 July 1905, Tattersall cut Rebecca's throat with a razor and fractured her skull with an axe. He was discovered by the couple's daughter, Laura, who subsequently told their neighbours about what had happened."'My Daddy's Killing My Mammy!'"
''truecrimelibrary.com''. Retrieved 2010-11-15. The following day, Tattersall was arrested at a railway station. He pleaded insanity, but to no avail, and was sentenced to death by Mr Justice Jelf. He was

hanged Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerou ...

Armley Prison HM Prison Leeds is a Prison security categories in the United Kingdom, Category B men's prison, located at Gloucester Terrace in the Armley area of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England, which opened in 1847. Leeds Prison is operated by His Majesty ...

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

, on 15 August 1905. His

executioner An executioner, also known as a hangman or headsman, is an official who effects a sentence of capital punishment on a condemned person. Scope and job The executioner was usually presented with a warrant authorizing or ordering him to ...

John Billington John Billington (also spelled as Billinton; c. 1580September 30, 1630) was an Englishman who travelled to the Americas on the ''Mayflower'' and was one of the signers of the Mayflower Compact. He was also the first citizen of the Plymouth Colony ...

, died two months later due to a fall he had sustained while preparing for Tattersall's hanging.Fielding, Steve.
The Executioner's Bible: The Story of Every British Hangman of the Twentieth Century
'. (John Blake, 2008), pp. 55-56.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tattersall, Thomas 1874 births 1905 deaths People from Wakefield English people convicted of murder Executed people from West Yorkshire Plasterers 20th-century executions by England and Wales British builders 19th-century British businesspeople