The Gruesome Murder That shocked Guisborough And North Yorkshire In 1903

On Sunday the 27th of December 1903, Elizabeth had gone to church with some friends. After the service ended around 8.10 p.m. the girls walked home together and parted company at Bennison Street in Cleveland, where Elizabeth lived. She only had a few more yards to walk when she was accosted by Clarkson who cut her throat with a razor and left her body in a wooded area near Guisborough workhouse. His motive for the killing remains unknown. Her parents contacted the police when she did not return home and a search was made that discovered a large pool of blood in the backyard of No. 9 Bennison Street. She lived at No. 17. The occupants of No. 9, Clarkson, his father and his sister were questioned. The father and sister could account for their whereabouts but James could not. A bloodied razor was found on the property and at the police station it was noted that Clarkson’s clothes were blood stained. He was charged with Elizabeth’s murder when his alibi was shown to be unsupported. Clarkson was tried at York on the 8th of March 1904 before Mr. Justice Lawrence. He maintained his innocence throughout. A witness testified that while on remand, Clarkson had cried out “What made me do it?” It took the jury just half an hour to reach a verdict. He was duly hanged by William Billington and Henry Pierrepoint. The North Eastern Daily Gazette reported that Clarkson “walked firmly to the scaffold with a smile on his face”. “Clarkson maintained that he had been wrongly convicted, and up to the very last he maintained his innocence.” The rope used was of a new and revised pattern. It was manufactured by John Edgington & Co. with the seams of leather wrapping positioned to ensure that they would not contact the skin and with gutta-percha covering of the eyelet reduced in length. The brass eyelet was made flush with the gutta-percha, to avoid damaging the skin. - Taken from Capital Punishment UK