Execution of  Enoch Wadley H.M. Prison Gloucester Monday 28th November 1887 aged 27 years Hanged by Berry The last act in the dreadful Kempley tragedy which sent a thrill of horror through the county last June was witnessed in Gloucester Gaol on Monday morning. Enoch Wadley the murderer was delivered to the common executioner and expiated upon the gallows the frightful crime for which after two Assize trials he was condemned to die. There is no need to recapitulate all the sickening details of the atrocious murder, suffice it to say until quite recently Wadley was a Private in the 2nd Gloucestershire Regiment. Whilst serving in India he was ordered into a lunatic asylum for some extraordinary conduct incompatible with soundness of mind. He was sent home to England and for a time was confined in Netley Hospital, then discharged as unfit for further service. He visited his parents at Kempley and made the acquaintance of Elizabeth Hanna Evans, a girl of about 18 years of age, he professed to be very fond of her and often sought her company whilst at work in the fields on Bickerton Court Farm where her mother and father were also employed. It would appear that his feelings were not reciprocated for he observed to his sister it was hard to love and not be loved. However, the couple were frequently together and on the evening of the 18th June, when the labourers left the fields, Wadley accompanied the unsuspecting girl towards her home. On the way he made overtures, an indignant refusal to which aroused in him a paroxysm of fiendish brutality which no words can illustrate. Frustrated, maddened beyond control he stabbed his victim in nearly forty places and then restrained by neither pity or remorse foully completed his villainy in a manner it is undesirable to describe. His clothes were saturated with blood. The girl was left bleeding to death by the roadside. He ran as fast as his legs would carry him towards Dymock. Her cries of distress, though faint, were heard by her Master, Mr Dyer who was tending his sheep in a neighbouring field and he ran to her assistance. It was not the time for many words. She said 'Enoch Wadley did it' then beseeched Mr Dyer to pray for her as she felt she was dying. He so on the roadside where the poor girl’s blood had spread in pools revealing the frightful nature of Wadley’s crime. A few minutes after, her mother and father received her dead body in their cottage. Mr Dyer had procured a conveyance to take her home, but she passed beyond the reach of human aid. During this time Wadley was taken into custody,not as an escaped murderer but as a public nuisance. After leaving his victim on the roadside he gave his purse containing £10 to a stranger, threw his coat and waistcoat into a cottage garden and went shouting about the streets of Dymock until the Constable locked him up to prevent a further disturbance of the peace. The story of the crime and the escape of the murderer had spread, suspicion fell upon Wadley, the Constable communicated with Mr D.C.C.Chip of Gloucester who arrived just after two o’clock and after some investigation charged Wadley with murder. Wadley was removed and incarcerated in Gloucester Gaol. The inquest was held a few days later in the schoolroom at Kempley before the Coroner Mr M.F. Carter, and Jury. The Jury returned from viewing the body and the Court commenced its investigation which lasted upwards of three hours and a half. Mr D.C.C. Chip informed the Coroner he was present to watch the case on behalf of the Police Authorities in Gloucestershire: he further asked the coroner, supposing the evidence he proposed to produce that day proved that the charge of murder had been made out against the man in custody, whether the coroner would not commit him to the custody of the Governor of Hereford Gaol and not to that of Gloucester. It was clear the offence was committed in the Parish of Much Marcle in the County of Hereford, but the girl died in the County of Gloucester. The coroner said it was clear what his duty would be if the Jury found a verdict against any person, to issue his warrant to the Governor of the Gaol at Gloucester and not Hereford. He (Wadley) was found guilty and was sentenced to take his trial at Gloucester Assizes. It was urged at his trial that he was a discharged lunatic, unacquainted with his acts and unfit to be at large. The Jury was unable to agree, they were discharged and the case postponed until the next Assizes. The same plea was raised, again supplemented by the evidence of doctors, one of whom had ordered the prisoner’s detention as being of unsound mind when in India, but the Jury found him guilty. Excerpts from The Gloucester Chronicle 1887 Murder of Elizabeth Hanna Evans (18)