As
Pc William Adiel Wilkinson was leaving his
home in Sileby, north of Leicester, to go
on night patrol, he heard a plaintive call.
It was his three-year-old daughter, in a
sudden, childish panic, crying: "Daddy,
I don't want you to go out again tonight.''Wilkinson
swept her up, gave her a kiss, and told
her :"I shan't be long, my pet.''
But
this time, Daddy should have listened to
the girl. That night – May 25, 1903
– was to be the last time he saw her.Pc
Wilkinson (32), from Glooston in south Leicestershire,
had been a policeman for 10 years, five
of them in Sileby.
He was a family man with two young children,
a merit stripe for good conduct and a reputation
as "a nice fellow who would rather
see a man home than lock him up''. But he
and fellow Syston policeman Pc Hall had
made enemies.
And
two of them were shoe hands Thomas Porter
(29) and Thomas Preston (25), a pair of
chip-on-the-shoulder village hard lads,
into poaching and disorderly drinking –
they had been convicted of both in the past.
The
two waged open verbal warfare on village
bobbies Wilkinson and Hall, seeing them
as self-important village guardians, conducting
vendettas against "real'' locals. Earlier
in the year, Porter had accused the two
constables of victimisation, and Preston
had publicly threatened to "shoot the
pair of you''. And so to that fateful night
of Monday, May 25, 1903.
At
about 11pm, Pc Wilkinson was patrolling
the center of Sileby, at the junction of
High Street and King Street. He normally
met Pc Hall there, before returning home.
Instead, weaving gently towards him came
village butcher Herbert Middleton, returning
home from the Railway Inn.
The
two chatted briefly, and then heard rustling,
coming from behind gravestones in the churchyard
over the road. Wilkinson crossed the street
to investigate, and shone his lamp through
the churchyard gate calling "who's
there?''Suddenly two figures sprang up from
behind the gravestones, and a shot rang
out in the middle of Sileby.
Under
the headline "Terrible Murder At Sileby'',
the Daily Mercury of the day recorded what
happened next: "Wilkinson staggered
back, exclaiming ‘I am shot' and reeling
down the road a few steps, fell heavily.''
He had a huge chest wound caused by a quantity
of shot fired from very close range. He
died in the street.
Middleton
ran along High Street, shouting for help.
A squad of policeman arrived from Loughborough
within the hour, headed by Superintendent
Agar.
Suspicion
fell straight away on Preston and Porter.
Both had been drinking very heavily in Sileby
pubs since midday.The feud between them
and the two policemen was well known.
And,
unbelievably, a well-oiled Porter had told
drinking friend Ferdinand Dexter just half
an hour before the shooting, that Dexter
should go home now and "you may hear
about something in the morning''.
The
police trooped down the High Street to the
house where Preston lived with his parents.
The frightened parents said they hadn't
seen him all night.
The
police continued down Brook Street and into
Swan Street, halting at 18, Swan Street,
Porter's home, just a few doors from Pc
Wilkinson's house. The police broke down
the door and came face to face with Porter,
standing at the foot of the stairs, mad-eyed
drunk, armed with a shotgun.
The
Daily Mercury says: "With an air of
reckless bravado, Porter said he would shoot
the first man who came inside the house.''Superintendent
Agar made a tactical retreat, and police
surrounded the house.Then began a siege,
while the police and a crowd of about 300
waited to see what would happen next.
It
become clear that Preston too was in the
house – both men would appear at intervals
at an upstairs window, yelling abuse. Some
of the crowd yelled back – it seemed
half the village knew what had happened,
and Pc Wilkinson had been generally popular.
Agar
sent to a local pub for stout, which was
sent into the house "to keep the men
calm''. At times, Porter would sit on the
window ledge sucking on a pipe, seemingly
completely unconcerned. Then at 7am, Porter
stuck his head through the window again,
fired the gun once into the air, and then
smashed it down on to the windowsill, breaking
it. The two men were arrested.
The
trial of Thomas Porter and Thomas Preston
for the murder of Pc Wilkinson opened at
Leicester Castle on June 29, 1903. Both
men were clearly involved in the crime –
but who had actually fired the fatal shot?
Superintendent Agar had no doubt. He told
the court that at the time the two men had
surrendered in Swan Street, the older man,
Porter, had confessed to the crime.
He
said Porter had told him that they meant
to get both policemen (they had thought
the local butcher Middleton was Pc Hall),
but the gun had misfired. But Porter later
changed his tune. He said the last time
he saw the gun it was in Preston's hands.
"I don't know no more about the poor
man's death than a baby just born.''
Preston's
large, but far from wealthy family hoped
a death sentence might be avoided for him.
His nine brothers and sisters used all their
savings, amounting to £40, to pay
for a good defence counsel. Mr CM McCurdy
told the court about Preston's exemplary
military record, and Preston himself said
he had been very drunk that night, and had
only intended to go poaching with Porter.
He
insisted that Porter had fired the fatal
shot. Porter, on the other hand, chose not
to go into the witness box at all. The jury,
however, were unconvinced by Preston's defence.
They saw the killing as the plan of two
men fuelled by drink, and found both Preston
and Porter guilty of murder.Both were sentenced
to death.
On
the Monday before the execution, the two
men received the last visits from their
relatives. Preston broke down, and sobbed
that Porter had fired the gun. Porter, however,
told his relatives: "It won't be long
now, but I am fully prepared and shall meet
it firm.'' The two were hanged at 8am on
Tuesday, July 21, a black flag signalling
to a large crowd outside Leicester prison
that turn-of-the-century justice had been
done.
That
evening at Sileby church, there was a memorial
service for Pc Wilkinson. The Rev AG Townshend
reminded the congregation that a feud had
ended in a tragedy that had taken three
lives from the village.
He
said the congregation were to be true Christians
from now on, and remember a last message
from Thomas Porter to his friends in Sileby.
Porter had said: "Tell them to be good
lads and stay away from the drink.''
