Ellen Sampson

Ellen Sampson was found encased in cement in a tin at a house in Kensal Rise on 23 March 1904. It was thought that she had been murdered by a man that shortly after killed himself.

It was thought that he had murdered her the day after they married on 16 January 1903.

Her body was not found until the night of Wednesday 23 March 1904 after a person living in the house complained about the smell and informed the police.

Her identity was not initially known, and at her inquest she was referred to as an 'unknown woman', but it was later ruled that the body found was that of Ellen Sampson.

Her inquest took place at the same time as that of the man that killed himself.

He had been a 30-year-old commission agent and had lived at 43 Ladysmith Road in Kensal Rise. However, it was also later determined that he was an ex-convict.

At the inquest he was described as having been a 'professional marrying man', his occupation being that of marrying different women, and getting money from them.

He was thought to have married seven women:

1. First woman, died of fever, buried at Willesden Churchyard. One son.
2. Second woman, married at Maidstone, she later divorced him. One child. The woman married again.
3. Third woman, married at Ilford.
4. Woman, only a suggestion that he married her. Woman's father identified the man as the man that married his daughter, but it was said there was a mistake as they had not married. The woman was still alive and living in Tunbridge Wells.
5. Fourth woman, married on 8 January 1903, still alive.
6. Ellen Sampson, married on 15 January 1903.
7. Sixth woman, still alive.
8. Seventh woman, still alive.

The man's mother attended the inquest and gave evidence, saying, 'I don't consider he has been sensible for weeks'. She said that his health was good, but that he often seemed haggard. She said that he had been a barber.

When she was asked whether he had always had money, she replied, 'No'.

When she was asked about the tin box, she said that it had belonged to his first wife.

A police sergeant said that he was called to 43 Ladysmith Road and that when he got there he saw a van outside the house and a tin box on the pavement and the man standing on the opposite side of the road, smoking a cigar. However, he said that when he approached the man that the man ran away. He said that he chased him through several streets and overtook him in Hanover Road, but that before he could seize him, the man pulled a razor from his pocket and drew it across his throat.

He said that a doctor was sent for, but that he had died almost instantaneously after which his body was taken to the mortuary.

He said that when he afterwards inspected the tin box that he found that it contained human remains.

Another police constable that had also chased the man said that when he was only three yards behind the man that the man exclaimed, 'Good God', and drew out the razor and cut his throat.

A police surgeon that examined the man's body after said that he had cut his throat from ear to ear.

At the inquest, a verdict of felo de se was returned on the man.

However, the Coroner noted that the second inquiry into the death of the woman in the trunk was much more complicated, although he noted that thanks to the unexampled smartness, energy and perseverance displayed by the police, that the identity of the woman had been determined, that being Ellen Sampson.

It was heard that Ellen Sampson had been a widow and a nurse, who had been engaged at the Cottage Hospital in Yately, Blackwater, Hampshire when she had met the man. It was determined that they had appeared to have gone through a marriage ceremony on 15 January 1903 at Blackwater, and that on the following day they had gone to live at 43 Ladysmith Road.

However, it was heard that at the time the man had only just married another woman seven days earlier, his fourth wife, and had also taken her to 43 Ladysmith Road. However, it was heard that he had somehow managed to get rid of her for a few days and that during her absence he had married Ellen Sampson.

The inquest then heard that it was thought that the man had then murdered Ellen Sampson at 43 Ladysmith Road the morning after their marriage in Blackwater, whilst his other wife was away and then concealed her body parts. It was said then that his other wife returned and had no suspicions over the matter.

However, the inquest heard that when another man sub-rented a part of the house a year later, that he noticed a most offensive smell coming from a cupboard under the stairs, and communicated with the police, who then arrived just as the man was attempting to remove the tin box from the house.

It was further noted that after marrying Ellen Sampson and allegedly killing her at 43 Ladysmith Road, that the man went on to marry two other women.

The inquest heard that there was no certainty as to how Ellen Sampson was actually killed, however, it was heard at the inquest that there was a strong possibility that she had been dealt a violent blow on the head whilst dressing on the morning after her marriage.

The doctor that carried out the post mortem on the remains found in the tin box said that the remains found in the tin box on 25 March 1904 were those of a healthy, fully-developed woman of between 30 and 40 years, and of about 5ft 4in in height. He said that the body was in a state of saponaceous degeneration, and that there were no marks of external injury about the body itself.

He said that in the cement were embedded the neck and back of the head quite devoid of any structure. He said that there was no sign of the rest of the head in the cement, but that in a piece of cloth he found a quantity of brain matter.

He said that he was struck by the fact that the back of the head seemed to have been broken and showed no marks of a saw of chisel.

He said that he examined the stomach and found no signs of an irritant poisoning, although he said that he could not exclude the possibility of narcotics having been administered.

He said that he also found a chemise and another garment, both stained, in the cement, as well as one stocking with a linen button attached to it.

He said that he didn't think that the head had been put in the cement, but thought that there was the possibility that the cloth in which the brains were wrapped might have been put in after the body.

He said that in his opinion that her death might have been caused by injuries to her throat, the tissues of which were entirely gone, or by injuries to her head, adding that he believed that her body had been the cement for about a year and that from an inspection of the garments, that he was of the opinion that she had met her death just after rising from bed and whilst dressing.

The man's fourth wife said that she had made his acquaintance in 1902 through an advertisement for a situation as a mother's help. She said that he told her that he was a reporter on the Morning Post and earned £150 a year.

She said that he proposed marriage to her in January 1903 and that they were married at Holy Trinity in Brondesbury, after which they went to live at the house in Ladysmith Road.

She said that a few days afterwards, on 15 January 1903, that he told her that he had to go to Manchester on business and so she went to stay with some friends at Peckham, but that on the following day he came for her there and fetched her back home.

She said that shortly afterwards that the tin box was brought to the house and was eventually put into the cupboard under the stairs. She said that there were two coal cellars at the back of the house, but that they only used one and that she never noticed any smell in either of them, or in any of the rooms of the house.

She added that she remembered the man bringing some cement home, saying that he told her that he was going to make a step from the back door to the garden. She said that she afterwards found that he had put the cement in the tin box and that he explained to her that he was going to make a mould and deposit it outside the back door for a step.

The fourth wife added that she recalled a letter once arriving at the house addressed to 'Sampson' and said that a woman later called at the house for a person of that name.

She added that in February 1904 that a woman, who was later determined to have been the man's seventh wife, came to the house, and that she was introduced to her as someone who was going to adopt his little boy, noting that he had told her not to let the woman know that he was his wife. When the Coroner asked her why the man told her that, she said that he had told her that the woman would not have taken the little boy if she had known that he was married.

She further added that the man had always been kind to her and that she, 'couldn't wish for any one better'.

She said that she had seen some jewellery, which was later determined to have belonged to Ellen Sampson, and said that the man had told her that it had belonged to his first wife.

The man's seventh wife said that she had met the man through the medium of a matrimonial advertisement. She said that she had had £53 in the Post Office Savings Bank and that he had drawn it all out without her knowledge after he married her in January 1904.

She said that whilst they were staying at Herne Bay she found a letter in his pocket addressed to Mr Weston which began, 'My dear husband', that came from a woman in Richmond. She said that they later went there together, on the morning the tin box was discovered, to confront the woman, but she denied having been married to the man and she was satisfied with that.

However, she said that she later discovered that the woman had in fact been the man's sixth wife. She said that at the time they had been staying at Ladysmith Road.

The man that took part of the house in February 1904 said that he noticed a smell coming from the cupboard under the stairs and spoke to the man about it, but said that the man told him that it was only decomposed size. However, he said that at last the stench became so abominable that he told the man that he believed there was a body in the box and that he should go to the police.  However, he said that the man assured him that it was only the size, and that he was making arrangements  to have the box removed. However, he communicated with the police after which the man killed himself.

A detective inspector that gave evidence at the trial said that the man was in fact an ex-convict, having been convicted of bigamy in September 1902, and who down to November 1903, had had to report himself every month to the police in that district under the regulations of his ticket of leave.

He said that he had since made minute investigations into the man's life since his release on licence, until his death and produced a marriage certificate showing that on 15 January 1903 that he had, under a false name, Charles Seymour, gone through a form of marriage at Blackwater with Ellen Sampson, who had at the time been a nurse at the Cottage Hospital in Yateley, after which he had taken her to Ladysmith Road.

He said that nothing more was heard of Ellen Sampson by her friends and relatives afterwards, but said that an umbrella, a box and several articles of jewellery which were later found at the house after the man's suicide were identified as her property by her sister-in-law.

He said that in his opinion there were many opportunities for the man to have concealed the body in the house as some of the rooms at the top had been for a long time unoccupied.

After the Coroner summed up, the jury returned a verdict against the man of the wilful murder of Ellen Sampson.

Although the inquest returned their verdict against the man, it was not proved in a court, as he was dead.

Ladysmith Road was shortly after, by 14 April 1904, renamed Wrentham Avenue by Willesden Council in response to the wishes of the inhabitants.