In the East End of Sunderland, spanning off High Street was a lane known as Hodgkin Street. Like many former streets of the East End, it no longer exists, but its location was nearby what is now the “House of Punjab” and University of Sunderland Accommodation. It would be on this street that a brutal killing would take place in the year 1888, on Christmas day. It was a murder that would never see anyone brought to justice.
It was 8am on Christmas morning, a young woman named Mary Adams, living in hardship was woken up by her lodger who was demanding water. Having made her way to the standpipe outside, she experienced the most horrifying moment of her life. There before her stood her own mother, Isabella Taylor, dead in a pool of blood. She had been killed with brutal blows to the head, her skull had been shattered.
As the investigation got underway, Mary accounted that she had last seen her mother at 9pm on Christmas Eve, where they walked together carrying some spirits, before heading into the former Wheatsheaf Pub. For reference purposes, this Wheatsheaf Pub should not be confused with the one in Monkwearmouth, located opposite Holy Trinity Church, it was closed down and demolished some point in the late 20th century.
The East End Wheatsheaf public shortly before it was pulled down, believed to be the 1980s
Isabella, who was 50, lived not too far away from her daughter up in Zion street, which continues to exist as a housing area today. She shared the house with the family of Eleanor Pearce, which included her daughter and son-in-law, William Gillens, as well as their young Granddaughter. Naturally, suspicion soon fell upon them. On the night of the murder, they went to bed at 2am. However, Frances, who was 8 at the time, claimed she had seen Mrs Taylor dancing in the back lane at 1am. Then at about 3am she saw her father lifting Mrs Taylor up at the bottom of the stairs.
The girl was quizzed by the coroner during the inquest, who soon revealed she believed her father had murdered her while being drunk, and that he had used an axe kept in her grandmother’s cupboard to do so. According to the girl, her grandmother did not want him to have the axe because she feared she might “chop off his head” with it.
Despite the evidence starting to go against them, her parents teamed together against her and William reportedly beat her with a stick the following evening for testifying against him, leading her to refuse to give any more evidence. He and his wife, as well as her grandmother then publicly dismissed her story as lies, and gave the same cover story of what they were doing this evening.
Despite the fact that it was soon revealed that the wounds dealt to her head matched that of the axe itself, investigators and the jury were not able to determine who of the three people had committed the murder, or for that matter why, and they ultimately got away with it