On January 13, 1949, 42-year-old Margaret Allen was hanged at Strangeways Prison (now the HM Prison Manchester). Not only did this make her the first woman to be hanged in the United Kingdom in 19 years, but the very circumstances of her life, as well as the nature of the murder she committed , has given her a unique place in Britain's forensic history.
Born in 1905 as part of a very large family (she was the twentieth of twenty-two children), Margaret apparently knew that she was different from an early age. Not only did she refuse to do "female chores" preferring more "masculine" tasks such as shoveling coal and doing household repairs, she also hated wearing dresses. Instead, she insisted on more masculine clothing instead, same as her brothers. While this would be much more acceptable today, her odd behaviour made her into a virtual outcast as far as her family was concerned.
Never having married, she embraced a completely masculine lifestyle including cutting her hair short, wearing men's clothing exclusively, and insisting on being called "Bill" instead of her given name. She also told friends that she had undergone an operation to change her sex, something that was highly unlikely in that era (though a female-to-male sexual reassignment operation had taken place in the UK just two years earlier).
Despite being largely estranged from her family, Margaret took her mother's death in 1943 especially hard. Not only did she begin smoking heavily but she sought medical treatment for depression and anorexia. To support herself, Margaret/Bill worked as a bus conductor though she eventually lost this job due to her tendency to strike passengers on the back on the head if they weren't seated fast enough. In any event, by 1948, she was in financial trouble. Not only couldn't she afford her rent or her electric bill, she apparently couldn't even afford cigarettes (this will become important later).
All of which brings us to the events of August 29, 1948 when a neighbour, 68-year-old Nancy Ellen Chadwick, came to Margaret's door to borrow a cup of sugar. Chadwick was a wealthy widow with a reputation for being eccentric but largely harmless. Unfortunately, Margaret considered her annoying so they didn't go on particularly well. For reasons that aren't quite clear, Margaret viciously clubbed Nancy Chadwick to death using a coal hammer. She then placed the body in her cellar before going out with her only friend, Annie Cook. After sharing a couple of drinks together, Margaret returned home to deal with the problem of the body. First she poured grate ashes on the face of her victim and then dragged the body outside to leave in the street nearby. She apparently hoped that the soot on Chadwick's face and the injuries to her head would convince police that she had been the victim of a hit-and-run.
When bus driver Herbert Beaumont found the body at 3 am on the following morning, he immediately called police who launched an investigation. Another bus driver insisted that he had passed by that same spot fifteen minutes earlier and saw no body at the time. Since it seemed unlikely that Chadwick had been walking outside at that time of morning, they quickly dismissed the possibility of a hit-and-run. They also found the woman's purse floating in the nearby River Irwell though all money had been removed.
Since Margaret Allen seemed to be taking a keen interest in the investigation, police came to question her about the death on September 1. They quickly discovered blood stains on the inside of her front door as well as a shopping-bag filled with grate ashes in one of her closets. As she was being questioned, she confessed to the killing almost immediately but added that she "didn't do it for money, I was in one of my funny moods." She told them “‘I just happened to look around and saw the hammer in the kitchen. Then, on the spur of the moment I hit her with it. She gave a loud shout and that seemed to start me off more, and so I hit her a few times more, I don’t know how many.” Margaret later insisted that being unable to smoke had made her especially irritable. The fact that she was heavily in debt and that she had apparently been hoping to rob her victim seemed a likelier explanation, however.
Though a murder would not ordinarily generate much interest from the press, many of the details of Margaret's life helped ensure that her case would receive international coverage. Virtually every newspaper played up Margaret's "mannish" appearance, including her refusal to wear female clothing and her previous claims that she had undergone a sex change operation. The papers also played up her "spinster" status though Margaret largely remained silent throughout the trial. What was likely even more upsetting to her was that she was kept in a woman's prison despite insisting she was male. While in prison, she only received one visitor, a woman named Anne Cook though the exact nature of their relationship is still debatable.
As for the trial itself, it was held on December 8, 1948 and only lasted five hours. Given that Margaret had already confessed to the crime, there really wasn't all that much for the defense to do in her case. Though her lawyer, William Gormann K.C., tried to argue for the insanity defense, the jury rejected this completely. They seemed completely swayed by the argument of the prosecutor, E.G. Robey, that Margaret's sole motive for the murder was robbery and it only took fifteen minutes to hand down a verdict of guilty. Then again, Margaret's wearing a man's suit for the trial (she insisted) probably worked against her as well. Once the verdict was in, the judge, Mr. Justice Sellars, sentenced her to be hanged.
Despite a last-minute attempt to have the sentence commuted, including a petition with 162 signatures, the Home Secretary denied any reprieve and Margaret's execution date was set for January 12. Though she had been cheerful at first while still hoping for an appeal, her mood quickly changed when the prison governor told her the execution would go on as scheduled. At her final meeting with Annie Cook, Margaret told her not to come to the hanging but, instead, to go to the corner where they usually met at 9 am, the hour of execution.
Irritable to the end, Margaret kicked over her breakfast on the morning of her hanging saying that, "I don’t want it and no one else is going to enjoy it!” Even worse, the prison refused to allow her to wear men's clothing to the hanging and she was forced to wear a prison dress instead. She was hanged at 9 am on schedule by Alfred Pierrepoint, assisted by Harvey Kirk. The only real mourner she apparently had was Annie Cook, who was seen crying at the corner where Margaret had asked her to wait.
While Margaret/Bill was evidently a pre-operation transgender male, the fact that she lived in an era before such operations were widely available certainly made her life more difficult than it might have been. As it happens, the case of Christine Jorgensen only a few years later would help open the floodgates (though it would be twenty years before Sweden became the first country to allow people to legally change their sex). Despite there being no real indication that Margaret's transgender status played a role in her crime, she may well have been treated more harshly by the court as a result of her "mannish" appearance and general refusal to abide by the accepted sexual stereotypes of the time. It would take a very long time for these attitudes to change.
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