Edward O'Connor was convicted of the murder of his five year old son, Thomas, at Stafford, on Sunday 31st  July.

At Sam that morning, he went to his local police station and told the startled desk sergeant: 'Come on, I'll find you a job. I've killed three or four of my kids with these,' he said, offering a pair of blood stained razors. 'I could not find the missus and youngest or I would have done them in too!'

Police accompanied him back to his house and found one child dead from neck injuries and three others in a serious condition. They subsequently recovered.

On 16 November, O'Connor stood trial at Stafford Assizes and blamed his mother-in-law for his unhappy marriage, which had led him to commit the terrible crime.

He left a last letter for his wife written on the morning of his execution: 'Well, Lizzie, by the time you get my letter I will have gone to my maker... It is God's will that I leave this world of trials. I am reconciled to that fate ... I shall remember you, Lizzie, my wife, and I ask you sometimes to remember me in your prayers.' It ended with: 'Kiss the children for me. God bless you all. As I think, I hear you as of old, calling 'Ted, good-bye."

He was hanged by John Ellis on the 22nd December 1921 at Birmingham.

Real-Crime.co.uk