Dickie aka Richard Thorley who brutally murdered his former lover Eliza Morrow ‘Lizzie’ on Agard Street, Derby in a jealous rage by slashing her neck with a cut-throat razor on 13th February 1862.
Thorley fled the scene and was later apprehended by Detective-Sergeant Vessey and arrested for murder following his admission of ‘ I have done it. I cannot help it now. I am sorry’ and was taken to the County Gaol.
Following his trial Thorley was given the death sentence and would be executed on 11th April 1862.
On the morning of his execution he wrote a full confession stating that Lizzie got what she deserved.
An estimated 15,000 people gathered to watch Derby’s last public execution.
There have been many sightings since this devastating event with the tragic couple having been lovingly nicknamed Lizzie and Dick. Spooky reports include sightings of a ghostly female presence wandering Agard Street along with the clanking of chains believed to be Thorley’s prison chains.
Did the former lovers reunite in death?? The course of true love never did run smooth 🖤👻