Reading the various accounts of the type of crimes committed in the 19th century that ended up with the perpetrators appearing in the courts, you come across some that seem rather strange!
Take the following one, for example, a report on which appeared in The Cavan Weekly News and General Advertiser on Friday the 22nd of March 1872:-
A HAIR-STEALER
An extraordinary case has just been investigated at the Manchester Police Court.
Ann Donnelly, a woman of middle age, was charged with having administered chloroform, or some other drug, to Margaret Jarrott, wife of a tin-plate worker, with intent to commit a felony.
The prisoner knocked at the door of the house occupied by Mrs. Jarrott, and inquired whether she wanted any pomatum [a perfumed oil or ointment put on the hair, as to make it smooth and shiny].
SHE SMELT A BOTTLE
What followed is best told in the prosecutrix’s own words:-
“She (Donnelly) came into the house, and said I have a nice head of hair, and would I let her look at it?
She asked me to pull my hairpins out, and I did. She pulled out a bottle, and said, “This is the stuff; smell it.”
I then became senseless and felt the cold scissors cutting my hair.
I had not the power to tell her not to do it, or to speak to her, or to prevent her from doing it.
The stuff looked yellow, like pomatum.
SHE CUT HER HAIR ON BOTH SIDES
I sat on a chair all the time with a baby.
She cut all my hair off on both sides, leaving a little at the back and some at the front.
As the prisoner was leaving I saw some hair on her shawl, and I got hold of it.
I sat in the chair and began to cry.
SHE WAS AT A NEIGHBOUR’S HOUSE
I went to tell a neighbour (Mrs. Simister) what had happened.
The prisoner was there, and Mrs. Simister was undoing her hair to let her look at it.
KNOWN HER A LONG TIME
Another woman came in, and seeing the prisoner, said to Mrs. Simister, “Oh, what a foolish woman you are. We have known her a long time in this neighbourhood.”
I said, “She has cut my hair.”
The prisoner said, “I only cut a little bit; it will grow again.”
She said, “You had better let me have that bit in your hand, and I will give you threepence for it.”
I said I would not.
She then went away.”
DONNELLY ARRESTED AND IN COURT
The prisoner was not seen afterwards until Tuesday last, when she ventured to call at the house next door, and, being recognised by the prosecutrix, she was handed over to a policeman.
The accused at once pretended deafness, which was cured, as if by magic, when on the evidence being read over, she had the effrontery to exclaim:- “I never saw such hard swearing for a bit of stuff, when one has had a pounds’ worth, and not a word said about it.”
The case was eventually remanded.
SENTENCED TO NINE MONTHS
At her next court appearance, the jury found Donnelly guilty and she was sentenced to nine months imprisonment.