Time and time again in the Victorian newspapers one comes across cases whereby a cohabitee murdered the woman (and sometimes the man) with whom they were cohabiting.
In many of the cases jealousy was clearly the motive for the crime.
The London Evening Standard, in its edition of Saturday the 14th of April, 1866, published the following details of one such case:-
THE MURDER OF SARAH GILES
Yesterday afternoon Mr. Payne, the coroner for London and Southwark, held a painful inquiry at the workhouse of St. George the Martyr, on the body of Sarah Ann Giles, aged 28, the unfortunate female who was brutally murdered, on Thursday last, by a man named Daniel Beloe, one of two men with whom she cohabited.
The inquiry disclosed such gross immorality as has, probably, never been surpassed, and caused considerable sensation among the jury.
The jury, after walking nearly half mile to view the body, returned to the court, when the following evidence was taken:-
JAMES BENTON’S EVIDENCE
James Benton said that he was a seaman in the merchant service, and lodged in the house numbered 17, in Eltham-street, Kent-street, Borough.
He knew the deceased, who lived in the same house with a man named Daniel Beloe, a lighterman, whose apprenticeship had expired on the day of Thursday last.
“DAN HAS CUT MY THROAT”
On that day, whilst he was in his room down stairs, the deceased rushed into his room, and said “Oh, Dan has cut my throat, and also his own.”
He kissed her, and placed some rags round her throat.
She lived only about a quarter of hour afterwards.
At that time he saw nothing of Beloe, and no doctor had seen Giles at that time, and not until after she was dead.
EVENTS BEFORE THE MURDER
He had heard Beloe say that he wished Giles was dead, and that he was sorry he had ever seen her, and said that he intended to do away with himself.
When the woman rushed down stairs into his room she was dressed, but the man was not.
He, however, did not see him at that time.
When he went to bed with the deceased they both appeared sober.
HE WAS JEALOUS
The Coroner:- “Do you think he was jealous?”
Witness:- “I am sure he was.”
The Coroner:- “Of whom?”
Witness:- “Of me. We have talked together about it several times, and I have no doubt that was the cause of his doing what he has done.”
MARTIN MORE’S TESTIMONY
Martin More, of 23, Eltham-street, Borough, a costermonger, said that he knew the deceased woman Giles, at present lying dead.
The yard of his house and all the others meet the one in which the deceased resided.
On Thursday morning, at ten minutes before seven o’clock, he heard some boys crying out “Murder!”
He at once ran out, and having entered the room he saw a man lying a bed on the floor, with his face on a pillow, and blood running from his throat.
He raised his head to stop the blood when he dropped a razor from his right hand.
He did not then see the woman, and he heard that she had run down stairs.
He said to the man “You have done a foolish thing; did you do it?” and he nodded assent.
THE VERDICT
After some further evidence, The Jury returned a verdict of Wilful murder against Daniel Beloe; and the Coroner made out his warrant for his committal to Newgate, in the event of his recovery, Mr. Inspector Wise was then bound over to prosecute.