1838: William Moore, thirsty for blood
Add comment February 26th, 2018 Headsman
On this date in 1838, William Moore hanged at High Street, Maitland, New South Wales, a mere 25 days after slaughtering his master.
Australian convicts were commonly assigned to work for the free population — as Moore was to a butcher named John Hoskins/Hosking. Pissed that Hosking had reported him absent to the police when he ditched work the previous day, Moore on February 1st got drunk and
made an attack upon him with a knife, and inflicted six wounds, either of which would have caused death; he then left the house with the bloody knife in his hand, and wiping the blood off with his hand, he put it to his lips, saying, “This is flash Hosking’s heart’s blood, and, thank God! I have got a good appetite to eat it.” He then drew his finger along the blade, licked off the blood, and swallowed it!
The blood-licking was the least of it. Once the maniac was overpowered and the butcher’s shop examined, well,
[t]he first thing, which met the eye on entering, was a stream of gore flowing over the shop, and proceeding backwards by the track of blood visible on the floor, the body of the unfortunate Hoskins was discovered perfectly lifeless, his throat cut through to the bone, the vertebral column broken and a frightful gash on the chin; independent of these wounds, which were enough to have destroyed him, there was a second in the pit of the stomach, a third in the region of the heart, a fourth in the right side, a fifth above the hip, from which the intestines protruded in a frightful manner, a sixth across the arm, and a seventh, by which his left thumb was nearly severed from his body, that had evidently been inflicted when the unfortunate man was struggling with his murderer.
He was hanged to the hisses of a hostile populace at the site of Hoskins’s house.
On this day..
- 1947: Jonas Noreika, "General Storm" - 2020
- 1852: Hélène Jégado, serial arsenic murderer - 2019
- 1858: Maniram Dewan, tea infuser - 2017
- 1765: Juan de la Cruz Palaris - 2016
- 1785: Barbara Erni, the Golden Boos - 2015
- 1462: John de Vere, Earl of Oxford - 2014
- 1909: C.Y. Timmons - 2013
- 1870: Wyatt Outlaw lynched by the Ku Klux Klan - 2012
- 277: Mani, dualist - 2011
- 1939: Stanislav Kosior, Vlas Chubar and Pavel Postyshev - 2010
- 1839: An opium merchant - 2009
- 1853: János Libényi, who stabbed an emperor and built a church - 2008
Entry Filed under: 19th Century,Australia,Capital Punishment,Common Criminals,Crime,Death Penalty,Execution,Hanged,Murder,Public Executions
Tags: 1830s, 1838, february 26, maitland, william moore
Recent Comments