The Althorpe Murder: Who Killed Annie Pritchard?

Andrew George McRae was born in September 1855. As a young man he worked as a glass shade cutter with his uncle, but by the time he was 28, he was a grocer’s assistant living in the Highgate Road in Birmingham. In 1883, he married a woman named Harriett Williams, and they had two sons. But a simple family life wasn’t enough for McRae. His eyes were drawn to Annie Pritchard who was a few years younger than himself and lived next door with her four brothers and three sisters, their parents having died the year before. Annie became friends with his wife Harriett, and they often sung duets in the parlour together. Annie had been engaged for a while to Guy Anderson, a lithographic print maker, but he had broken things off and moved out of the area.

Annie would often go next door to visit the McRaes, and found herself falling inexorably, and inadvisably in love with Andrew. Even when the McRaes moved a couple of miles away to Barrack Street, Annie continued to visit, and she and Andrew began an affair, meeting whenever his wife Harriett was away. John Pritchard, one of Annie’s brothers, noticed these discreet comings-and-goings, and angrily accused Andrew of being on intimate terms with his sister. Andrew denied it, feigning outrage at the suggestion.

In March 1892, Andrew McRae’s brother Edward invited him to work for his grocery business in Northampton, about 60 miles away, and Andrew was given the keys to a bacon warehouse at 20 Dychurch Lane, where he had access to a selection of meat cutting equipment, including knives and a large saw. Away from his wife and children, he suddenly had the freedom to spend more time with Annie and asked her to join him in Northampton. Annie told her family that she was going to Liverpool to marry her old suitor Guy Anderson. Her brothers and sisters thought it was a little odd, as they had never met Guy, but Annie was the eldest and there was nothing they could do to stop her. Instead, Annie moved into Andrew’s lodgings at 33 Saint John’s Street, Northampton. Incidentally, the landlady’s name was Arabella Mary Death – a troubling omen. Andrew urged Annie to write to her family and tell them that she was now married to Guy Anderson, and they would be sailing to America together. To make the ruse believable, they asked a travelling salesman to post the letter from Liverpool, so the postmark would match the story. Annie Pritchard’s family would now expect her to be away for a long time and wouldn’t raise the alarm if they didn’t hear from her for a while.

Her family had no suspicion that Annie was several months pregnant, but it’s likely that her married lover knew before inviting her to join him. Just three months later, midwife Sarah Pulley arrived at the flat to assist with the delivery of the baby. Andrew almost introduced himself with his real name, Mr McRae, but stopped himself just in time and said he was Mr Anderson. Annie gave birth to a healthy baby boy, but Andrew already knew it would be impossible for him to support two families on the wages of a grocery worker, nor could he keep up the intrigue forever, with one family in Northampton and another in Birmingham.

Annie Pritchard and her son were last spotted on their way to visit Andrew at the bacon warehouse on 20 July, and thereafter, were never seen again. The next morning, Andrew went into a pub for a drink and his friends noticed he looked very tired and dishevelled, but he told them he had been up all night boiling bacon for the grocery business. He then visited a second-hand clothier and sold several items of women’s clothing, then went to an antiques dealer to whom he sold a wine glass, decanter, six books and some cutlery, along with the Pritchard family bible. That afternoon, he gave colleague Edgar Wright a shilling and asked him to purchase some lime on his behalf, to be delivered to the Dychurch Lane warehouse. Andrew then hired a pony and trap to go to Althorp Railway Station, just six miles from the warehouse, but when he returned later that night, the pony was exhausted, as though it had been driven hard. Shortly afterwards, Andrew went back to Birmingham to visit his wife and children, and while there, Lizzie Pritchard, one of Annie’s sisters, stopped by and asked if he had seen Annie. He said he had not.

On Saturday 27 August 1892, a labourer by the name of Jack Chapman was walking along the road near Althorp Railway Station when he noticed an overpowering smell coming from a ditch. Peering inside, he saw that it was coming from a large package submerged in water. Something was very wrong. He called the police, and inside the package they found the body of a woman, with no arms or head. The body was covered by a piece of sacking with a large amount of lime inside, along with a clue – inside the sack were the words ‘E McRae, Northampton.’

Constables searched the nearby countryside but could not find the woman’s arms and head. The pathologist confirmed that the remains belonged to a well-nourished woman of about 5’5” but could not determine a cause of death. It didn’t take long for the police to trace Edward McRae thanks to his name in the sacking, but he denied any knowledge of the deceased women and told them he had recently sold some sacking to a tramp. The police believed him, and realised that it was Edward’s brother, Andrew McRae who warranted investigation. Andrew had access to the sacking kept at the bacon warehouse, and they uncovered evidence that he had sold items of female apparel in late July. To add to the weight of suspicion, a neighbour reported having smelt something offensive emanating from the chimney of the Dychurch Lane warehouse – and she was certain it wasn’t bacon. Led by Inspector Collings, the Northampton Police tracked down the midwife who had delivered Annie’s baby, and she identified the shirt worn by the corpse as belonging to Annie. Lizzie Pritchard also identified the family bible which had been sold to the antiques dealer.

Andrew McRae denied any involvement in the murder, claiming that Annie had run off with Guy Anderson. But the physical evidence didn’t lie. In the warehouse, police discovered several calcified pieces of bone, and a bucket containing an oily substance and human hairs, which was sent to a surgeon for analysis.

McRae stood trial for murder at Northampton Assizes in December 1892 and pled Not Guilty. The prosecution posited that he had slit the throats of Annie and their infant son, then burnt the boy’s body. Annie’s body had been harder to burn, so he had instead cut off her head and arms, then hired a pony and trap to transport the remains to a patch of wasteland, before selling his lover’s belongings. The defence presented an alternative theory, arguing that the killer could have been the tramp to whom Edward had sold some sacking just a few weeks before the murder, and that the body might have been that of another woman. This seemed unlikely, as by now, news of the murder had been covered in papers in England and America, yet Annie Pritchard had not come forward to say that she was alive and well to save her old paramour from the noose, and it was improbable that she would leave all her clothes and the family bible behind if she really had gone abroad.

During the trial, Edward McRae created a scene and was removed from court, but could be heard shouting outside, ‘I have a right to be admitted. I demand to see my brother.’ His words were followed by a scuffle, as he was silenced and carted off by a police officer for causing an obstruction. After 2 hours of deliberation, the jury returned a guilty verdict. Before the sentence was delivered, the judge asked McRae if he had anything he wished to say. The prisoner looked calm and collected as he addressed the jury, saying, ‘Gentlemen, you have each this day, each and everyone of you, become what you make me – a murderer. You have this day widowed a good, devoted wife; you have this day, this night, this Christmas Eve, made fatherless two loving children. Go back to your homes, but can you go with a clear conscience? Can you say in carrying out your duty you have tempered it with mercy? I say no. As long as you live, your conscience will accuse you.’

The black cap was placed upon the head of the judge, Justice Kennedy, and he spoke the dreaded words of the death sentence. After he pronounced solemnly, ‘May the lord have mercy on your soul,’ several spectators murmured, ‘Amen, amen’. While he waited in the condemned cell for the end to come, Andrew McRae wrote letters to his family declaring that he was being punished for a crime he didn’t commit. He was reported to have said to a prison warder, ‘I would like to have lived another 12 months, and in that time, Annie Pritchard would have turned up.’

Andrew McRae was hanged at Northampton Prison on Tuesday 10 January 1893 at the age of 37, protesting his innocence all the way to the scaffold. When the traditional black flag was hoisted to announce that the execution had been carried out, a loud cheer rose up from the hundreds of people waiting outside. Inspector Collings kept the killer’s tobacco pipe as a memento of the case, and his great grandson would later donate it to the Northampton Museum. The bacon warehouse no longer exists today.

The vicar of St Mary’s Church refused to have Annie Pritchard’s remains buried in the churchyard because it was incomplete, her head and arms having never been found. Instead, she was interred in a quiet corner of East Haddon churchyard, her coffin covered by wreaths. 100 local mourners attended the service, and money for a headstone was raised by public subscription.

Did Andrew McRae really believe in his own innocence or was he simply trying desperately to convince others, in the hope that he would receive a last-minute pardon? The evidence was solid; his purchase of lime, the sale of Annie’s possessions, and the discovery of a body that resembled Annie in every respect, but for the missing parts. Or was there some faint chance that Annie really had absconded with her son after being abandoned by her lover, and decided to keep quiet to make him pay the price? The jury felt there was no reasonable doubt, and the only question that remains is how much his brother Edward knew about his activities, and how Harriet McRae and their two children felt about the tragedy, left behind to wonder.

Related Case

Another Victorian murder involving a man’s mistress was that of Harriet Lane, who was killed by brush manufacturer Henry Wainwright after their illicit relationship became increasingly difficult to maintain.

Sources

Diss Express – Friday 23 September 1892

Sevenoaks Chronicle and Kentish Advertiser – Friday 23 September 1892

Chicago Tribune Wed, 21 Dec 1892

Birmingham Daily Post Monday 26 Dec 1892

Cornish Echo and Falmouth & Penryn Times – Saturday 07 January 1893

 

PG04/11/24