Robert Pulley - Worcestershire

Map of Pershore: https://www.francisfrith.com/pershore

The village of Broughton in Worcestershire was left reeling after the death of a sixteen year old girl, by a man who was well known to them.

The victim, who was named Mary Ann Straight was sixteen years old and lived with her Aunt Richards in the village of Broughton. On the day of her death, she had been sent by her Aunt to get some tea and sugar, but never made it home. She was found lying in a ditch, her body saturated with water. Her basket containing her purchases was lying spilled next to her. Upon examination of the body it was found that she had blunt trauma to the skull which had fractured upon impact. 

The perpetrator of this heinous and unprovoked crime was a local man who was identified as Robert Pulley. Pulley was born on the 25th August 1799, to John and Jane Pulley. At the time of the incident, he was of no fixed address and was reported by the Standard of Freedom which was published on the 16th December 1848 to sleep in outhouses or barns and gained a living by doing odd jobs and helping out as a farm labourer. 

It was said that Pulley who was 49 at the time and was 4ft 8 had become obsessed with Mary Ann, and had begun to try and gain her attention by shouting insults at her. He referred to Mary by shouting “my little whore” and “You want your bloody head broke”. which obviously did not endear Mary to him, as the result was that she ignored him. 

Numerous witnesses saw Pulley following Mary back from her shopping. When following her, Pulley met the son of an local Innkeeper and asked for Mary's whereabouts, when the man said yes. He replied "Damn her! If I light on her tonight, I'll giver her a 'snowler'. She says I'm jealous of her with a man at Broughton; but I'll give her a 'tout' on the head, and then see what she'll think about it.'. Another witness named James Savage who worked as a labourer said that he also met Pulley on the night of the murder and that he said: "he should not mind if he was in prison himself, even if it was for wilful murder, and to have what the law allowed rather than be in the state that he was in". Apparently Pulley had said to Mary, "You be going off again tonight, be you?. You'll have it before you comes back."

The scene of the crime: https://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/18537759.crime-files-grisly-story-behind-bob-pulley-lane/

Three days after the incident, Frederick Taylor a young boy of thirteen and his father went to find the murder weapon. They found near where the body was a stick, with a knob on the end with two or three brown hairs on it. Taylor said that he had seen Pulley, with a hatchet with the same description, saying that he wanted to put it through Mary's head. The surgeon who had attended the scene had said that the force of the blow that had killed the the young girl had caved in her skull. 

The police finally traced Pulley to the Parish of Purvin, where he found lying on some straw in a barn where two men were threshing. When he was taken into custody it was said that Pulley's clothes had blood on them, one stain on the waistcoat and one of the wrist sleeve. When the police charged him with murder, Pulley claimed that 'he didn't do it'. 

Worcestershire County Jail: https://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/18537759.crime-files-grisly-story-behind-bob-pulley-lane/

The trial was set for the 6th March 1849, apart from mumbling a plea of innocence Pulley remained silent. It took just 10 minutes to convict Robert Pulley of the death of Mary Ann Straight, he did try and appeal his death sentence but it was refused. He was set to be executed on the 26th March 1849, according to the Berrows Journal it was reported that; 

“By five o’clock many people were beginning to assemble outside the Gaol and began to take up the most favourable  positions they could find in Infirmary Walk and its vicinity. As the morning wore on the crowd increased and by seven o’clock a large concourse had assembled. Vast numbers of persons in every available vehicle were continually arriving, especially from the Pershore district. Cart after cart brought its load of human beings and as the time fixed for the execution drew near every place from whence a glimpse of the scaffold could be obtained was completely crowded. Very large number also arrived from Birmingham."

“With the exception of a few of the very lowest class of persons, the mass behaved very orderly. But we fear from the levity which we witnessed that the moral effect of the scene was quite lost upon the multitude, who eventually had come to look upon it as a spectacle, or a matter of amusement or curiosity and were actuated by the same feeling as if they were witnessing a theatrical entertainment. 

Among the crowd we were aggrieved to see many apparently respectable females and so powerful was the incentive which brought them there, that numbers of them that could find no-one to take care of their children at home, actually brought them with them. Hundreds of women with children in their arms stood for hours exposed to all the boisterousness and ribaldry of a mob composed of some of the very worst specimens of humanity. 

As noon approached, the already grim event took an even more macabre turn when all the male prisoners in the jail were herded into an area called the debtors yard and arranged in rows to witness the execution. All the women prisoners filed into another enclosed yard and were also told to watch. Then Robert Pulley was brought to the gallows to meet his executioner. This dreaded personage was enveloped from head to toe in a dark gloomy coloured cloak, which entirely covered the whole of his person, the lower part of his face was muffled in a capricious handkerchief and a cap slouched over his head and eyes, most effectively disguising his countenance.

As the jail bell began to toll, Pulley and his executioner, accompanied by several civic officials, made their way up a short flight of steps to the press room where the black painted gallows had been erected. Pulley’s arms and hands were pinioned to his body and his necktie loosened. On reaching the platform, the prisoner was positioned beneath the beam and the cap placed on his head. The executioner then soaped the rope well with soft soap and positioned it over Pulley’s head. Everything being ready the drop was released. The body remained suspended in the air for a few moments quite motionless. But then a few tremors in the legs were observable. Shortly afterwards it heaved convulsively four of five times and then remained without motion and Robert Pulley was no more. So it was entertainment over, everyone back in their cells, mothers take your children home and the crime correspondent returned to his desk."