Albert Moore - a robbery gone wrong.
Albert Moore - a robbery gone wrong. On Saturday the 30th of April 1881, 23 year old Albert Moore was convicted at the Sussex Assizes at Lewes before Mr. Justice Hawkins of the wilful murder of 74 year old Mary Ann Marsh at her home “The Woodlands” in Gravesend in Kent. Moore was a married man and he and his wife had two young children. The crime took place on the 14th of February 1881. Mary’s body lay un-discovered for five days, until her friend and next door neighbour, Miss Burton, reported to police that the door of Mary’s house was open but she could not get any reply and also that when she knocked a man had opened the door and then fled. Sergeant Goodwin and two constables were sent to investigate and found Mary lying on her bedroom floor. Her throat had been cut from ear to ear and then her body covered with bedding. Moore, a soldier, serving in the 52nd Regiment at Chatham Barracks was the prime suspect, although contemporary newspaper accounts don’t say why. He was inte