The young mum left with holes in her body at the hands of the 'Blackpool Ripper'
On November 29, 1903, thousands of people flooded the streets of Blackpool as young mother Mary Hannah Starr was laid to rest.
Stabbed to death in her mother's kitchen, five days earlier, young Mary was the victim of her drunk and abusive husband in an attack so frenzied it was to earn him the moniker 'the Blackpool Ripper'.
The seaside community was aghast at the horror that befell the newly estranged wife of Henry Bertram Starr. But one question remained on their minds. Could Mary's death have been avoided?
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On November 23, Mary had successfully secured a separation order after just eight months of marriage. What started as a happy union soon turned to misery as Starr sought solace in the bottom of a bottle. To the outside world it seemed his demons had been laid to rest - but was he still troubled by his past?
The tempestuous marriage saw arguments and break-ups as Starr continued to hurt his young wife with drunkenness and infidelities. When she gave birth to a daughter in August 1903, Starr saw the baby as just another burden and stepped further away from his growing family.
Neglect was a common feature, with Mary and baby Lilian forced to live off scraps while Starr squandered the housekeeping on drink. When she moved to live with her mother at 74 Lord Street, her husband threatened he would take custody of the child.
On November 23, Starr was brought before Blackpool Police Court and ordered to pay six shillings a week towards the upkeep of his wife and child. Mary was to have sole custody of baby Lilian, the court said.
It was a chance for Mary to draw a line under the terrible marriage and start a new life with her child - but the following day, with a body full of drink and a mind full of revenge, Starr stalked the house before creeping in through the back door.
As Mary prepared breakfast, Starr picked up a bread knife from the kitchen table and lunged at her breast and neck. When the blade of the knife broke inside Mary's body, he picked up another and continued with his merciless attack.
Just after 8am, Mary’s mother, Jane Blagg, heard her daughter’s screams. “MURDER, MOTHER, MURDER, MURDER”. Mrs Blagg ran to the kitchen and threw herself over her daughter’s body as Starr cut holes in Mary’s flesh.
Mrs Blagg chased the killer from the house, shouting “he’s murdered my wench!” as Starr made his way to a local hostelry, looking for drink and a place to wash his bloodied clothes. Unsuccessful, he took shelter in an underground lavatory in Talbot Road, where he was found by a constable.
When the officer collared him, the killer asked, “is my wife dead?”
Starr was banged to rights. Around midnight, a cab driver had seen him prowling round Lord Street, muttering ‘I’ll do it, I’ll do it.’ Mrs Blagg witnessed the attack, and two hoteliers told how in the aftermath of the killing Starr had entered the premises and asked for a glass of beer and use of the facilities to have a wash..
Starr's only explanation was: ‘I was drunk’.
Dr Johnson, who examined Mary’s body, told an inquest he found no less than 20 gaping wounds in the young woman’s body. Some were so big he could fit his fist inside them. The jury took less than an hour to return a verdict of wilful murder and Starr was charged with his wife’s murder.
Starr was committed for trial at the Liverpool Assizes. Pale and haggard, he entered a not guilty plea, with his defence counsel Mr Madden saying his mind was so addled with drink he was unable to form a rational intent.
But the jury were unconvinced. Starr was guilty. The judge sentenced Starr to death, telling him: ““You must make the most of the time you have left to you to appeal to Almighty God for the pardon you cannot expect here. You will be hanged by the neck until you are dead, and may god have mercy on your soul.”
Awaiting his fate, Starr called for a meeting with Dr Johnson where he confessed he went to 74 Lord Street with the intention of saying goodbye to Lilian before leaving Blackpool for good. But at the house he was met with opposition from Mary, matters became heated and he picked up a knife and killed her.
He said drink was at the root of all that he had done and expressed sorrow for the pain he had caused Mary's family.
Was this true remorse? As Mary’s body was laid to rest at Layton Cemetery, mourners' minds turned to a dark discovery, eight years earlier, when the body of a young woman, Eleanor Coulthard was found floating in the River Ribble near Clitheroe.
The 16-year-old was known to be ‘stepping out’ with Starr while he stayed in the Ribble Valley as a travelling salesman. Despite his boozing and debauched lifestyle, the young woman became infatuated with Starr, who was eight years her senior.
On the day Eleanor’s drowned body was found, Starr was twice seen by a local constable, dripping wet and clearly drunk. He told the officer he had spent the day drinking away the proceeds of a coat he had pawned and denied any involvement in Eleanor’s death.
The finger of suspicion pointed squarely at Starr, but with only circumstantial evidence to go by, the drunk and lairy lover was acquitted.
On December 28, 1903, Starr was hanged in the grounds of Walton Prison, Liverpool, for the murder of Mary Hannah Starr. He never admitted killing Eleanor Coulthard, and took his knowledge of what happened to her, if he had any, to the grave.
Before his death, he wrote an open letter ‘for the benefit of young men’, excerpts of which were published in the Burnley Express the week after he was sentenced to death.
In it, Starr urged all men to “look upon a wine shop as the first milestone on the road to Hades.” “Every mistake, every error in life’s journey has been in my own case through drink”, he wrote.
Starr claimed Eleanor’s drowning at Brungerley Bridge, Clitheroe, was a tragic suicide, but his arrest - and subsequent acquittal for murder - cast a dark shadow upon him. “Very often melancholy had such a weight over my brain that suicide was my familiar word, with slight homicidal tendencies.”
Following Eleanor’s death he said he travelled England and Scotland in a life full of ups and downs before settling in Blackpool “married, a happy, brief life.”
“Again drink, delirium, madness, murder, trial, condemnation to death. The end of a wild, changeful, sad career”, he wrote.
No-one can ever be sure whether Starr was behind the tragic demise of Eleanor Coulthard, but Starr's reputation and savage killing of Mary was to mark him forever in Fylde history as “The Blackpool Ripper.”