Alfred Sowery - who attacked James Berry on the gallows.
Alfred Sowery - who attacked James Berry on the gallows. 24 year old Alfred Sowery had been going out with 19 year old Annie Kelly for eight or nine weeks in the Spring of 1887. She was a laundry maid at the Bull Hotel in Preston and he was a pawn-broker’s assistant. On Sunday the 15th of May she left work with Sowery and was sacked by the manageress, Miss Chapman. Annie returned the following day to collect her belongings. The couple told one of Annie’s friends that they planned to sail to America on the following Wednesday and were going to marry. On the Tuesday morning Sowery purchased a revolver and ammunition. The following day, Wednesday the 18th of May, he and Annie went to lunch at the Clarendon Temperance hotel in Preston. After the waitress, Miss Witlock who was the owner’s daughter, had taken their order, she heard a shot and turned to see Annie sprawled in a chair, bleeding from a wound to the right temple. The girl ran to fetc...