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Hi im looking for ancestors of william Kirwan who was married to Catherine Costello - the family changed their name to KIRWIN after William was hanged at Walton prison in 1904 - (various web sites note the murder - but many are inaccurate - the story goes that -
-On the day in question, 26th February, 1904 he had followed his wife to her sisters house and when Catherine went inside he followed her and confronted Catherine in the parlour and accused her of having an affair with another man, Catherine vehemently denied that was the case and asked her sister to confirm her whereabouts on the days that William had quoted.
William became very agitated and shouting he produced a revolver from his coat pocket and fired a shot at Catherine, she fell, Mary believing that he had murdered Catherine started to scream and William left the house, but in fact Catherine had just fainted.
The front door was bolted against William and the local police were summoned and when a police constable arrived at the scene the door was unbolted Mary Pike started to talk policeman informing him of the events, then William reappeared and Mary said "that is the man who shot at my sister" the policeman attempted to apprehend William but as he got hold of him by his right shoulder he produced the revolver from his left hand pocket and shot Mary Pike in the stomach, she died in hospital several days later of blood poisoning.
William 's defence was, he was justified in the attempted murder of Catherine because of her alleged infidelity and that because Mary had supported her sister she deserved what she got as well, needless to say with that kind of defence the result was a foregone conclusion.
So the family surname was changed from Kirwan to Kirwin to escape from the notoriety, in the 1901 census William, Catherine, their eldest son John William aged 8 and their daughter Florence aged 1 are listed to be residing in Richmond Row with William's profession to be that of a Pork Butcher.
Catherine did remarry on the 26th of August 1918 to Joseph Taylor, and later died on the 5th of September 1929 aged 51.
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