Shropshire Routes to Roots

4. Not Guilty

What actually happened

The image below is taken from a newspaper report about the trial.

Guilty verdict, as reported by the Shrewsbury Chronicle, 23rd March, 1868 [Shropshire Archive reference: C34.5 v.f.]

In fact, at the real trial, Mapp was found to be guilty. It did not take the jury very long to return this verdict.

There were three pieces of evidence which convicted Mapp:

• There was the testimony of Jane Richards, who saw Mapp continue to walk with Catherine Lewis down Long Lane on the night she was murdered.
• Mapp's actions the day after the murder were suspicious. He ordered Aston to bury the hat, and he had been spreading manure over the fields near where the murder had taken place. This helped to cover up signs of a struggle or other evidence.
• The evidence of the knife and the brooch found in Mapp's pocket, and the blood on his clothes, strongly suggest Mapp was there on the night of the murder. Mapp later said that he had had a bad nosebleed, and that he had bought the brooch from a man he had met that night. This would have been an incredible coincidence.

What might have happened, if Mapp had been found not guilty?

The villagers were furious with Mapp. We can imagine that if Mapp had been sent home a free man, he would have been unable to continue living in Longden village. A mob might have been sent to get revenge on Mapp. Fearing for his life, Mapp would have escaped, never to be seen again in Shropshire.

What actually happened?

Having been found guilty, John Mapp was punished.

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