How the YEP reported on the execution of Louie Calvert in 1926

It was one of the many accounts of the case published by newspapers at the time and now available to view via The British Newspaper Archive.

STATEMENT WHILE IN PRISON.

MAN WHO WAS FOUND DROWNED.

MRS. CALVERT CONFESSES TO MURDER OF LEEDS WIDOW.

FOLLOWING the execution in Manchester this morning of Mrs. Louie Calvert, for the murder of Mrs. Lily Waterhouse, a widow, with whom she had been living in Leeds, it was learned from a trustworthy source that Mrs. Calvert had confessed to the crime, though in an interview as late as yesterday she is reported to have protested her innocence.

It also learned that during the time she was in prison, Mrs. Calvert further admitted that she had been worried for some years about the death in Leeds of a man to whom she acted as housekeeper before she married.

The man was found drowned in the canal in July, 1922, and an open verdict was returned at the inquest.

AN INQUEST HELD FOUR YEARS AGO.

“The Yorkshire Evening Post” is able to give a brief outline of the circumstances in which the inquest of was held.

Following the finding of the body in the canal evidence of identification was forthcoming, and the inquest, which was opened on July 14, was adjourned.

At the adjourned inquest the body was identified that of John William Frobisher, of Mercy Street, Wellington Lane, Leeds, and evidence of identification was given by Frobisher’s housekeeper, Louisa Jackson, who subsequently became Mrs. Calvert.

A verdict “Found drowned” was returned, evidence being offered before the Coroner show how Frobisher got into the water.

It is remarked as a singular coincidence that the man when found in the canal had no boots on.

The crime for which Mrs. Calvert has paid the penalty was that of murdering her landlady, Mrs. Waterhouse.

When the body was discovered, Mrs. Waterhouse’s boots had disappeared as well as some other clothing.

Neighbours of the late John William Frobisher remember well how Mrs. Calvert, who was then a single woman named Louisa Jackson, lived in the street as Frobisher’s housekeeper.

She was a Salvation Army lass in those days and went about “a pert little body “ as one of the neighbours described her, wearing the regulation bonnet and strings and uniform of the Salvation Army.

The article goes on to describe the execution and the inquest that followed it as well as a final visit made by to Mrs Calvert beforehand by her husband, their six-year-old son and her sister-in law, Mrs McDermott.

“I HAVE NOT DONE IT”

The interview lasted about half-an-hour and at the end the boy pathetically appealed to his mother to come home. Mrs. McDermott added that Mrs. Calvert showed no sign whatever of breaking down under the strain, and when asked to make a clean breast of her crime she once again firmly protested her innocence by saying, “I have not done it”.

THE CRIME

The crime for which Mrs Calvert has now paid the penalty was committed on the evening of March 31, when she strangled Mrs. Lily Waterhouse, a widow, at the house in Amberley Road, New Wortley, in which the widow lived.

Mrs. Waterhouse was found by police who went to make inquiries on another matter. There were marks of strangulation on her neck. Over her feet was a piece of string and marks on her wrist suggested that something tight had been drawn across them...

Neighbours heard strange [noises] in Mrs Waterhouse’s home on March 31 and Mrs. Calvert was seen to leave. She returned the following day.

When arrested on April 2, Mrs. Calvert was wearing a pair of boots from the property of Mrs. Waterhouse.