Stalked by Her Brother-in-Law: The Christmas Murder That Shook Post-War Britain | Liverpool, 1918

Описание: Stalked by Her Brother-in-Law: The Christmas Murder That Shook Post-War Britain | Liverpool, 1918
News of the Times | Episode 595 |1918
As Britain celebrated the end of the Great War, one young Liverpool widow was facing a danger far closer to home.

This week, we step into December 1918, a moment when church bells rang for peace, soldiers returned to broken households, and thousands of war widows tried to rebuild lives reshaped by loss.
But for Mary Ellen Rooney, a 32-year-old widow raising four children, the threat did not come from the battlefield —
it lived across the street.

After months of unwanted attention, jealousy, and open threats from her brother-in-law, Mary’s attempts to find safety ended in a Paddington corner shop on a cold November afternoon.
Witnesses would describe what happened next as sudden, furious, and chillingly deliberate.

Why did this case — shocking, public, and tragic — receive almost no press coverage at the time?
What can it tell us about post-war Britain, the pressures on returning soldiers, and the precarious position of the women left behind?
And how did one man’s fixation escalate into murder just weeks after the Armistice?

In tonight’s episode, we uncover:
The realities of life in 1918 Liverpool after the war
The hidden dangers faced by war widows
A deeply unsettling pattern of stalking and threats
A murder that played out in broad daylight
A trial that passed almost without notice
And an execution carried out one week before Christmas

For our Further Particulars, we turn to Widnes in 1881, where a revolver accident led to…
another revolver accident — a Victorian tragedy so bizarre it defies summary.

👤 Narrated by Robin Coles

📅 New episodes: Monday, Wednesday & Friday
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📚 Related cases from the archive:
1915: The Woman in the Water Tub: The 1915 Murder of Carrie Jubb | EP534
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1913: The 1913 Sun Inn Pub Murders | True Crime | EP553
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1919 - 1929: British True Crime: Real Murders of the 1920s | Crime Compilation | EP554
   • British True Crime: Real Murders of the 19...  
1917: Murder on Wimbledon Common: The Poker Killing of Captain Tighe, 1917 | EP575
   • Murder on Wimbledon Common: The Fireside P...  

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🕯 About the Channel
We’re an independent team of historical researchers and narrators specialising in 18th to early 20th century British true crime. Each episode is based entirely on archival material — from coroners’ inquests to forgotten newspaper columns.

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