Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in Shrewsbury and Around Shropshire by David John Cox

Author:David John Cox
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783408481
Publisher: Wharncliffe
Published: 2013-06-04T16:00:00+00:00

Early on the morning of Thursday, 20 August 1840, a twenty-five-year-old man named Josiah Misters emerged from underneath the bed of room 17 at the Angel Inn, Ludlow, where he had been lying on the dusty floor for a number of hours. He had just one thing on his mind – murder. He quietly stood up, and taking out a cut-throat razor, swiftly moved to the head of the bed, in which his intended victim slept, blissfully unaware of his imminent danger. Misters opened the razor and brought it down across the sleeping man’s neck. Fortunately, the occupant of the bed was a light sleeper, and feeling the razor cutting across his throat, immediately screamed and put up a determined struggle, receiving several further cuts to his face and neck. Misters ran out of the room, leaving its occupant bleeding severely from the throat.

Josiah Misters’ best-laid plans had therefore come to nothing; he had failed in his objective of robbery and murder. However, it soon became apparent that matters were even worse from Misters’ point of view – not only had he fled the scene, leaving his victim still clinging to life, but he had also attacked the wrong man!

Earlier in the week, several cattle-dealers and butchers had converged on Ludlow for the important cattle fair which was due to be held on the Thursday. One such visitor was Misters’ intended victim, Mr William Ludlow, a butcher and cattle dealer hailing from Birmingham, from where he had travelled on the Red Rover coach, arriving on Wednesday evening. Mr Ludlow was a well-known figure in Ludlow and frequently stayed at the Angel Inn. On the evening of Wednesday, 19 August he had arrived in Ludlow at a little before 9pm. After his arrival at the Angel Inn, Mr Ludlow ordered tea in the ‘commercial room’ of the hotel, whereupon he met Josiah Misters, whom he recognized from a previous meeting at Shrewsbury cattle-fair held on 12 August. Misters stated that he was the brother of another Mr Misters, a maltster of Birmingham and a friend of Mr Ludlow. Misters also enquired as to the health of a Mr Spiers, an innkeeper in Birmingham who was another friend of Mr Ludlow.

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