When soldier Samuel Morgan raped and murdered 15 year old Mary Hagan he left behind a vital clue - a bandage which he had used to tend his injured thumb.
On the evening of 2nd November 1940, Mary disappeared while buying a newspaper and cigarettes for her father in Waterloo, north of Liverpool. Search parties were set up and that same night Mary's body was found in a concrete blockhouse which was used as an anti-invasion fortress. In the muddy vicinity was a clear impression of a boot heel, an army bandage which had been used to treat a thumb wound which was stained with zinc ointment, as well as a chocolate bar wrapper containing traces of zinc ointment. It was found that Mary had eaten this chocolate bar, meaning whoever had worn the bandage had come into contact with Mary. The conclusion was that of the wearer of the bandage could be found, then police had the killer.
There were thousands of troops stationed in the North West, but a waitress came forward to say a soldier with a cut on his face had asked her if he could clean up in her house, claiming to have been in a fight. A month earlier, a cyclist Anne McVittie, had been robbed by a soldier on a canal bank a mile from where Mary was killed and the descriptions in both incidents were familar.
17 days after the murder, Irish guard Sam Morgan was being held in London over the McVittie robbery and had a healed scar on his thumb. Morgan's house in Seaforth was searched and a bandage cloth was found which matched that from the murder scene. Soil samples from there were also found on his uniform. Witnesses identified Morgan as having been seen near the scene of the crime and a local pub landlord said he had been in his pub the same night, sporting a bloodstained cap. Morgan's boots matched a cast taken from the footprint found next to the body.
Faced with this evidence, Morgan admitted robbing cigarettes and money from Mary but denied rape and murder. He was found guilty without much deliberation and hanged on 4th April 1941. |
