On the 28th of June 1879, during a drenching summer's day, the sombre halls of the Stafford Assizes were gripped with a harrowing tale of bloodshed and sorrow. Selina Littlewood and her aunt, Betsy Davis, stood accused, their fate entangled in the shadows of manslaughter, with the unfortunate victim being none other than Selina's own stepfather, William Lee, a respected Breeze-Dealer hailing from Stoney Lane, West Bromwich.

Born in the bloom of spring, in the year 1854, Selina Littlewood emerged as the eldest daughter of George Powell, a humble coal miner, and Mary Baker, his steadfast wife. Theirs was a placid existence, until fate's capricious hand swept away George from this earthly realm in 1875. Bereft and seeking solace, Mary found comfort in the arms of William Lee, a neighbour and widower, sealing their union in the frosty December of 1878. Selina, too, sought solace, tying the knot with the venerable Thomas Littlewood, a Ticket Writer, whose age surpassed hers by twenty-three years, and who bore the responsibility of two sons. Their nuptials flourished in the verdant season of 1877 in the heart of West Bromwich, Staffordshire.

But the tapestry of their lives soon wove a tale of darkness. On that fateful Monday, the 2nd of June, dark clouds gathered, and an inebriated Selina, a slight lady of merely 26 years, visited her sister at their mother's abode. It was there that the ominous quarrel erupted between Selina and her 60-year-old stepfather, William Lee. Fearing for her safety, Selina clutched a brick, but alas, it was swiftly taken from her grasp by the determined William. In her desperation, she summoned her Aunt Betsy, urging her to carry out the sinister deed— "come and kill the old bastard" she cried.

Betsy did not hesitate. She seized William by the back of his neck, violently whirling him around until he fell upon the garden soil. In a cruel act of brutality, the two women leaped upon his legs, shattering one of them, and mercilessly delivered a series of kicks and blows to his head using a box lid. All the while, Mary, her brow bearing the mark of a wound, stood witness, though her soul remained unmoved, indifferent to her husband's plight.

Time seemed to stand still as this macabre dance of violence lasted a ghastly thirty minutes. But fate would not be denied. Thomas William Scarratt, a courageous soul, intervened, abruptly ending the vicious assault. With their violent deeds exposed, Aunt Betsy and Selina fled, leaving behind the broken and battered William, who was carried away by Thomas to the shelter of his home. Jane Brooks, a neighbour, had long suspected the volatile atmosphere within the Lee household, and her earlier reports to the police bore witness to the malevolent strife that had taken place.

But the nightmare was not yet over. William was admitted to the West Bromwich District Hospital, his body bearing the marks of a savage attack—a compound fracture of the right leg, several contused wounds upon his head and a bruised left eye, all accompanied by excruciating pain in his abdomen. As days passed, he appeared to rally, but the dark spectre of delirium tremens loomed over him, a vile consequence of the assault. The 19th of June marked the day of his tragic demise, and a grim post-mortem examination unveiled mortification in his leg as the harbinger of death. Throughout this harrowing ordeal, his son, David Lee, stood vigil at his bedside, never wavering.

Justice would not rest idle. Selina, was apprehended by the stern hand of PC John Brown, placed under the coroner's warrant in the city of Nottingham. When confronted with the news of William Lee's death and the damning verdict of manslaughter, she feigned ignorance, blaming her inebriation for her lack of recollection of the events. Her accomplice, Betsy Davies, willingly presented herself at the station and faced the charges laid upon her.

Upon the trial's grim conclusion, the sentence of manslaughter was delivered, casting a dark shadow over their lives. Seven years of penal servitude awaited both women, and their cries of despair echoed through the cold corridors of justice.

Locked away in the confines of their prison cells, Selina embraced a life of quiet endeavour, using her time to improve her literacy and hold on to a sliver of hope through correspondence with her husband. Her pleas of ill health eventually bore fruit, and on the 23rd of June 1883, after four years of torment, she was granted release on license. Alas, her path led her to the sombre streets of Liverpool, where her husband Thomas met a grim fate, succumbing to dropsy in 1890. For six subsequent years, Selina found temporary refuge within the halls of the Liverpool Workhouse, until, finally, the curtain of fate fell, and she breathed her last on the 28th of December 1896.

Betsy, Selina’s aunt, and accomplice was married to Enoch Davis, a man of the coal mines, found her soul bereft of offspring. Within the confines of her prison walls, she exchanged words of sorrow and solitude with her sister, Selina Dabbs, leaving no trace of letters to or from her husband, Enoch. Upon the 1881 census, he was recorded as a "Widower." Betsy encountered two ill-fated encounters—one in May 1881, where she slipped and fell amidst the task of lifting laundry from the copper, and the second on the 21st of June 1882, as she stumbled while crossing the washhouse, a bruised side and a slightly sprained hand bearing witness to the consequences of her malevolent choices. In the end, the maelstrom of fate granted her release on license on the 19th of June 1883, after four years of penance, and in the heart of West Bromwich, she drew her final breath in 1889.

Photographs of Betsy Davis & Selina Littlewood

© The National Archives TNA PCOM 4