Charles Peace

Charles Frederick Peace (14 May 1832 – 25 February 1879) was an English burglar and murderer, who embarked on a life of crime after being maimed in an industrial accident as a boy. After killing a policeman in Manchester, he fled to his home-town of Sheffield, where he became obsessed with his neighbour's wife and shot the husband dead. Settling in London, he carried out multiple burglaries before being caught in the prosperous suburb of Blackheath, wounding the policeman who arrested him. He was linked to the Sheffield murder, and tried at Leeds Assizes. Found guilty, he was hanged at Armley Prison. His story has inspired many authors and film producers.

Charles Peace was born in Sheffield, youngest son of a shoemaker John Peace and his wife, a naval surgeon's daughter. At fourteen, Charles was permanently crippled in an accident at a steel-rolling mill, and embarked on a life of crime.

In 1854, he was found guilty of multiple burglaries and sentenced to four years' penal servitude. After his release, in 1859, he married a widow named Hannah Ward. Soon afterwards, he committed a major burglary in Manchester, nearly killing the police officer who came to arrest him, and was sentenced to six years' penal servitude. Another burglary in Manchester (Lower Broughton) earned him an eight-year sentence.

For a while after this, he seems to have concentrated on his picture-framing business, before working on the North Eastern Railway, from which he was sacked for absenteeism. After moving to the Sheffield suburb of Darnall, Peace made the acquaintance of a civil engineer called Dyson, which would prove fateful in due course.

At Whalley Range, Manchester, Peace was seen by two policemen entering the grounds of a house on 1 August 1876, about midnight. One of them, PC Nicholas Cock, intercepted him as he was trying to escape. Peace took out his revolver and warned Cock to stand back. The policeman came on. Peace fired, but deliberately wide of him. Cock drew his truncheon, and Peace fired again, this time seriously wounding Cock, who died on 2 August. In the dark, Peace was able to escape, and two brothers, John and William Habron, living nearby, were arrested and charged with the killing of Constable Cock. At Manchester Assizes, John Habron was acquitted for lack of evidence, but William Habron was sentenced to death, later commuted to penal servitude for life. Peace had made a point of attending the trial, to confirm that he was not a suspect, before returning to Darnall.

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