FT277


On 10 July 1896, a pistol shot rang out in a lonely back road just outside the village of Fairwater, near Cardiff, and a loud scream was heard. A traveller saw a man hurrying away from the direction of the scream; this individual “wished him a gruff good-night”. Later, the traveller saw the body of a man lying on the side of the road. He had been shot about 100 yards behind, but had not died outright, instead running in terror up the road, spouting blood as he went. Both men and women fainted at the ghastly sight.

The murdered man turned out to be 33-year-old workman David Thomas, who was married with two children, and lived in a cott­age near Ely.