Rewind Episode – Margaret “Bill” Allen

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Margaret “Bill” Allen

Margaret “Bill” Allen was born in 1906. She was the 20^th of 22 children. Her street had about 80 houses. Her house had with a living room, small kitchen, 1 cold water tap, and a fireplace heated by a coal fire. Toilets were in a row of 5 on the street and each household had to take a turn keeping them clean. The toilets were emptied once a week.

Sidenote: Over Christmas, Netflix had a short movie “Angela’s X-Mas” and my little one wanted to watch this movie over and over and it was super depressing, if you want a visual of Bill Allen’s childhood, take a look.

They weren’t a wealthy family. She worked in the mills as a child. She only had an elementary education. Margaret always wanted to wear men’s clothes, and work “male” jobs (loading coal, repairing, etc). As a young adult, she wanted to be known as “Bill” and cut her hair short. Some described her as boisterous, aggressive, and swearing all the time. It’s almost as if she wanted so badly to be seen as a male that she created a caricature. She had many different jobs, working as a post-woman, a bus conductor…

Fun fact – she was a bus conductor, but was fired for being aggressive with customers and cuffing them on the head (apparently if they didn’t go fast enough).

Illness

By her early 40’s she had some sort of illness but it is unclear what. She was unemployed and on sick pay (like disability) and welfare but apparently couldn’t make ends meet. She was threatened with eviction and had large debts that were in the courts. According to her best and only friend Annie Cook, her health was declining. Apparently, she was smoking heavily and not eating.. all and all in decline.

Some people had suspicions that they were more than friends, but there is nothing to support this. I think it was just assumed that because Bill was trans and Annie was single in her 30’s that they were together.

Nancy Chadwick

Nancy Chadwick is an older woman who is a housekeeper but apparently rather well off.

It seems as though as a housekeeper she wasn’t cleaning the house, but was running the household. A man she had worked for left her four houses when he passed away and she was renting them out. Nancy and Margaret met through a mutual acquaintance. They would chat on the sidewalk when they ran into each other. Nancy became more and more curious about Margaret.

Nancy is Murdered

On the morning of August 22nd around 4:00 in the morning, a bus is going down the road and sees what looks like a pile of rags. It is actually Nancy Chadwick dead laying on the street.

“It was apparent that Nancy Chadwick had suffered a frenzied attack with a heavy implement.”

Police suspect that whoever killed Nancy robbed her first and then killed her. Apparently everyone in town knew that Nancy carried cash around with her. Police begin to search and find her purse close to a nearby river. 

Margaret is Questioned

Police interview people in the neighborhood but they suspect Margaret “Bill” Allen because there are drag marks from her house to the street. They look in her house but don’t find anything suspicious. The police bring her in for questioning. During the first interview, she tells police that she had seen Nancy the day before but just in passing.

Margaret Cracks

Police bring Margaret back in the next day and she cracks.

As I was saying, I was coming out of the house on Saturday last about twenty past nine in the morning, when Mrs. Chadwick came around the corner. She asked if this was where I lived and could she come in. I told her I was going out. I was in a funny mood and she seemed to get on my nerves, although she hadn’t said anything. I said I would have to go, as I was going out and could she see me sometime else, but she seemed somehow to insist on coming in.

Margaret “Bill” Allen

She Kills Chadwick With a Hammer

I just looked round and saw a hammer in the kitchen. This time we were talking just inside the kitchen with the front door closed. On the spur of the moment, I hit her with the hammer. She gave a shout that seemed to start me off more. I hit her a few times but I don’t know how many. I then pulled the body into my coal house. I’ve told you where I was all day, that part is true and true that I went to bed at ten to eleven. When I awoke, the thought of what was downstairs made me keep awake. I went downstairs but couldn’t tell the time as all the clocks are broke. There were no lights in the road and I couldn’t hear any footsteps. My intention was to pull her into the river and dispose of the body but she was too heavy and I just put the body in the road. Later, I heard the noise outside and knew they had found her. I looked out of the window and saw the bus. Then I went back to sleep. Just before I put the body out, I went round the corner and threw the bag into the river. The bag I sort of dropped in, the hammer head I hit her with I threw some distance up the river and the handle I used for the fire. I looked in the bag but there was no money in it. I didn’t actually kill her for that. I had one of my funny turns … I had no reason to do it at all. It seemed to come over me. The noise after the first hit seemed to set me off.

Margaret “Bill” Allen

Guilty, But Insane

Margaret’s defense presents a guilty but insane argument. She states that she has so much stress with her illness and financial trouble that she snapped when Nancy pushed her way into her house. Annie Cook, Margaret’s friend, testified to Margaret’s “funny turns” and headaches, as well as one prior suicide attempt. Unfortunately for Margaret, the prison medical officer said he could find no signs of physical or mental disease.

Margaret’s defense didn’t work and the jury took 15 min to find her guilty. She is sentenced to be hung. 

Hanged

Her friend Annie tries to get a petition together for her not to be executed, but she could only get 112 people to sign. On January 12th, 1949 Margaret is hung. The prison chaplain said:

She was a woman with plenty of grit and she faced it as a man would and I felt the whole thing was bestial and brutal. She was well prepared and behaved like a man. In fact, she had more guts than most men I have seen.

Prison Chaplain

Resources

• Margaret Allen: The transgender killer who committed Rawtenstall’s first murder
• Margaret “Bill” Allen
• ExecutedToday.com » 1949: Margaret “Bill” Allen, transgender

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