On the afternoon of Tuesday November 8, 1892, the battered corpse of a nine-year-old girl was found lying in the road near the tramway at Witton Stocks in Blackburn. Alice Barnes was a farmer's daughter and had been driving the cows from West View Farm to Witton Park to graze.
Police began to search for Alice's killer and before long, a nine-year-old girl called Elizabeth Riding, the daughter of Lieutenant General Fedden's gamekeeper, told police that she was running up Buncer Lane when she spotted a man carrying a girl towards the road. She told police that the man was between 35 and 40 years old, was about five foot five inches in eight was wearing fustian trousers, a vest, a black coat, a black billycock hat with a spotted white muttler.
Three men, arrested in Brierfield, Wigan and Crewe were quickly eliminated from inquiries and within three days, the case was spiralling. Whispers at the inquest into Alice's death suggested the killer would be lynched and subjected to frontier violence if the public found him first. The race was on to find the murderer.
A distinctive red handkerchief, identical to the one found stuffed in Alice's throat was located at the house, along with a pair of hobnail boots, with soles matching footprints found at the scene. It was enough to charge the 32-year-old with Alice's murder.