The following tale is based on a series of true
events.
The year was 1919 and although they were husband and wife Henry and
Elizabeth Gaskin had only seen each other once in the previous 5
years.
In February 1914 Henry Gaskin had been sent to Portland prison
after being found guilty of a number of burglaries in Cannock,
Hednesford and Rugeley during November of the previous year.
In the August of 1914 the declaration of war was made and many of
Gaskin's fellow inmates would find their sentences reduced to
enable them to join the armed forces and do their bit for king and
country. This would not be the case for Gaskin though, after all,
he had only served 6 months of a 3 year sentence so there was no
way he would be released so soon.
By 1915 Hednesford was changing rapidly. It had become a transit
town for soldiers with a massive training camp being built on the
outskirts of Brindley Heath on Cannock Chase.
By now Lizzie Gaskin had not seen her husband for over a year and
to supplement her lifestyle she turned to prostitution, which led
to her falling pregnant in May of that year, but her child would
live for only 4 months.
At roughly this same time Gaskin was released from prison. His
early release no doubt down to the need for more able-bodied men to
join the armed forces.
Whether gaskin knew of his wife’s situation is not known but
strangely he chose not to go back home after leaving prison and
instead, went straight off to Join the Royal Engineers as 158037
Sapper Henry Thomas Gaskin and soon after finishing his training
was sent off to the Western front.
September 1917 saw Henry being granted leave for the first time and
he was heading home. When he arrived at Cannock station on 28th
September he chose to go straight to his mothers house and not to
his wife though the news of his return did not take long to reach
her.
When they finally met the meeting of husband and wife was not a
happy one it would turn out. Gaskin told his wife that he wanted
nothing more to do with her and even threatened to shoot her with
his service rifle, only being stopped by his mother.
October 7th would see Henry return to France after his week’s leave
where he would stay until he was granted leave for a second time in
October 1918.
This time he would not meet his wife as she had gone to London with
another soldier and once more had turned to prostitution. On
November 2nd Gaskin would once again return to the Western front
but only 9 days later the war would come to an end.
Demob for Gaskin would come into effect on 4th January 1919 and he
returned to his mothers house 2 days later the very day that his
wife was giving birth to a son. The father thought to be a soldier
from the nearby camp on Cannock Chase
One of Gaskin’s first acts on his return was to contact a solicitor
to start divorce proceedings but it would seem that his wife had
other ideas as she wanted them to try and repair their marriage.
On Wednesday
19th February Gaskin wrote a note to his wife and got someone
else to deliver it to her. The note simply read “meet me round
the pool at once, important.” Lizzie got excited as she knew
the note was from Gaskin and she was convinced that he had
changed his mind and wanted to try and put things right
between them. Her mother told her not to go but Lizzie was
determined to see him.
She made her way to the pool, now the site of Hednesford Park. She
arrived around 2pm. Gaskin was still to arrive which he did about
15 minutes later. He had been drinking heavily something that he
was not used to doing.
The couple were spotted arguing by 2 separate witnesses as they
walked along Rugeley Road. The couple stopped and stood for a while
by the plantation of trees which was on the corner of the road that
led up to the valley pit.
Lizzie then walked away and took the path through the trees that
also led to the pit but Gaskin chose to walk a little further along
the road before he too turned and walked into the trees.
The remainder of this tale is taken totally from the statement
given by Gaskin at Cannock police station some 4 days later.
According to Gaskin they reached the woods and Lizzie asked him to
go home with her to which he replied “No. Come into the woods and
we’ll talk things over.”
He told her he knew all about her past few years but Lizzie tried
to blame him for the whole situation. She knew that her husband had
been drinking heavily and no doubt would be starting to worry. She
again suggested that they go home. She even offered to sleep with
him thinking she could use this idea as a bargaining tool, but
again Gaskin refused.
Her next words were ill chosen and were almost the last that she
would speak. “Well, if you don’t want me I shall go back to Monty.”
(The father of her new born son) she then started to cry and she
put her arm around his neck. Gaskin gripped her throat and was now
at the point of losing control. Lizzie struggled to free herself
from his grip but Gaskin took a fresh hold of his wife. Lizzie then
fell to the floor and gaskin stood over her. She tried to stand
once more but was quickly pushed down again as the blows hit her
head and face.
Gaskin was now wildly out of control so much so that he tried to
rip out her womb with his bare hands. Lizzie now began to kick and
try to scream and so in his rage Gaskin forced a piece of wood down
her throat in an attempt to stop her.
Gaskin then cut off her clothes and went to hide them in the woods.
When he returned to his wife she had managed to struggle into a
kneeling position but due to the severe beating she could no longer
see her husband but she could hear him.
Gaskin then told her “I’m going to kill you and cut you into
pieces.” A vicious kick under her chin soon followed and almost
certainly rendered her senseless. He then took out his army knife
and cut her open from her womb to her navel.
Amazingly at this point she was still alive and conscious.
Gaskin then put his heel on her neck and held it there until she
finished struggling. He then cut her again this time up to her
neck. He then retrieved her clothes to cover body but noticed that
amazingly she was still breathing but he then walked away and left
her in the woods to die, He then made his way home. The time was
now around 4.30pm
Later that day Gaskin went back to the wood and moved his wife’s
body further into the trees and proceeded to cut off her head. He
also tried but failed to cut off one of her legs. He then dragged
her headless corpse to a culvert near to the valley pit then took
the head and her clothes to the unused gas works in Victoria Street
and pushed the head into the water under the gasometer. He then
caught the bus back home to Bridgetown arriving home just after
11pm
The following morning there was a knock at the door, It was
Lizzie’s mother wanting to know where her daughter was. He told her
that he had intended to meet with her the previous day but had
changed his mind so did not know where she was.
Later that day Gaskin was approached by the police and he was sure
that he had been found out but he managed to stay calm. They told
him they were making enquiries about his missing wife stating that
she had been seen walking with him. Again Gaskin said that he had
not been with her so the sightings must have been wrong.
Gaskin was
now starting to panic. The body could be found at any moment
so he decided to go back and retrieve what remained of his
wife’s body and dispose of it in the same location that he had
hidden her head.
Gaskin picked up the torso and carried it the five or six hundred
yards to the gasworks, amazingly unseen.
On Friday 21st February gaskin was again met by 2 police officers.
They told him that his wife had still not been found but invited
him to accompany them to Hednesford Police station where he would
later be cautioned and then charged with his wife’s murder.
On Sunday 23rd February Gaskin would admit to murdering his wife
and told the police he would show them where he had hidden her
body.
The body was eventually recovered and the post mortem would show
that Gaskins statement would tie in with the injuries found on the
dead woman’s body.
Gaskin’s trial would take place at Stafford court room on Friday
4th July 1919 in which the outcome would find Gaskin guilty of
murdering his wife and the sentence would be death by hanging which
took place at Winson Green Prison in August 1919.
Following these events the wood would become known locally as
Gaskin's Wood
So that my friends is the brief story behind Gaskin's wood but to
find the cache you will need to do your own bit of research and
find answers the following questions.
Please be aware that it is unlikely that you will find all the
answers required via the Internet.
If January=1 & February=2 (Examples)
1, In what month was Gaskin born = A
2, In what month was Lizzie born = B
3, On what date in August was Gaskin executed = C
4. How old was Gaskin when he was executed = DE
5, How many siblings did Gaskin have = F
6, The 1901 census shows that the Gaskin family were living on the
Stafford Rd, Huntington but what was the house number? =
GH
The cache location will be found at
N 52.42.(E-D)(C)(A)
W 001.59.(H-G+1)(B)(F-D+1)
You can check your answers for this puzzle on
Geochecker.com.
The cache is a 1 litre box with 1st, 2nd & 3rd to
find certificates together with a small gift for the first lucky
3.
There are also a few, lets just say, unusual swaps to go with this
greusome tale.
The above image is a map of Hednesford as it was in 1902. The gas
works where the body was found can clearly be seen in the middle of
the map.