Funeral for murderer hanged in 1821 after his skeleton is found in Bristol University cupboard

By ROB COOPER
Last updated at 12:34 PM on 13th April 2011

Proper send off: The skeleton of John Horwood, 18, hanging from a noose in a Bristol University cupboard. He will finally be laid to rest exactly 190 years after he was put to death

A murderer who was found hanging from a noose in a university cupboard 189 years after he was put to death will be given a proper burial for the first time today.

John Horwood was executed in 1821 after killing former girlfriend Eliza Balsom when he was aged just 18 - by throwing a pebble at her as she crossed a brook.

The attack in Bristol did not cause serious injury but she died after suffering an infection when a surgeon drilled a hole in her head to relieve pressure.

Horwood's body was used for dissection at Bristol Royal Informary - and his skeleton has been stored in a cupboard ever since, most recently at the city's university.

Mary Halliwell, 67, discovered she was a distant relative of Horwood, who was a miner from Hanham, Bristol, and won the legal right to his remains.

Today he will finally be given a funeral and buried exactly 190 years to the hour after he was hanged outside New Bristol Gaol.

While researching her family tree, Mrs Halliwell found out that the convicted murderer was the son of her great great great grandfather's brother.

Dr Richard Smith, who carried out surgery on Eliza after she had the pebble thrown at her, refused permission for John Horwood to be returned to his family.

After the dissection in front of 80 people Dr Smith kept the skeleton and put it on display - before it was later given to Bristol University.

And Horwood's skin was used to bind a book about the murder case. It is now on display at Bristol Records Office.

Funeral director Austin Williams told the BBC that young John will be buried next to his father after the service in Christ Church, Hanham.

After jilted Horwood split from Eliza vowed he would 'mash her bones to pieces' if he saw her with another man.

On January 26, 1821, he threw the pebble at her head - hitting her in the eye - as she walked with her new boyfriend William Waddy.

Accidental death: A sketch of John Horwood who was convicted of murdering his girlfriend Eliza. She had apparently suffered an innocuous injury

Following a day-long trial in Bedminster on April 11, John Horwood was sentenced to death. Two days later he was hanged.

Mrs Halliwell, who lives in Leigh, Manchester, with her husband David, said after winning the legal right to the remains that she wanted to belatedly give Horwood a 'dignified' send-off.

John Horwood was the 10th child of Thomas Horwood.

She told the Bristol Evening Post said: 'I am angry that a human being, Dr Smith, could do something so barbaric to another person. It is terrible and certainly wasn't very dignified.

'As a descendant of his, my wish is to lay him to rest as his parents wanted – to have him buried in a dignified way.'

Hangings in the 19th century were a slow - and often agonising - process for the victims.

John turned to religion in the final days of his life and is quoted as saying: 'Lord, thou knowest that I did not mean then to take away her life but merely to punish her: though I confess that I had made up my mind, some time or other, to murder her.'