Malcolm Bull's Calderdale Companion : Foldout

The prisoner, Joseph McNamara, was said to have been happily married up to about 1919.
He served in the war and was wounded in several places including the head. He brought a revolver home and obtained a licence to hold it, but not for ammunition.
Since leaving the army, he had been a heavy drinker. He had not been giving his wife regular money and as a result she had to go out to work. The prisoner had threatened his wife on numerous occasions leaving notes to the effect that
He would swing for her
and
He would do her in
Mrs McNamara returned home at 1 pm when her husband was out. She went to purchase some coal, as no one was in the house. When the coal arrived, she lit a fire and sat by it. At about 3:00 pm, her husband returned in a drunken condition. He walked up to her and knocked her off the buffet, kicked the buffet away and said
I have bought that coal
She said
You have not, I have paid for it
She got up from the floor and said
if you strike me again I shall strike you with this stick
Prisoner picked up a plate from which a kitten had been drinking and threw it against the cellar head. Mrs McNamara went to pick up the plate when the prisoner rushed at her and got it from her, cutting his arm in the struggle. He accused his wife of cutting him with a knife.
She went out at 4 o'clock and returned at 6 o'clock. The prisoner was not in. She saw a note in his handwriting threatening to murder her. She was in fear at this note and made a complaint to the police. The husband returned home that night at about 10:30 when his wife was in bed, and he went upstairs. He was under the influence of drink and he said
I will make you get up and make me some supper
She replied
I can't, I am too poorly
He dragged her out of bed saying
I'll show you
She agreed to get up and make some supper. He went downstairs and she proceeded to get her coat and slippers on. She met the prisoner coming up the stairs and passed him, and almost immediately afterwards heard a bang and felt a sting, and knew that she had been shot.
She ran out of the house to the house of Mrs Wadsworth and was taken to the Infirmary. An X-ray examination showed a bullet, which was removed on the following Monday. After the removal of the bullet septic poisoning started.
Detective Superintendent Danby found the revolver on top of a sewing machine, containing a spent cartridge and a live one.
Mr McNamara was upstairs asleep in bed, partly dressed. He was too dazed to understand the charge. He had a licence for the revolver but not for the ammunition.
McNamara reserved his defence and was committed for trial.
An examination revealed various bullet holes in the downstairs room. The bullets had been brought to court and the jury could see them. There was a bullet hole in the wall of the bedroom and Mrs McNamara intimated that on a prior occasion the prisoner had fired a shot but fortunately that shot went over her head.
It had been the habit of the prisoner to shoot promiscuously and thus endanger his wife who was in the house with him. Dr Birkmine of Halifax Infirmary said the wound began near the right hip, but the bullet was found 9 inches down the thigh. The wound became septic and pneumonia set in.
When Mrs McNamara, who was not a well woman, was called she looked very haggard and weak and, on the advice of the Infirmary doctor, a soft chair was placed in the well of the court. Mrs McNamara gave her name as Alice Louisa Waite McNamara. She told the court that, on one occasion just before last Christmas
I was in bed when my husband came upstairs and without any warning fired a revolver. I was asleep at the time but heard the shot, and the bullet grazed the bed
She also said she had been upstairs when he fired a revolver downstairs.
The defence counsel said he hoped there was not going to be another charge of attempted murder.
Continuing, Mrs McNamara said he had been firing at a place between the cellar and the bedroom door and, he said,
I am making a target
Annie Eliza Wadsworth of 33 Chatham Street said Mrs McNamara said
He has shot me in the back
George William Redman, master tailor of 43 Aked's Road, had employed the prisoner for 12 years and he was a good foreman tailor, and a punctual one. Mr Bentley asked
Except on Monday mornings?
Witness replied
Well, it's customary
(laughter)

The Case Against Joseph Mcnamara