The coroner looked at the little girl and asked in a soft voice: And exactly what had she done that he should want to chop off her head, Frances turned to her parents, then looked at the floor sobbing: Nothing! The coroner continued: you have told us a very good story now please go on, when your father went out to Mrs Taylor what did he say? Whispering Frances said: He told her to go away, but she wouldn't. Then he asked granny for the axe and started swearing at her because she wouldn't give it to him. My father had just gone to bed when Mary Adams came in and said her mother had been murdered. The little girl then broke down in tears and the hearing was adjourned for 10 days until 6th January. Despite what had been said Frances was allowed to go home with her mother and father.
When the inquest started again Frances was brought back and the coroner asked her: Have your parents said anything to you about your statement? After a pause she replied: No. A juryman then asked: Did your father not take a stick to you, the night after you were here? Frances replied: No. The juryman said to the coroner: I heard from four different people that he beat her severely with a stick. The little girl failed to answer any more questions and was told she could go
Then again her grandmother, Mrs Pearce, again entered the dock. The coroner asked: Is the girl's statement about the axe true? Repeating the original story given by her family Mrs Pearce replied: She's telling nothing but lies. William Gillens the little girls father would not give evidence declaring he had nothing to say, while his wife gave the same story as her mother
When Mary Adams was called again she said Mr Gillens and her mother were not on bad terms. The police pathologist Dr Robert Burns, confirmed that the axe found in the house fitted the wounds found on the victim. The coroner then turned to the witnesses and asked: How is it that this poor woman could be murdered on the stairs and none of you know anything about it? He instructed the jury to return an open verdict. But he concluded: The facts appear to be cloaked up but, some day the truth will come out. More than a hundred years on, the mystery of the Hodgkin Street murder still remains unsolved.
