In 1851 in the fishing village of Tollesbury on the Essex Marshes, a murder had been committed. The villagers thought they knew who did it and were looking for justice. The author looks at the evidence as it was reported in newspapers and in archived documents. Based on such evidence, the author reconstructs the events covering the murder, the inquest, the trial and the events that occurred after the trial. The murder is set against the background of the capital punishment reformist movement and describes how mid-century juries were influenced by their own moral and religious convictions.