History Horrors

Walter Calverley, in a moment of insanity, stabbed to death his two children and wife and then went searching for his third child when he was taken in by authorities. His violent story was turned into a sensational play enjoyed by the proper men and women of Elizabethan times.

The play entitled “The Yorkshire Tragedy” is said to have been so violent it would have upset the stomachs of our modern age. It was the equivalent of a modern horror movie based upon a real crime. Only with Elizabethan stage plays there had to be a moral imperative–a reason for the crime.

No one knows why William Calverley suddenly knifed his family. It was never explained. But the play based upon him depicted the act as one of desperation after loose morals caused him to drink and gamble and even consider bigamy.

The author of the play is unknown. Some historians have thought that Shakespeare might have wrote it. Would Shakespeare have written such moral propaganda rubbish? Who knows, but certainly the acting would have kept our attention as it detailed the final deaths of the children.

Calverley’s wife, in the dramatized version, survives his attack. She bids farewell to her murderous husband as he is led away to his execution and much to the joy of the audiences expressed regret at what he had done.

In reality, Calverley’s wife was dead upon the ground with no recovery. Calverley himself was executed, no remorse noted. He was pressed to death, a method in which a heavy board is laid upon the body and weights are added until the person underneath expires. A cruel way to leave this world, but then what do you expect when you slice open your own family?

Source: Colin Wilson, The History of Murder, Castle Books - 2000