Murders of Thomas and Ann Farrow (Stratton Brothers case)

On the morning of Monday 27 March 1905, William Jones arrived at Chapman's Oil and Colour Shop at 34 Deptford High Street to find it shuttered and unresponsive, with chairs overturned inside. He and a local resident, Louis Kidman, forced entry and discovered the shop's manager, 71-year-old Thomas Farrow, dead on the floor. His 65-year-old wife, Ann Farrow, was found unconscious in their upstairs bedroom; both had been beaten. Ann Farrow died in hospital on 31 March without regaining consciousness.

Police found no signs of forced entry and determined robbery was the motive after discovering an empty cash box that had held roughly £13 (about £1,400 in 2025 terms), representing the week's takings Thomas Farrow customarily banked on Mondays. Two black stocking-top masks left at the scene indicated two assailants had attacked the Farrows separately. Assistant Commissioner Melville MacNaghten personally examined the cash box and noticed a greasy smudge on the underside of its inner tray resembling a thumbprint. He had it taken to Scotland Yard's Fingerprint Bureau, established in 1901, where Detective Inspector Charles Stockley Collins determined the print belonged to neither the Farrows nor the responding officer, Sergeant Albert Atkinson, and did not match any of the roughly 80,000–90,000 records on file.

Witnesses reported seeing two men leaving the shop around 7:30 am on the morning of the murders. Two witnesses, boxer Henry John Littlefield and a local girl named Ellen Stanton, identified one man as Alfred Stratton. Police also identified his brother Albert as matching the description of the second man. Alfred's girlfriend, Annie Cromarty, told police he had disposed of a coat and changed shoes the day after the murders and had asked her for old stockings; a tip from her also led police to recover £4 buried near a local waterworks. Alfred Stratton was arrested on 2 April 1905 at the King of Prussia pub, and Albert was arrested the following day. Both were charged and fingerprinted at Greenwich Police Station. Collins compared their prints to the mark on the cash box and concluded it matched Alfred Stratton's right thumbprint.

At the Old Bailey trial beginning 5 May 1905, prosecutor Richard Muir called more than 40 witnesses. Collins testified as a fingerprint expert, demonstrating up to twelve points of agreement between the cash-box print and Alfred Stratton's thumbprint. The defence called Dr John George Garson, an anthropometry advocate, who disputed the fingerprint match, but Muir produced two letters in which Garson had offered to testify for either side depending on payment, prompting the trial judge, Mr Justice Channell, to describe him as an "absolutely untrustworthy" witness. A jail employee, William Gittings, also testified that Albert Stratton had made a statement implicating his brother while awaiting trial. After deliberating for a little over two hours, the jury found both brothers guilty of murder on 6 May 1905. They were sentenced to death and hanged at HM Prison Wandsworth on 23 May 1905.