These are the basic facts:-

BNA Cambridge Independent Press - Saturday 12 November 1887

SENTENCED TO DEATH. At the Gloucester Assizes to-day, Enoch Wadley was sentenced to death for the murder of Elizabeth Hannah Evans {or Hannah Elizabeth Evans according to some reports}, Kempley. The prisoner who had been a soldier, outraged the girl and then stabbed her to death. The defence was insanity.

The case was widely reported and there are many other articles in the BNA giving details of the crime and trial but most are too long to transcribe. I can download some for you if they are of interest.

Phil,
I just googled the name "Enoch Wadley" and immediately got a pagefull of hits, at the top of the pile was this forum thread which details the case and Enoch's family history.
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/GLOUCESTER/2005-10/1130079040

This book excerpt describes the event in great detail, it was presumably compiled from the extensive newspaper coverage of the time. It's sad to see that Enoch had a history of mental illness.
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=4nI7AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT147&lpg=PT147&dq=enoc...

In my own researches I am often surprised by how helpful search engines can be, even for people or events far less "news-worthy" than this.

atb Jeff

I am a New member and I want to state the fact that Enoch Wadley is in-fact a distant cousin of mine. I am genetically his 9th cousin and When I found out about it I was intrigued. He was a Soldier in the army and he did commit the nasty crime o that poor girl. And that he was declared insane. But he is local to me my Great-Grandmother told my mum about and I found out about him. He is plastered on Ancestry which is where we found him. But the fact that he is still talked about is incredibly crazy. I understand that in the 1880s PTSD was not yet recognised or even the old-term 'Shell-Shock Syndrome'. I am also surprised he was not sent to Australia at that time.

I have been told that he had a Love interest in Elizabeth Evans and said wasn't interest so forth.

"
Enoch WADLEY was born in 1861 in Herefordshire. At the age of 17 he enlisted in the 2nd Gloucestershire Regiment and was sent to India.
During the next nine years, he saw a lot of fighting and in January1887, he was taken to hospital in India and declared insane by the army surgeon K.M. O'Callighan. In March he was sent to Netley with a certificate saying that he was of an unsound mind and he had been eccentric for months. Dr Welsh of Netley hospital said he could not return to the service because he had been "affected with insanity", so he was discharged and sent home on the 7th June 1887."

On the 15th June 1887 he killed Elizabeth Hannah Evans after meeting her from her work in the barleyfields, and after a trial, was found guilty and sentenced to death.

"..... execution at Gloucester was that of Enoch Wadley on Monday the 28th of November 1887. 27 year old Wadley had murdered Elizabeth Evans – a girl of 18 who did not accept his romantic overtures. He had stabbed the poor girl some 40 times.
There was evidence of mental illness put forward at the first trial and the jury were unable to reach a verdict so a second trial took place where a new jury rejected the insanity argument and found Wadley guilty of the murder."

"A TEENAGER was stabbed to death by a discharged soldier in Herefordshire in 1887.

Hannah Evans was found dying in a ditch with stab wounds to her chest and her clothing disarranged in Much Marcle, near Ledbury, in June 1887.

A man named Enoch Wadley, who had recently been discharged from the army, and whose attentions Miss Evans was said to have refused, was arrested for the murder after he was seen running away from the spot where the 19-year-old was found.
Wadley, who was reported to be medically unfit for further service, had been visiting family in Kempley and had taken a trip to Bickerton Court Farm to see his brother's wife, who was weeding barley with the unfortunate Miss Evans.

He later told his sister-in-law he was going to walk Miss Evans home, and the pair were seen talking at around 6pm by a man named Mr Dyer, who was tending his sheep nearby.
But their chat soon turned to cries of distress, and as Mr Dyer rushed towards them he saw Wadley running away, while Miss Evans was in the ditch, bleeding from several terrible wounds.

She told Mr Dyer that 27-year-old Wadley had made improper proposals before stabbing her, leaving her with a deep wound across her face, another on her arm, and three or four across her chest, from which blood was reported to be rapidly flowing.

Mr Dyer placed her on his cart and took her to her parents' cottage, but she died from her wounds on the way.

Police found evidence of a struggle and blood at the scene, while Wadley's clothes were found in the garden of a house on the way to Dymock.

Wadley was arrested wearing the blood-saturated trousers he had been wearing at the time of the attack and carrying a pocket knife, and an inquest jury returned a verdict of wilful murder against him,

He was sentenced to death for the murder at Gloucestershire Assizes in November that year having been found guilty despite trying to claim insanity as a defence."

possible

First name(s) Enoch
Country England
Last name Wadly
Volume 6A
Birth quarter 2
Page 434
Birth year 1861
Record set England & Wales Births 1837-2006
Mother's maiden name -
Category Birth, Marriage, Death & Parish Records
District Ledbury
Subcategory Civil Births
County Herefordshire
Collections from

1871 Near Redlands, Much Marcle
James Wadley Head - Male 51 1820 Ag lab Upton Bishop, Herefordshire, England
Hannah Wadley Wife - Female 47 1824 - Upton Bishop, Herefordshire, England
Matthew Wadley Son - Male 11 1860 Ag lab Much Marcle, Herefordshire, England
Enoch Wadley Son - Male 9 1862 Scholar Much Marcle, Herefordshire, England

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Ἀριστοτέλης A Gloster Boy in the Forest of Dean ><((((*>

Year: 1887
Month: Jun
Day: 20
Surname: EVANS
Forenames: Elizabeth Hannah
Residence: Kempley
Age_at_death: 18
Officiating_Minister: Edward Denny Vicar of Kempley
Event: Burial
Cause_of_death:
Memoranda:
Notes:
Register_Reference: BM26/13
Page_No: 8
Parish_Chapel: Upton Bishop

probable family 1

Year 1869
Month Apr
Day 25
Parents Surname EVANS
Child Forenames

Anna Elizabeth
Fathers Forenames Samuel
Mothers Forenames Eliza
Mothers Surname
Residence Bullock's End
Occupation Waggoner
Officiating Minister Arthur J. Street
Event Baptism
Memoranda
Notes
Register Reference P188 IN 1/6
Page Number 63
Parish Chapel Kempley

1871 Wiginash, Much Marcle,
Samuel Evans Head - Male 33 1838 Ag lab Upton Bishop, Herefordshire, England
Eliza Evans Wife - Female 37 1834 - Upton Bishop, Herefordshire, England
Thomas Evans Son - Male 12 1859 Ag lab Upton Bishop, Herefordshire, England
Anne Evans Daughter - Female 10 1861 Scholar Upton Bishop, Herefordshire, England
Louisa Evans Daughter - Female 8 1863 Scholar Kempley, Herefordshire, England
Mary Ellen Evans Daughter - Female 5 1866 Scholar Kempley, Gloucestershire, England
William Evans Son - Male 3 1868 - Kempley, Gloucestershire, England
Hannah Evans Daughter - Female 2 1869 - Upton Bishop, Gloucestershire, England

1881 Witton End Cottage, Much Marcle
Samuel Evans Head Married Male 40 1841 Farm lab Yatton, Herefordshire, England
Eliza Evans Wife Married Female 40 1841 - Upton Bishop, Herefordshire, England
William Evans Son Single Male 14 1867 Farm lab Kempley, Gloucestershire, England
Hannah Evans Daughter Single Female 11 1870 - Kempley, Gloucestershire, England
Charles Evans Son Single Male 6 1875 - Much Marcle, Herefordshire, England
George Evans Son Single Male 3 1878 - Much Marcle, Herefordshire, England

possible family 2

Year: 1867
Month: Jan
Day: 13
Parents_Surname: EVANS
Child_Forenames: Eliza
Fathers_Forenames: Richard
Mothers_Forenames: Anne
Mothers_Surname:
Residence: Kempley Green
Occupation: Labourer
Officiating_Minister: Arthur J. Street
Event: Baptism
Memoranda:
Notes:
Register_Reference: P188 IN 1/6
Page_Number: 61
Parish_Chapel: Kempley

1871 Kempley Green, Kempley,
Richard Evans Head - Male 42 1829 Farm labourer Yatton, Herefordshire, England
Ann Evans Wife - Female 40 1831 - Newent, Gloucestershire, England
Jane Evans Daughter - Female 9 1862 Scholar Dymock, Gloucestershire, England
George Evans Son - Male 4 1867 Scholar Dymock, Gloucestershire, England
Eliza Evans Daughter - Female 2 1869 - Kempley, Gloucestershire, England

1881 Baynhams, Much Marcle,
Richard Evans Head Married Male 49 1832 Ag lab Yatton, Herefordshire, England
Ann Evans Wife Married Female 51 1830 - Newent, Gloucestershire, England
Eliza Evans Daughter Single Female 14 1867 Scholar Kempley, Gloucestershire, England
John Evans Son Single Male 9 1872 Scholar Kempley, Gloucestershire, England
Emily Evans Daughter Single Female 7 1874 Scholar Much Marcle, Herefordshire, England

1891 Baynhams, Much Marcle,
Richard Evans Head Married Male 60 1831 Farm labourer Yatton, Herefordshire, England
Ann Evans Wife Married Female 61 1830 - Newent, Gloucestershire, England
John Evans Son Single Male 19 1872 Farm labourer Kempley, Gloucestershire, England
Emily Evans Daughter Single Female 17 1874 - Much Marcle, Herefordshire, England

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Ἀριστοτέλης A Gloster Boy in the Forest of Dean ><((((*>