Cambridgeshire Murders by Alison Bruce

in a brothel for the previous few weeks. A Mrs Phillips owned the brothel, which was situated in Crispin Street.
    With the promise of a shilling Rolfe willingly accompanied him into the darkness of Midsummer Common. Within moments he had taken out his razor and sliced open her throat. Her death was almost instantaneous but, some way across Midsummer Common, Constable Joseph Wheel heard a single shriek.
    Browning left her body where it fell and returned the bloodied razor to his pocket. Despite his bloody and dishevelled state he walked to the nearby Garrick Inn and drank a quick glass of ale. On his departure he ran into PC Wheel who was searching for the source of the scream. Browning immediately handed himself over but was not taken seriously until he had taken the constable onto the Butts Green area of Midsummer Common and exposed Rolfe’s body. The wound in her neck was so enormous that her head was almost severed. Browning’s explanation was that she had tried to steal a shilling from him. He showed Wheel the murder weapon.
    Browning said, ‘I just killed the girl. Don’t let me look at her. Take me away from her. Don’t look at her.’ And a little later he added, ‘I hope the poor girl is in Heaven. I did not give her much time to repent.’ He was also concerned about the effect his crime would have on his mother.
    Mr Southall, a lodger at the Garrick Inn, joined PC Wheel and together they took Browning to the police station.
    Rolfe’s body was taken to the Fort St George public house where an inquest was held the following day. Her father, James Rolfe, a hawker living in Leeder’s Row, identified the victim’s body. He explained that she had moved out of his house and claimed not to know where she had lived since. When he explained that they no longer spoke when they saw one another it was clear that they had fallen out.
    Mr Robert Roper, a surgeon of Cambridge, described the body:
    On the night of Thursday, the 24th of August, a few minutes before ten, I was sent for to go to the Common where I found a woman lying on her left side with her throat cut and quite dead. In half a minute’s time a policeman came up and showed us his light. It was intensely dark but I knew the woman was dead before he arrived. On examining the body, I found the head and hands cold but the arms were warm. The woman had been dead very few minutes. It was an extensive wound from the left to the right, quite down through everything to the spinal column. It was the largest wound of the kind I ever saw. It was high up in the throat under the chin. Such a wound might have been given by a razor and would cause immediate death. I believe the woman was lying on the ground. I don’t believe a person would have inflicted the wound on the woman while she was standing. Great force must have been used in inflicting the wound.
    After hearing other statements from police and other witnesses the jury at the inquest returned a verdict of ‘Wilful murder by Robert Browning’. On 29 August Browning was brought before the mayor of the borough and committed for trial. He was sent to Norwich Gaol to await the winter assizes, which were to take place in the city in November.
    During his trial his mother testified that he had appeared ‘very gloomy and strange’ since coming home after his army discharged. She also explained that:
    he was very ill and went into Addenbrooke’s Hospital, but I did not know with what complaint. When he came out of the hospital he appeared to be strange and gloomy. He sulked and did not take his food. This strange appearance increased up to the time of this occurrence. There was a great change in him since Midsummer Fair. My bedroom was close to his. At night I have heard him very restless and often out of bed.
    It was also established that there was a history of insanity in other male members of Browning’s family.
    The biggest clue to the motive for the murder