Erdington's Two Thornton Coincidence Murders

In 1817, 20-year-old Mary Ashford left a dance in Erdington, near Birmingham, and was later found raped and murdered in a field. Authorities charged local bricklayer Abraham Thornton, but a jury acquitted him. Exactly 157 years later, in 1974, 20-year-old Barbara Forrest disappeared after a night out and was found raped and murdered in the same Erdington area, again near where Ashford had died.

Investigators arrested her coworker, Michael Thornton, after suspicious bloodstains and a shaky alibi, but a jury also cleared him of the crime. Remarkably, both women were born on the same day and died on the same date of May 27, and in each case a man named Thornton stood trial for their murder and walked free.

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