John French was a thirty year old labourer who had been a collier by trade in Cardiff, Wales before coming to Sheffield at the beginning of February 1907. In fact he was destitute in the city when he was approached by a kind and merciful man called Owen Fitzsimmons. He took pity on the poor young man and took him back to his house in Bailey Street. There he not only gave him lodgings for the night, but also a change of clean clothes as well. Fitzsimmons and his wife, Elizabeth made a living by running a grocers shop on Bailey Street as well as taking in lodgers. At the time they also had living with them two elderly ladies. They were Fitzsimmons mother, Sarah Ann and another elderly widow called Rose Ann Horan.
In order to help them they also employed a twenty- year old servant, a girl called Alice Cole, towards whom French immediately displayed some affections. Thanks to Owen Fitzsimmon’s charity, it was not long before the new lodger found employment at Birley Colliery. An agreement was soon reached that French would continue to lodge with the family and that he would pay them 12s a week. His circumstances now having improved, it was not long before the lodger asked Alice to go out with him, but she appeared more frightened of him than affectionate, and refused. However French pressed the girl until finally she gave in.
On that occasion, although Alice had agreed, she asked Owen to follow them. His lodger had told Fitzsimmons that he was taking the girl into Rotherham, but as they left the house, Owen saw they were heading towards Endcliffe Woods. Thankfully around 11.30pm that they both returned safely back to Bailey Street. At some time around the beginning of March, French managed, possibly using threats to get Alice to come out with him again and this time his purpose was more sinister. He took her to the Westbar Registry Office and once there and without consulting her beforehand, he made arrangements for a wedding to take place a fortnight later.
Throughout this sinister romance, he had tried to prevent Alice from saying anything to her employer about their relationship, so she said nothing to the family until Saturday 9 March. However when the wedding arrangements came to light, a confrontation happened which resulted in French seeking lodgings across the road with a woman called Mrs Clark. He slept there on the Sunday night and as he went over in his head the events of the previous few days, he plotted his revenge. What he did not know however was that his determination to retaliate himself on the whole Fitzsimmons family, including Alice Cole had already been foreseen.
Owen’s mother, Sarah Ann Mrs Fitzsimmons, had a remarkable dream on the Saturday night, which foretold the tragedy. On Sunday morning, 10 March she told her son that she had a dream where she saw shots being fired, and described the kitchen as being ‘full of smoke.’ She told other people about the dream and said that she had also seen blood streaming all over the floor. So vivid was the dream that she warned Alice not to go out with French that night. What she didn’t know was that on Monday 11 March, French had bought a revolver. He was spotted at some time before noon going into the Fitzsimmon’s back kitchen, situated in a yard at the back of the house.
Entering he found Owen Fitzsimmons and his wife, who was nursing her young baby. Mrs Horan and Alice were also in the kitchen, although Owens elderly mother was reportedly still upstairs in bed, the dream of the previous Saturday night having disturbed her considerably. French was described as ‘looked excited’ as he confronted Alice and asked her point blank if she was going to marry him at the Register Office as arranged. Taking courage from the other people present, the girl told him that she wouldn’t marry him and French flew into a rage as he pulled out the gun. Standing at the doorway, the lodger fired several shots, although thankfully most of them missed the target due to his agitation.
He fired at, and thankfully missed, Owen Fitzsimmons and then at Elizabeth his wife, who still had the baby on her knee. The bullet struck her on the nose before she ran out screaming, and then he turned his attention to the young domestic servant. French fired three more times at her as she lay on the floor pleading for mercy. How she survived was a miracle, but after knowing that he now only had one bullet left, French thankfully turned it on himself. Placing the muzzle against his right temple, he pulled the trigger and immediately fell down dead. The shots were clearly heard in Bailey Street and so it was a matter of just fifteen minutes before the police arrived.
Deputy Chief Constable of Sheffield, Mr G H Barker and Inspector Henley with several constables took charge. In French’s pocket was found a gun license which had been taken out that same morning at 9.30 am. John French’s body was removed and an inquest was arranged on his body on Wednesday 13 March at the Mortuary where the identification was made by Owen Fitzsimmons himself. He was the first witness and he admitted to the Coroner Mr D Wightman, that he had made a big mistake with French, and in particular with having brought him into his family. He had thought that he was a good man, but he had been mistaken.
The witness also said that the deceased man was given to ‘romancing’ about incidents which had happened in his life, so that it was impossible to trust anything he said. He also admitted that his former lodger had always wanted to carry on his affair with Alice Cole in a secret way, and had made arrangements to marry her without telling anyone else. He was angry with her when she refused to keep himself and his wife in ignorance of their affair. Fitzsimmons then described the shooting and how, after his wife had been shot, that he picked up his child and ran outside. Thankfully the witness told the coroner that French was so drunk that it caused him to shoot wildly or they would all be dead.
Alice Cole gave evidence that the deceased had proposed that they should live together in Rotherham soon after she went out with him for the first time, but she refused. As a result, French had threatened her several times, during their short acquaintanceship. She readily told the inquest that she had always been frightened of him. When she told the deceased man that she wanted no more to do with him, he threatened her again. He told her ‘I will pawn this ring and buy something in its place that will finish you.’ Mr Wightman told the jury that French appeared to have acted like a fool throughout, and it was a wonder that he had not killed more people.
The coroner advised the jury that the only question they had to decide at the point was what was his state of mind at the time. The jury consulted together for a short while, before returning their verdict of ‘suicide during temporary insanity.’ It was hoped that was the end of the terrible affair, but a month later there was a completely surprised revelation. French had told everyone that he was a single man, however a letter was sent from Maryport, Cumberland from his abandoned wife. In the letter sent to Sheffield Mrs French described her husbands tattoo on his arms of ‘JLF’. These were his initials (John Lawson French) as well as she described other identifying details.
Concluding the letter, Mrs French stated that ‘true to form’ her husband had left her with a six week old child taking all his wages and leaving her penniless. Thankfully Alice Cole survived her ordeal as did her employer Mrs Elizabeth Fitzsimmons. It was reported thankfully that the disfigurement of having part of her nose shot off ‘was much more serious than her pain.