A particularly gruesome murder is reported here, but there is no speculation as to the motive behind it. The murderer (a trooper in the blues) was clearly determined to carry out his task without worrying about the consequences.
“Considerable sensation was caused at Windsor on Sunday night in consequence of a very deliberate murder which was committed about nine o’clock in the Arthur-road, a thoroughfare leading from the vicinity of the Great Western station to Clewer village. The victim was Mrs. Laura Ellen Woolridge, aged 23, said to be a native of Bath, and who for about two years has been employed as an assistant to the postmistress in the post-office at High-street, Eton. There she was known under her maiden name of Glendell. She was, it is stated, married to a trooper in the Royal Horse Guards named Woolridge, but had lived very little with him. This man came to Windsor in the course of the evening, and went to 21, Alma-terrace, where Mrs. Woolridge was residing, and, under the pretence of signing a paper, was allowed to enter the house. Mrs. Woolridge thereupon asked Alice Cox, a young woman who was sitting with her in the front parlour, to fetch her hat and jacket, and while the latter was proceeding to the back room the man and woman went out of the the street door towards the iron wicket-gate separating the forecourt from the street. There he appears to have attempted to cut the throat of the unfortunate woman, who shrieked ‘Murder!’ and ran into the middle of the road, where he threw her down and accomplished his dreadful crime. The murderer is now in the hands of the Windsor Police.”
The Stamford Mercury, 3rd April, 1896.