Thursday 25 January 2024 at 7.30pm (This event has ended)

Peppermint Billy and the Tollgate Murders

Joanne Mungovin, local author and historian

Leicester Museum & Art Gallery, 53 New Walk, Leicester, LE1 7EA

Entry to the talk is free of charge.

The tale of ‘Peppermint Billy’ has become almost a Leicestershire folklore tale over the years, with the murderer becoming something of a mythical bogeyman.

William Brown, a native of nearby Scalford, was the prime suspect for a double murder in 1856. A returned convict who had been previously sentenced to ten years’ transportation, ‘Peppermint Billy’ had supposedly sworn vengeance against the person who had sent him to the other side of the world. He was the last person publicly hanged in Leicester.

This lecture examines the troubled life of ‘Peppermint Billy’.