RECENTLY, I was contacted by a reader who had been enjoying the history stories and asked me if I was able to find out more information about a murder that occurred in the Amman Valley in the early part of the 1900s.

She told me that there had been a tree in the woods between Saron and Tycroes with a cross carved into it and that it is believed to have been the spot where a body was found in a murder case in the 1900s which she had also heard could have potentially been suicide.

She was able to provide a family name and with this I was able to find the story of the murder of a young woman in 1935.

In the April 26, 1935, edition of the Western Mail, an article discusses how a young man, Robert Leslie Fauchon, was committed for trial at Carmarthenshire Assizes on a charge of murdering his ‘sweetheart’ Lenora Anthony.

The 22-year-old unemployed blacksmith from Nantyci Terrace, Saron, was accused of murdering the 22-year-old schoolteacher in a field near Rhos Colliery in Tycroes on March 17 of that year by cutting her throat with a penknife.

Fauchon was represented by Ammanford’s Samuel Griffith and the prosecution by Maurice Crump of London.

Mr Crump said that the couple were together at around 8.30pm on Sunday, March 17, near Rhos Colliery and that between 10.15 and 10.30pm that evening, Fauchon was seen leaving the area alone and heading towards his home.

He is said to have returned home shortly before 11pm and was wearing his Sunday clothes and no overcoat, changed and went about his normal routine.

The following morning, he spoke to his brother Bertie who noticed that he had blood on his neck and that he had a bloodstained razor in his hand.

Another of his brothers, Walter, came into the bedroom the pair were in, and Fauchon told him to ‘Go over to below Lwynmaen road to that bit of a dingle and see whether Lenora is alive.’

He told his mother shortly after that ‘Lenora has killed herself. I thought someone was pimping on us. I left her and went to look and when I returned I found that she had killed herself.”

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He told his one brother that he “did not want to live as Lenora had cut herself.”

Walter Fauchon found Ms Anthony’s body at the spot where he was told. The body was examined by Dr. Greville Jenkins and a post-mortem was carried out by Dr. Oscar Williams and Dr. Llewellyn.

PC Rees and inspector Daniel Davies examined the clothes worn by Fauchon and found bloodstains and what they thought was wool that they believed came from Ms Anthony’s jumper.

Dr Williams told the court that it ‘seemed out of the question that the wound from its nature could have been self-inflicted with the knife.’

The court heard from May Gretta Jenkins, a good friend of Ms Anthony, who said that the couple had visited her home a number of times and that at times, Fauchon would object if Ms Anthony wanted to go out alone.

She told of an incident shortly before Christmas of the previous year where she was at the chip shop with Ms Anthony and that Fauchon had gone in and asked if she was ready to leave because he’d waited long enough for her. When she said she wasn’t going home with him, he is said to have replied ‘If you’d rather have May’s company than mine to-night I will finish you before the night’s out.’

The court in Ammanford formally charged him and asked if he understood the charges, to which Fauchon nodded his head and whispered ‘yes.’

Mr Griffith, defending, said no witness would be called for the defence and the case was then committed to Carmarthenshire Assizes for trial.

An issue of Illustrated Police News on May 9, 1935, also carried the initial hearing discussed above and added that on March 20, Fauchon had been sent to the Joint Counties Mental Hospital in Carmarthen where he had remained until April 16, the date of his arrest and charge.

This article also gave more information about the state of Ms Anthony when Walter Fauchon found her. He had told the court that ‘She was on her back under an ash tree with her head on the bank. There was a raincoat partially covering her face.’

He said that the raincoat was ‘very muck like’ the one his brother owned.

The trial at Carmarthenshire Assizes was held in June and on June 15, a verdict was reached according to a June 19, 1935, edition of the Western Mail.

The article told that Mr Justice McKinnon presided over the trial and that the court was packed out, with long queues remaining outside for a ‘considerable time after proceedings started.’

Mr Jenkin Jones represented the defendant on behalf of Mr Griffiths and the prosecution was represented by Mr. D. Rowland Thomas KC., and Lord Merthyr, under the instruction of Mr Crump.

Mr Rowland Thomas told the court in his opening statement that the couple had ‘been keeping company for some time’ and that to the knowledge of both sets of parents, the relationship ‘was an honourable one in every sense of the word.’

The court was told the above information from the earlier hearing. Mr Jenkin Jones told the jury that he didn’t deny that his client had committed the crime but that there was admission that the defendant was insane.

Dr Clutterbuck of Penygroes tended to the wounds on the neck of Fauchon and that two days after the death of Ms Anthony, he certified him to be insane and ordered his removal to the mental hospital.

Dr Sidney Davies, medical superintendent at Carmarthen Mental Hospital, and Dr T Wallace, medical officer at Cardiff Prison both also provided evidence that he was insane.

The jury returned their verdict of ‘guilty but insane’ without leaving the box and he was detained ‘during his Majesty’s pleasure.’

The tree no longer exists as it was among the area that was flattened by Opencast in the late 1970s/early 1980s.