The Halifax Slasher
Green Lane
Friday 25 November 1938
Within minutes of Waddington's 'attack', Hilda Lodge left her house on Green Lane in west Halifax to buy a pennyworth of vinegar for her evening chips. (Green Lane itself no longer exists, but ran behind the mill on Pellon Lane in the picture above.)
Hilda, who had been in poor health with 'nerves' and depression, was terrifed to see an arm come round the wall as she neared the corner of the path. She dropped her decanter and ran to her neighbour's house. Moaning and semi-conscious, she had cuts to her face and forearm, although they proved to be much less serious than they initially looked.
A crowd of around 100 locals soon arrived at the scene. The three police officers attending to Lodge heard a cry of 'They've got him!' and rushed out just in time to save one Clifford George Edwards from the fury of the mob. Having himself joined the crowd, Edwards had been grabbed by another of the vigilantes and manhandled to cries of 'Kill the b------!' and 'Break his b----- neck!' The police escorted Edwards to safety.
Lodge confessed to faking her attack on 1 December, telling Detective Chief Superintendent Salisbury of the Yard: 'I have always suffered with my nerves and last week I read a lot in the papers about people being slashed with razors. This seemed to get on top of me and I thought I would cut myself...' She received a sentence of four weeks.