The precise date at which his intimacy with Mrs. Dyson commenced does not transpire.
Mrs. Dyson, herself, at the Leeds Assizes, spoke to Peace having lived next door but one to her and her husband when they resided in Britannia-road, Darnall, in the earlier part of 1876.
She knew him as a picture-frame maker, and he used to visit the Dysons, and had been, if he was not actually then, on terms of undisputed intimacy with the woman whose husband he afterwards murdered.
Before following the clue to this murder, we must give a brief record of another crime of a similar nature, which happened in the same year.
Without doubt Peace continued his lawless depredations to a great extent while residing at Darnall.
The Whalley Range murder caused great popular excitement.
An innocent man was convicted and was cast for death. He escaped suffering the extreme sentence of the law by almost a miracle.
At the time of the occurrence Peace was there to “work” some houses. He went to a place called Whalley Range.
He had “spotted” a house which he thought he could get into without much trouble.
He was always respectably dressed, so he declared, for he made a point of dressing respectably, and for this reason he knew the police never think of suspecting one who appears in good clothes.