Frank Greening - murderer

[Keitht]

If anyone is interested in the ongoing saga of Frank's criminal career I've just discovered that his residence in the reform school in 1891 resulted from a March 1890 conviction for "forging a request for the payment of money", for which he was rewarded with 14 days hard labour and two years in the reform school.

I'm now beginning to wonder whether he was related to the Thomas Greening I have found who was given five years in Birmingham in August 1884 for what appears to be possession  of a counterfeit coin press or the Walter Greening given 10 years for burglary at Warwick Assizes in March 1891. Do we have a criminal dynasty?

Keith

[jacquelineve]

Keith
       Could this be Frank + family..?

1881 census-107,Livery St.Birmingham
GREENING
Thomas       44 bricklayer  Ireland
Ann             34                   ..........
Mary A         17                 Birmingham
John            7                   .............
FRANK          7mths          .............. 

RG11/3003   folio 7    page 9

Jackie.

[Keitht]

Hi Jackie,

No, that's not him. We proved that he was born Q2 1874, which would make him about 6 at the time of the 1881 census.

Keith

[Mike777]

Frank's birth was in February 1881 so he was 32 at the time of his death. His mother Ann came from County Mayo so was Irish. His father Thomas was a bricklayer and when Frank (then called Francis) was born, they lived in a tenement block among a large community of Irish building workers who were working in Birmingham at that time.
The murder of Elizabeth Hearne was a big news story in 1913, because she had not been killed outright and Frank had gone to the hospital (in disguise?) to ask her to forgive him? (and tell the police it was an accident). Sadly for the hot tempered Frank, Elizabeth died. This murder was soon forgotten as a much bigger event was to take place in Sarajevo. Frank had a brother John and a sister Mary Ann, who may have descendants living today. I would be interested to hear from them www.michaelgreening.com

[Keitht]

Hi Mike,

It's a long time since I loked into Frank Greening but I'm still interetsed. If you hear any more I'd appreciate being kept in the loop.

Regards,

Keith

[Mike777]

Hello Keith

I have also rekindled my interest in Frank, as I am going to mention him in a talk I am giving next month. This is how I came across this RootsChat site.

Since writing about Frank, in a book that came out in 2006, I found another newspaper story on the web about him. Some years before shooting his girlfriend he had been accused of shooting another person but found not guilty. I think he was called Francis at the time, but I'm sure it's him. I'll try and find it again.  Mike

[Keitht]

Mike,

Is your interest simply in Frank Greening or do you know whether he was connected to the other two criminal Greenings I mentioned in an earlier post?

Is your talk to take place in the Birmingham area? If so I would very much like to attend if possible.

Keith

[Mike777]

Hello Keith

Nice to hear from you again.

It is possible that the Thomas, you discovered, was Frank's father although it's likely there were a number of Thomas Greenings in Birmingham in the 1880s. More research is needed to see if Thomas and Walter were related. In the 1881 census Frank's father gave his birthplace as Ireland (this may be a guess by the enumerator as most of the neighbours were Irish also I'm aware that few Greenings lived in Ireland). By the 1891 census, Thomas was still a bricklayer but living on his own.

As I have the Greening surname, I researched and wrote a couple of books on that name family history some years ago. My second book (A Family Story) mainly traces some of descendants of two of the five sons of Nathaniel Greening, a yeoman farmer in Gloucestershire in the early 18th century.  I added a chapter on Greening criminals (chapter 15), as there were some interesting ones, although I was unable to link them to Nathaniel's lines.

I'm giving a talk in Carmarthen (West Wales) to a 'History Group', however it is on the general subject of 'preparing and publishing your own Family History' (and if it's worth what's involved?). If you click on to my website below, and then on 'family history' you will see some notes on the book. If I find any more about Frank I'll let you know.

Best wishes - Mike www.michaelgreening.com 

[Keitht]

Mike,

That's a fair way to travel so I'll give it a miss if you don't mind.

I wonder, does your family include Frank Richards Greening (1903-1999), who married Edith Sanders (1902-1975) at Ss Peter & Paul, Aston, Birmingham? It is he to whom I was originally attempting to connect the Frank Greening who is the subject of this thread.

Keith