The murder of Wolf Myers by John Curtis 1767

The murder of Wolf Myers by John Curtis 1767, an engraved coin, a man hanging from a gibbet 'I. CURTIS ALIAS CURTEL HUNG IN CHAINS NEAR SARUM MAR 14 1768', rev. 'FOR THE ROBBERY AND MURDER of WOLF MYERS Dec 28 1767', 36 mm.

Suspected of the brutal murder of a Jewish pedlar, Wolf Meyer, in 1767, sailor John Curtis was tracked to his ship, H.M.S. Achilles, then berthed in Gosport. Brought back to Salisbury he was convicted and hanged, and his body was then suspended in chains near the scene of the murder.

The Salisbury Journal recorded at the time that "the body of a person who had been most barbarously murdered, was found thrown into a pit ...about two miles from [Salisbury].... round the head lay several large flint stones; and not far from the place...the blade of a large knife....there appeared to be a large fracture in the skull, a deep and mortal stab in the lower part of the belly from the groin upwards.....Upon enquiry he appeared to be a travelling Jew, Woolfe by name.."

Circumstances drew suspicion on a sailor who had claimed that he himself had been assaulted and robbed. Apprehended aboard H.M.S. Achilles, and found in possession of various incriminating items such as a pedlar's box, he was "executed for murder....and afterwards hung in chains near the place where he had committed the fact".

John Curtis (or possibly Courtine "a Portugeze [sic]") was 27 years of age, and he denied his guilt to the last.

Reference: Captain B.H. Cunnington, 'Some 18th and 19th Century Wiltshire Tokens.'