The Severed Hand

A DigitalNZ Story by Donna Robertson

On 16 December 1885, at Taylor’s Mistake, a bay already clouded in mystery and maritime drama, a hand was found by two men fishing off the rocks. Identified by a ring still on it, the hand was claimed by a Mrs Sarah Howard as being that of her husband. Mr Arthur Howard’s clothing had been found on Sumner beach on 11 October the same year. Mr Howard, who was a mechanic had life insurance to the value of ₤2,400 - a considerable amount of money for this time. The sum Mrs Howard stood to gain from her husband’s demise, as well as several other aspects of the case, raised police suspicions. This led to the two fishermen and Mrs Howard being arrested for conspiracy to defraud an insurance company. Mr Howard was later tracked down in Petone, at a YMCA picnic (both hands intact) and was arrested. The hand was later identified as that of a woman but despite the exhumation of several graves in an attempt to discover the hand’s owner, to this day the identity of the woman is not known. http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/Heritage/Places/Public/Taylors-Mistake/

severed hand, crime, fraud, Christchurch