Hankley Common - The Wigwam Murder

The Wigwam Murder

In 1942, Hankley Common was the site of a murder. The victim was a woman who was living rough in a crude shelter made of tree branches in the manner of a wigwam, and so the newspapers gave her the nickname of "Wigwam Girl". She was eventually identified as Joan Pearl Wolfe.

On 7 October 1942, two soldiers noticed an arm protruding from a shallow grave. On inspection, the badly decomposed body of a fully clothed woman was found. A pathologist concluded that the woman had been stabbed with a hooked-tipped knife, but that the cause of death was a heavy blunt instrument and that the attack had occurred elsewhere. A police search of the common turned up the dead woman's Identity Card and a letter to a Canadian soldier called August Sangret who was of North American Indian ethnic origin. The letter informed Sangret that she was pregnant. When the police interviewed Sangret, he admitted having intimate relations with the girl and living with her in a tree wigwam. A heavy birch branch, with blood stains, was found near the grave and blood stains were found on Sangret's recently washed battledress. Later, a hooked-tip knife was found blocking a waste pipe.

Sangret was charged with Wolfe's murder, he was tried and convicted in February 1943. The jury who took two hours to reach their verdict made a strong recommendation to mercy. Before sentence of death was passed Sangret declared: "I am not guilty. I never killed that girl." Sanget's appeal was dismissed and he was hanged at Wandsworth Prison on 29 April 1943.