The murder is solidly documented. James Davies, a former miner from Stourbridge, went out on his beat on the night of 27 February 1885 and did not come back. His body was found in a field. Ghosts of Redditch says it was surrounded by dead chickens and had more than forty stab wounds, and that he had been looking into animal thefts by local poachers. Moses Shrimpton, a known poacher, was traced and tried for the murder.
Shrimpton was hanged by James Berry in the courtyard of Worcester prison on 25 May 1885. Wikipedia's entry on Berry says Shrimpton's neck muscles were weak and he was decapitated by the drop, and other sources describe him as the last man hanged at Worcester. Dates in popular accounts vary by a few days; the late-February murder and May hanging are consistent.
The ghost claim comes from Ghosts of Redditch, which says witnesses frequently report a tall, cloaked figure in a high hat, believed to be Davies still patrolling his beat, and gives no named witness or date. The page also records a goblin story and a shadow figure on the roof of Beoley Hall, covered in a separate record. The haunting is single-source; the murder is the reliable part. The pin is at Beoley village.
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