body in the cylinder

The "body in the cylinder" refers to the body of a man discovered within a partially sealed steel cylinder on a derelict WWII bomb site in Liverpool, England.

After the summer of 1943, the cylinder went largely unnoticed. A local witness, Norman Garner of 278 Great Homer Street, stated that he had seen people use the cylinder as a seat and children often played with it. About two weeks prior to the discovery of the body, witnesses saw children rolling the cylinder across from some waste land in Great Homer Street to Claudia Street. The metal cap to the closed end of the cylinder was bolted in place.

Williams was declared bankrupt on 10 March 1884. The inquest hypothesised that Williams had left his family home due to financial difficulties and was sleeping in the cylinder at what were assumed to be his business premises. Somehow the cylinder became sealed and he asphyxiated. It was thought that his disappearance may have been interpreted in 1885 as deliberate absconding in order to avoid his creditors; working one's passage to another country via ship was not an unknown method of escaping debt at the time.

According to records obtained by the inquiry, Williams's wife was buried alone in Liverpool but no records of the death of Williams or his burial in Liverpool could be found. Indeed, there were no records in England and Wales of a T. C. Williams being buried. T. C. Williams had one son born 1859. The inquiry sought relatives of Williams but had no success at the time.