William Suffolk

William Suffolk was a murderer who killed Mary Beck, who had ended her affair with him, in the parish of North Walsham in Norfolk, England. He was sentenced to death and was hanged at Castle Hill in Norwich on 24 March 1797, gaining the nickname Bloody Will. After no surgeon claimed his body, his gibbeting was ordered on the outskirts of North Walsham. The gibbet remained with his bones inside until the enclosure of the land. His remains were buried and the gibbet's wood was used for housing.

Early life William Suffolk was born in the village of Swafield, near North Walsham. By 1797 he was 46 and married with four children, was living with his long-widowed father, and was working his family smallholding.

Murder of Mary Beck At this time Suffolk had a relationship out of wedlock with his neighbour Mary Beck, resulting in her becoming pregnant; they went to "the grass counties", and she gave birth to the child in secret, before both were "confederate" in the killing of the child. The pair later returned to their respective households. and sentenced to death on 17 March 1797. On 24 March, Suffolk was executed on Castle Hill in Norwich, on common land on the outskirts of North Walsham. It is not clear where this gibbet exactly resided; one source stated that it was on a hill between the between the town and Royston Bridge, and another stated that it stood by Gibbett Loke which led from Hamlet House to Melbourn House.

Suffolk's gibbet was taken down the same year that the parish was enclosed. The remains of Suffolk, largely having been depleted by souvenir hunters, were buried without ceremony in June 1803. The gibbet post was cut up and used for building cottages at Knapton, with one of the beams being preserved at Royston House until it was given to "a distant museum".