 A few days before the execution , Bury confessed to Reverend Gough that he had killed Ellen . At the urging of Gough , William wrote a confession on 22 April 1889 , which he asked to be withheld until after he was dead . William claimed that he had strangled Ellen without premeditation on the night of 4 February 1889 during a drunken row over money , and that he had tried to dismember the body for disposal the next day but was too squeamish to continue . The latter part of this confession does not match the expert testimony of the physicians , who said that the incisions were made " within at most ten minutes of the time of death " rather than the next day . William stated he had stuffed Ellen 's body into the crate as part of a later plan for disposal , but instead concocted the suicide story when he realised that Ellen 's absence would be noted . 
