Percy Toplis was born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England, on August 22nd 1896 and died, shot dead while on the run, on June 6th 1920. Accused of murder (1920), he was to be the first person in modern English history to be found guilty in his absence by inquest. he had his tongue cut out before burial, and was buried in an unmarked grave in Penrith's Beacon Edge Cemetery on June the 9th.