The Maul and the Pear Tree: The Ratcliffe Highway Murders 1811

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Here, too, we find a bonnet-shop,-a sight rather unexpected in Ratcliffe-highway; where the young ladies of time East, in In a fashion, although the Ratcliffe Highway (now simply named The Highway) has changed a lot since 1811. If you want to venture further, however, the church where George Dyson’s father once preached still stands in Llanelli, West Wales! 4. The Houndsditch Murders This leaves space for the reader to worry about historical details, whereas in the second half of the book, with the narrative firmly under way, the pace is so efficiently ratcheted up as to preclude all mundane questions. Until then, characters anachronistically travel by carriage when they would be far more likely to have used the river; a man reads the inscription on a coin in the street at night, quite a feat before gas lighting. More troubling is a writing style that tips from the colourful into the bizarrely baroque with phrases that sound wonderful, but don't appear to have any meaning: "the Great Public Leviathan was up and out of its chair and scooping down the atmosphere with a gigantic spoon"; or my favourite, "But revolution, like sodomy, was just another form of desire".

The court finally declared Williams guilty of the crimes, taking his suicide as a clear statement of his guilt. The cases against other suspects collapsed and, although Williams had not previously been connected with the murders of the Marr family, he was deemed the sole perpetrator of both.Today, Covent Garden is a popular destination for tourists in the market for expensive gifts, as well as a famous spot for street performers. The remains were matched to an arm fished from the Thames at Pimlico exactly three weeks earlier, and presumably much to the police’s embarrassment, also to a leg discovered elsewhere on the premises, not by the authorities but by the pet dog of a journalist. Who did it? This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( October 2023) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) It appears that a principal witness, Mrs Vermilloe, the landlady of the Pear Tree, had been intimidated or threatened and also that she was convinced of the innocence of John Williams. To me, John Williams’ suicide speaks of his expectation of the outcome of any trial, irrespective of whether he was guilty or innocent. He took his own life rather than live through the ordeal that he knew lay ahead. I also love my Brit-Box-(Worsely has a television version of this book currently airing on this service) and Acorn TV subscriptions too. Great crime series- from dark and gritty to light and cozy.

The police did not have to look far for their suspect – Israel Lipski, Miriam’s upstairs neighbour and a fellow Polish Jew. Charing Cross and Victoria stations still remain, and the former still offers a Left Luggage service although responsibility for any dismembered corpses found within has been outsourced. On 24 December, more than two weeks after the Marr family had been murdered and five days after the killing of the Williamson family, the maul was identified as belonging to a sailor named John Petersen, who was away at sea. The information was volunteered by a Mr Vermiloe, the landlord of The Pear Tree, who was incarcerated in Newgate Prison for debt. Constables searched the premises and found Petersen's trunk, which was missing a maul. Vermiloe recalled that not only had the maul been in the chest, but that he himself had used it and was responsible for chipping it. That was a significant lead. It has been noted that the substantial reward money for information leading to the arrest of the murderers would have cleared Vermiloe's debts. As the frightened group struggled to leave this Hellish scene they found a 'ripping chisel' close to the body of young Cowan. The chisel did not appear to have been used in the murders. Glamis Adventure Playground – an example of the London style of adventure playgrounds created in the early 1970s

In the midst of life I woke to find myself living in an old house beside Brick Lane in the East End of London

And in an added extra for the student of East End crime, it stands next to an adjoining house which bears the famous year of 1888 above its door. 6. Thomas Briggs, Britain’s first railway murder The pub to which he was taken, the Top O’ the Morning’, at 129 Cadogan Terrace, survived for many years but has now been demolished. 7. Minnie Bonati Trunk Murder Pear Tree Lane – formerly Fox's Lane, now named after The Pear Tree, the inn where the second Ratcliff Highway murders took place After the murder of the Marr family, the London Courier and Evening Gazetteis demanding that the ‘Secretary of State for the Home Department…offer a reward from Government, in addition to those offered by the Parish and the Thames Police Office.’ The newspaper hopes this would ‘afford every means for the apprehension of these sanguinary offenders.’ This book has been written to accompany a television series of the same name and does, as a consequence jump around a little in subject matter. The book begins and ends with discussion of an essay - the first being, "On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts" by Thomas De Quincey and finishes with an appraisal of "The Decline of the English Murder" by George Orwell. This is not really about crime, as such, although many crimes are discussed - it is about how, especially since the nineteenth century, the British began to "enjoy and consume the idea of a murder."

In the early hours of 3rd January a long file of police officers wound their way through the silent streets of the East End to Sidney Street, which runs from Commercial Road in the south to the junction of Whitechapel and Mile End Roads to the north. The officers had not been told what their mission was but they knew that it was dangerous because the married men had been excluded. Some were armed but their weapons, antique revolvers, tube rifles and shotguns, were more suited to a museum than a gun battle. Returning about half an hour later, having been unable to buy the oysters, Margaret found ‘the shop shut up, and the door fastened.’ Ringing ‘violently at the bell,’ no one answered, and instead the attention of a nearby watchman was gained. Intimidation alone cannot account for the extremity of the violence, but it could if the negotiation had turned bad and led to the killing of Mr Marr and his shop assistant, and then Mrs Marr too as witness. If there happened to be an unhinged individual with a violent murderous tendency among the group – someone like William Ablass – that alone can explain the murder of the baby. In this context, the Williamsons’ subsequent murder may be comprehended as damage limitation, if somehow they had learnt the truth of the earlier killings. The newspapers seem to have held little doubt that he was the Ratcliff Highway killer; whether it was a sense of inevitable injustice or a guilty conscience that led him to take his own life before legal judgement was passed is a mystery which died with him.Just before midnight on 7 December 1811, the Marrs were in their shop and residence preparing for the next day's business when an intruder entered their home. 7 December fell on a Saturday, then pay day for many British working people and the busiest day of the week for shopkeepers. In December, 1811, all London was convulsed with terror at the tidings of the horrible slaughter wreaked at 29 Ratcliff Highway and 81 New Gravel Lane, and soon, from the Prince Regent’s table at Carlton House to the tap-room of the lowest dram-shop in Wapping, the hideous subject engrossed all.