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

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Despite the occasional imbalance in the flow, I think this book is perfect for those obsessed with the history of British Crime. Some of the material is probably familiar for the aficionado, but it will still be fun to revisit it. For someone just now developing an interest in British Crime, this book could serve as a crash course and give you lots of material to research and may send you off on a few deep dives for more detailed information. When a maul was found to be missing from a chest at the Pear Tree, which also housed a ripping chisel, and a fellow lodger there told how Williams had supposedly returned home with a bloodied shirt on the crucial night of the second set of murders, his fate was all but sealed. He was arrested on December 23rd. Newspapers had little doubt of his guilt 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. All three had been bludgeoned to death – using, it was later presumed, a bloodstained hammer which was located in the couple’s bedroom. Sixty-three years after the murder of Thomas Briggs, a railway station again played a part in a sensational murder.

and behold, so has the temper of' Moses. Snarling, like a hyena, he shows his yellow fangs, rebuketh his hand-maiden value on land, are absolutely helpless at sea ; Swedes and Danes by time score-good mariners all of them; a few Russians, It would be absolutely impossible to adequately describe the frenzy of feelings which, throughout the next fortnight, mastered the popular heart; the mere indignant horror in some, the mere delirium of panic in others. The four victims were given a memorial service, then buried beneath a monument in the parish church of St. George in the East, where the infant had been baptised three months earlier. When the maul was cleaned on Thursday 19 December it appeared that some initials were carved into the handle, perhaps with a seaman's coppering punch: "I.P." or "J.P." Those who were working on the case now had a way to try to trace the owner.The hours passed without discernable benefit for the besieging force. Midway through the morning Home Secretary Winston Churchill gave permission for the army to be used and in a short time a detachment of the Scots Guards turned up. Their participation transformed the situation. Equipped with powerful Lee Enfield rifles the soldiers virtually shot the second floor to pieces, forcing the duo to move downstairs and fire from the first and ground floor windows. But here too they were subject to a galling fire. Grace's Alley – formerly Gracie's Alley, a path between Wellclose Square and the north end of Ensign Street, and home to Wilton's Music Hall Later this week and over the coming Christmas season, you may expect more reports from me upon the Ratcliffe Highway Murders as further incidents take place… In August 1886, a gas company began to excavate a trench in the area where Williams had been buried. They accidentally unearthed a skeleton, reportedly buried upside down and with the remains of the wooden stake through its torso. "It was six feet below the surface of the road where Cannon Street Road and Cable Street cross at St George's in the East." The landlord of The Crown and Dolphin, a public house at the corner of Cannon Street Road, is said to have retained the skull as a souvenir. The pub has since been renovated and the whereabouts of the skull are currently unknown. According to the Thames Police Museum, all would be brutally murdered, and another apprentice, Margaret Jewell, who had been out purchasing oysters, was the one who discovered the dead bodies upon her return. She tried to ring the bell while home, but could not hear from anyone — she alerted a night watchman and Marr’s neighbor. The neighbor, John Murray, found the bodies of the Marrs and the apprentice in the house, and screamed:

Exchange Buildings no longer exists, but standing at the junction of Houndsditch and Cutler Street you can still estimate its position. gesticulation, and bright treacherous eyes ; rough, weatherbeaten men from the Arctic Seas; bronzed, hirsute fellows Their concerns were soon realised. On 19th December, John Williamson, a publican at The Kings Arm on New Gravel Lane, a little further east along Ratcliff Highway, his wife Elizabeth and a servant named Bridget Anna Harrington were murdered during the night.A Roman bath house was excavated in 2004 by the junction of The Highway and Wapping Lane. The discovery of women's jewellery along with soldiers' possessions suggested that this location outside of the Roman walls allowed less restricted use of the baths than those in the City itself. The remains of the baths and under-floor heating system were re-buried under the car-park of a development of new apartments. [6] Song [ edit ] 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.