The suspect under arrest was Emma Aston, a 39-year-old factory worker accused of murdering her two young sons. She had suffocated them both, first twelve-month old Frank and then two year-old Bertie. It took a long time for the eldest to die, for he was old enough to put up… You must be a paid […]
Category Archives: 1888
Year of the Ripper: Charlotte Whale
The small town of Isleworth in Middlesex was known for its aristocratic mansions and fruit gardens. In 1888 it was also home to a large factory run by the Pears soap company, one of a new breed of businesses in late Victorian Britain. Pears was an international giant, selling to… You must be a paid […]
Year of the Ripper: Clarence Longman Jnr
On 11 October 1889, a young soldier in the 29th Steel Battery of the Royal Artillery at Newbridge Barracks in Ireland made a sudden confession. “I wish to give myself up,” Private Edwin Shuttleworth told his sergeant-major. ‘What for?’, came the reply. Shuttleworth was in already in trouble for leaving… You must be a paid […]
Year of the Ripper: Elizabeth Bartlett
Fifty-six-year-old Elizabeth Bartlett was known in her neighbourhood on the Isle of Dogs in east London as a hard working and industrious woman who ran a shop selling cakes and milk. By contrast, her husband Levi Bartlett had earned a reputation for eccentric and sometimes violent behaviour that deteriorated even… You must be a paid […]
Year of the Ripper: David Cavalier
At 8.30pm on Sunday, July 8, a 22-month-old boy was playing on the pavement outside his home in Warner Place, Bethnal Green, east London. David Cavalier ought to have been safe. Further down the road two plain clothes policemen were patrolling. There was no traffic and all seemed quiet. Then… You must be a paid […]