Year of the Ripper: Frank and Bertie Aston

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 …

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 …