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 …
Tag archives: manslaughter
Year of the Ripper: Emily Roberts
On Saturday, October 16, 1888, twelve year-old Emily Roberts saw her mother and father quarrelling in the street outside 4 Essex Place in Hackney Road. They were both drunk. First her mother knocked her father to the ground with her hand, and father returned the favour by knocking mother to… You must be a paid …
Year of the Ripper: James Langley
A local guide book for 1888 described the horse-driven omnibus as “the most convenient and cheapest form of travelling from one London street to another”. Many of the services passed through Piccadilly every few minutes from early morning until midnight on the way to Hammersmith, the Strand, Liverpool Street, London… You must be a paid …
Year of the Ripper: James Williamson
James Williamson was a 53-year-old ‘rigger’ who was employed to look after the horses and cabs on the rank in Charing Cross Road not far from Leicester Square. On 22 September 1888, he was on duty when one of the drivers claimed that the paintwork on his vehicle had been… You must be a paid …
Year of the Ripper: Jane Healey
The working class area of Rotherhithe, south London, was described by Dickens as a place where the ‘accumulated scum of humanity seemed to be washed from higher grounds, like so much moral sewage.’ It was a community based around the docks and shipyards, warehouses and factories. Two of the local… You must be a paid …