THE INVENTION OF MURDER EB

How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime

Judith Flanders

• Publisher: HarperPress
• Year: 2011
• eBook ISBN: 9780007352470
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: 19th Century History
• Index: History

"We are a trading community, a commercial people. Murder is doubtless a very shocking offence, nevertheless as what is done is not to be undone, let us make our money out of it." Punch.

Murder in nineteenth-century Britain was ubiquitous – not necessarily in quantity but in quality. This was the era of penny-bloods, early crime fiction and melodramas for the masses. This was a time when murder and entertainment were firmly entwined.

In this meticulously researched and compelling book, Judith Flanders, author of Consuming Passions, takes us back in time to explore some of the most gripping, gruesome and mind-boggling murders of the nineteenth-century. Covering the crimes (and myths) of Sweeney Todd and Jack the Ripper, as well as the lesser known but equally shocking acts of Burke and Hare, and Thurtell and Hunt, Flanders looks at how murder was regarded by the wider British population – and how it became a form of popular entertainment.

Filled to the brim with rich source material – ranging from studies of plays, novels and contemporary newspaper articles, A Social History of Murder brings to life a neglected dimension of British social history in a completely new and exciting way.

NOTES

Magazine and newspaper references are cited by date, article title or page number.

1: Imagining Murder

1 in the tea-urn: Thomas de Quincey, The Works of Thomas de Quincey, gen. ed. Grevel Lindop (London, Pickering & Chatto, 2000–2003), vol. 6, pp.15–16.
one a year Crime statistics for the first half of the nineteenth century are notoriously uncertain. It was only in 1856 that the Home Office began to compile national statistics; before 1843 execution figures did not even record the gender of those hanged. Interpretation, therefore, is always difficult. I have used the figures that are most generally accepted.
nearly ten million: Stanley H. Palmer, Police and Protest in England and Ireland, 1780–1850 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1988), p.164.
62 per 100,000: The EU figures come from Cynthia Tavares and Geoffrey Thomas, ‘Population and Social Conditions: Crime and Criminal Justice’, in Statistics in Focus, 15, 2007, http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KS-SF-08–019/EN/KS-SF-08- 019-EN.PDF; the remaining figures are cited in Foreign Policy Review, September 2008.

2 it was 113s.: Linda Colley, Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707–1837 (London, Pimlico, 1994), p.158.

3 the right time: These murders and John Williams’ death have been compiled from: Caledonian Mercury, 14, 16, 19, 21, 28 December 1811, 4 January 1812; Derby Mercury, 12 December 1811; Examiner, 15 December 1811; Hull Packet, 17, 24 December 1811; Ipswich Journal, 14 December 1811; Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 21 December 1811; Leeds Mercury, 14 December 1811; Liverpool Mercury, 13 December 1811; Morning Chronicle, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18, 24, 25, 27, 28, 30 December 1811, 18 January 1812; The Times, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 21, 25, 28 December 1811; Edinburgh Annual Register, January 1812; Gentleman’s Magazine, December 1811, January 1812.

4 bloodthirsty children: Patricia Anderson, The Printed Image and the Transformation of Popular Culture, 1790–1860 (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1991), p.22.
loose character and hasty temper: These broadsides are in the Bodleian Library, John Johnson Collection, in particular Crime 2.6, 2.7 and 2.8.

5 shoes with Grecian ties: Fairburn’s Account of the Dreadful Murder of Mr. Marr and Family, at their House In Ratcliff-Highway, on Saturday Night, December 7,1811; including the Whole Investigation before The Coroner’s Inquest, &c. &c. (London, John Fairburn, 1811).

7 not lame: Cited in Thomas de Quincey, On Murder, ed. Robert Morrison (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2006), pp.191–2n.
by a jury: J.J. Tobias, Crime and Police in England, 1700–1900 (Dublin, Gill & Macmillan, 1979), p.128.

8 to this mysterious gang No newspaper I have seen mentions these men after 14 December; presumably they were released for lack of corroborating evidence, or their lack of detailed knowledge of the murders.
acting on a system: Cited in Leon Radzinowicz, ‘The Ratcliffe Murders’, Cambridge Law Journal, 1956, p.40.

10 hammer, on the stairs: Dickens to Walter Thornbury, 15 September 1866, Charles Dickens, The Letters of Charles Dickens, The Pilgrim Edition, eds. Madeline House, Graham Storey, Kathleen Tillotson, et al. (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1969–2002), vol. 11, p.247; Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, ed. Peter Fairclough, intro. by Raymond Williams ([1846–8], Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1970), p.790.
undoubtedly be seen to be done: Lord Chief Justice Hewart ([1924] 1 KB 256), in the appeal to Rex v. Sussex Justices, Ex parte McCarthy.

11 through its heart: Notes and Queries, 11th ser., 5, January 1912, p.6.
Cannon Street Road: The scrapbook, with the undated reports, was cited as ‘now in the rectory of St George’s-in-the-East’ by P.D. James and T.A. Critchley, The Maul and the Pear Tree (London, Sphere, 1987), p.228.

12 Sir Thomas Lawrence: Pall Mall Gazette, ‘Some Relics at Mme Tussaud’s’, 14 August 1886. Julia Collins, the archivist at Madame Tussaud’s, says that the portrait appears not to have survived.
no traces had yet been discovered: Morning Chronicle, ‘Houses of Parliament’, 18 January 1812.
such accumulated violence: Cited in James and Critchley, The Maul and the Pear Tree, pp.185–6.

13 turnpike roads alone: Palmer, Police and Protest, p.76.
in cases of Felony: Cited in Joseph F. King, The Development of Modern Police History in the United Kingdom and the United States, Criminology Studies, vol. 19 (Lewiston, NY, Edward Mellen Press, 2004), p.22.
Middlesex Justice Bill was passed: which became the Justice of the Peace, Metropolis Act, 32 Geo.III, c.53.

14 write his own Memoirs: Attributions of authorship of the four volumes include Maurice Descombres, L.F.J.L’Héritier and Émile Morice. See Howard G. Brown, ‘Tips, Traps and Tropes: Catching Thieves in Post-Revolutionary Paris’, in Clive Emsley and Hannah Shpayer-Makov, eds., Police Detectives in History, 1750–1950 (Aldershot, Ashgate, 2006), pp.38–9; Ian Ousby, Bloodhounds of Heaven: The Detective in English Fiction from Godwin to Doyle (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1976), p.46.
original English ones: Ousby, Bloodhounds of Heaven, p.46.

15 Prevention and Detection of crimes: Patrick Colquhoun, ‘Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis’, cited in Anthony Babington, A House in Bow Street: Crime and the Magistracy, London, 1740–1881 (London, Macdonald, 1969), p.179.
and potential crime: J.M. Beattie, ‘Early Detection: The Bow Street Runners in Late Eighteenth-century London’, in Emsley and Shpayer-Makov, Police Detectives in History, p.20.

16 40 per cent: Ibid., pp.28–9.

17 criminals and their cohorts: Radzinowicz, ‘The Ratcliffe Murders’, pp.47–8.
most notorious offenders: Morning Chronicle, ‘Houses of Parliament’, 18 January 1812. shown to be absurd: Cited in James and Critchley, The Maul and the Pear Tree, p.181. Fouché’s contrivances: David Taylor, The New Police in Nineteenth-century England: Crime, Conflict and Control (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1997), p.19. beleaguered fortress: Thomas de Quincey, On Murder, ‘Postscript’, p.98. This volume includes the key essays de Quincey wrote on the aesthetics of murder, which initially were published as: ‘On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth’, London Magazine, 8, October 1823,pp.353–6; ‘On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts’, Blackwood’s Magazine, 21, February 1827, pp.199–213; ‘Second Paper on Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts’, Blackwood’s Magazine, 46, November 1839, pp.661–8; ‘Postscript’, Selections Grave and Gay (Edinburgh, 1854), pp.60–111. There is also a short story, ‘The Avenger’, which appeared in Blackwood’s Magazine, 44, August 1838, pp.208–33.

18 colossal sublimity: De Quincey, On Murder, p.10.
an orange and a lemon colour: Ibid., p.100; clothes, p.101.
than street thug I owe this interpretation to Laurence Senelick, ‘The Prestige of Evil: The Murderer as Romantic Hero from Sade to Lacenaire’, PhD thesis, Harvard University, 1972, pp.138–46.

19 copious effusion of blood: De Quincey, On Murder, p.32.

2: Trial by Newspaper

22 more than one jurisdiction: Kellow Chesney, The Victorian Underworld (Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1972), pp.267, 269.

23 performing the part: George Borrow, Lavengro; The Scholar – the Gypsy – the Priest ([1851], New York, Dover, 1991), p.157.
for their skins: Eric Partridge, A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 5 th edn (London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1961).
and metropolitan thieves: George Borrow, The Zincali; or, An Account of the Gypsies of Spain, 4th edn (London, John Murray, 1846), p.13.

24 damages went to Thurtell’s creditors: The newspapers covered this bankruptcy hearing thoroughly. See in particular: Bristol Mercury, 30 June 1823; Aberdeen Journal, 19 November 1823.

25 postponed pork: Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, ed. Adrian Poole ([1864–5], Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1997), p.673.

26 to do and commit: The life, crimes, trial and execution of Thurtell are compiled from: Aberdeen Journal, 19, 26 November 1823; Bell’s Life, 29 June 1823, 2, 9, 16, 30 November, 7,

14 December 1823, 11, 18 January 1824; Bristol Mercury, 30 June, 3, 10, 17 November 1823; Caledonian Mercury, 6, 8, 13, 15, 17, 19 November, 11 December 1823; Derby Mercury, 5, 12 November, 10, 31 December 1823; The Englishman, 7 December 1823; Examiner, 22 September 1823, 19 October, 2, 9, 30 November, 7, 21 December 1823, 11 January 1824; Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle, 10 November 1823; Ipswich Journal, 28 June, 8,

15 November 1823; John Bull, 3, 10, 17, 24 November, 8 December 1823, 12 January 1824; Leeds Mercury, 22 November 1823; Manchester Guardian, 31 January, 13 March 1824; Morning Chronicle, 31 October, 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 14, 17, 19, 26, 28 November, 6, 15, 29 December 1823, 7, 8 January 1824; Norfolk Chronicle, Supplement, 3, 17 January 1824; Observer, 24 November 1823; a collection of contemporary cuttings relating to the trial and execution, British Library, shelfmark 6497.d.1. There are numerous contemporary accounts. A good summary can be read in Edward Herbert, ‘A Pen and Ink Sketch of a Late Trial for Murder, in a Letter from Hertford’, London Magazine, February 1824; others include [Anon.], Fairburn’s Edition of the Whole Proceedings on the TRIAL of John Thurtell, and Joseph Hunt, for the Wilful Murder of MR WEARE, in Gill’s-Hill Lane … (London, John Fairburn, [1824]); Anon., The Fatal Effects of Gambling Exemplified in the Murder of Wm. Weare, and the Trial and Fate of John Thurtell, the Murderer… (London, Thomas Kelly, 1824); Anon., A Full Account of the Atrocious Murder of the Late Mr. Weare … (London, Sherwood, Jones, 1823); Anon., A Narrative of the Mysterious and DREADFUL MURDER of MR W. WEARE, containing The Examination Before the Magistrates, The Coroner’s Inquest, The Confession of Hunt, And other Particulars previous to the Trial… (London, J. McGowan, [1824]); Anon., The Trial of Hunt and Thurtell, for the Murder of Mr. Weare, with their Defence … (London, B. Dickenson, [1824]); Pierce Egan, Pierce Egan’s Account of the Trial of John Thurtell and Joseph Hunt (London, Knight & Lacey, 1824); and his Recollections of John Thurtell, who was Executed at Hertford On Friday, the 9th of January, 1824; for Murdering Mr. W. Weare … (London, Knight & Lacey, 1824). Twentieth-century sources include Eric R. Watson, Trial of Thurtell and Hunt (Edinburgh, William Hodge, 1920); Albert Borowitz, The Thurtell—Hunt Murder Case (London, Robson, 1988).

28 nearly a century: Thomas Boyle, Black Swine in the Sewers of Hampstead: Beneath the Surface of Victorian Sensationalism (London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1990), p.47; Senelick, ‘The Prestige of Evil’, p.81.

31 community in the world: Jim Davis and Victor Emeljanow, Reflecting the Audience: London Theatregoing, 1840–1880 (Hatfield, University of Hertfordshire Press, 2001), p.44; and Michael R. Booth, Theatre in the Victorian Age (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991), pp.4, 79.
held 1,200people: Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor ([1861], NY, Dover, 1968), vol. 1, p.18; Douglas A. Reid, ‘Popular Theatre in Victorian Birmingham’, in David Bradby, Louis James and Bernard Sharratt, eds., Performance and Politics in Popular Drama: Aspects of Popular Entertainment ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• CONTENTS
• TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS
• A NOTE ON CURRENCY
• ONE Imagining Murder
• TWO Trial by Newspaper
• THREE Entertaining Murder
• FOUR Policing Murder
• FIVE Panic
• SIX Middle-Class Poisoners
• SEVEN Science, Technology and the Law
• EIGHT Violence
• NINE Modernity
• NOTES
• SOURCES
• SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
• INDEX
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• By the same author
• Copyright
• About the Publisher