The Invention of Murder (79 page)

355
for identification purposes: Terriss’s understudy: Daily News, 17 December p.7; Jessie Millward: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; the dog: Country Life Illustrated, 1 January 1898, p.749, and Horse and Hound, 1 January 1898, p.3.
BREEZY BILL:
Richard Le Gallienne, ‘William Terriss: In Memoriam’,
Daily News,
18 December 1897;
Fun,
21 December 1897, p.200;
Punch,
‘WT’, 1 January 1898, p.304.

359
her no provocation:
The little information on Harriet Parker that is available has been compiled from: Old Bailey trial transcript, ref. t18480131–641;
Bell’s Life,
9 January, 6, 27 February 1848;
Examiner,
8 January 1848;
Lloyd’s Weekly,
9 January, 6, 27 February 1848;
Morning Chronicle,
3, 4, 10 January, 14, 21 February 1848;
Observer,
2, 9 January, 20, 21 February 1848;
The Times,
3, 4, 10 January, 5 February 1848.

360
what I was doing:
The very scant information on Elizabeth Martha Brown has been compiled from:
Bell’s Life,
27 July 1856;
Bristol Mercury,
26 July, 16 August 1856;
Daily News,
11 August 1856;
Freeman’s Journal,
25 July 1856;
John Bull,
11 August 1856;
Liverpool Mercury,
25 July 1856;
Morning Chronicle,
11 August 1856;
Observer,
11 August 1856;
The Times,
23 July, 13, 16, 19, 23 August 1856.

361
the worst, manslaughter: The Times,
5 February 1847, p.2;
Examiner,
29 August 1846, p.547;
Daily News,
10 July 1846, p.2.
killing her husband:
Conviction rates for husband murder: Wiener,
Men of Blood,
pp.166, 130; execution rates: Philips,
Crime and Authority,
p.280.
that was extraordinary:
Hardy to Lady Hester Pinney, 1926, Thomas Hardy,
The Collected Letters of Thomas Hardy,
eds. Richard L. Purdy and Michael Millgate (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1980–87), vol. 7, p.5; cited in Michael Millgate,
Thomas Hardy: A Biography
(Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1982), p.63. See also Lady Hester Pinney, ‘Thomas Hardy and the Birdsmoorgate Murder’, Monographs on the Life, Times and Works of Thomas Hardy, No. 25 (Beaminster, Toucan, 1966). 362
again, and went on:
Thomas Hardy,
Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman, Faithfully Presented
(New York, Harper & Brothers, 1892) uses the original subtitle. The ending, however, in this American edition, is the one Hardy used in the original serialization, and later replaced: ‘“Justice” was done, and the Arch-satirist, had had his joke out with Tess,’ p.455. For the more familiar ending, see
Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman
(London, Macmillan, 1919), vol. 2, p.277. I am grateful to Audrey Jaffe, and especially to Betty Cortus, who marshalled the resources of the Hardy mailbase to untangle the publication history of these endings for me. My thanks to Richard Nemesvari, Rosemarie Morgan, Carolyn McGrath, Tony Fincham, Peter Lennon and Joanna S. Mink.
create interest: Blackwood’s,
‘Switzerland in Summer and Autumn’, p.493; Braddon,
Trail of the Serpent,
p.39.

366
Watcher of the Defective Force: Punch,
‘A Detective’s Diary’, 21 February 1863, p.180. Compare this mock detective diary with the one that appears in
Punch
during the Jack the Ripper case, p.437 – the similarities of tone and contempt for the police are striking.
disposes of same:
Charles Dickens to Wilkie Collins, Dickens,
Letters,
October 1860, vol. 9 p.331.

367
of a police spy:
The case of Mullins drew a great deal of attention. For an outline, see the Old Bailey trial transcript, ref. 18601022–874,
Daily News,
18, 21, 25, 27, 28 August, 1, 10, 11, 14, 19, 27 September, 3, 17, 26 October, 3, 20 November 1860;
Lloyd’s,
19, 26 August, 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 September, 7, 21, 28 October, 2 December 1860;
The Times,
20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 27, 28 August, 1, 3, 8, 10, 11, 18, 19, 24, 27 September, 3, 10, 26, 27, 29 October, 20 November 1860. Conan Doyle wrote a defence of Mullins for the
Strand
magazine: Arthur Conan Doyle, ‘Strange Studies from Life. The Debatable Case of Mrs. Emsley’,
Strand,
21, May 1901, pp.481–8. I can’t say I find it hugely persuasive.
part of detective-work: Forrester, The Female Detective, ‘Tenant for Life’.
the room was sleeping
‘The Somersetshire Tragedy’ (London, H. Such, [1860]), Bodleian
Library, Harding B 14 (261).
speech and confession:
The number of broadsides about Constance Kent is from Altick,
Studies in Scarlet,
p.53; the Mannings, from Hindley,
Life of James Catnach,
p.42; Collins,
Armadale,
p.140.

368
himself with contempt: Blackwood’s,
‘Judicial puzzles. – Eliza Fenning’, 89, February 1861, p.244.
managed to suppress:
The case of Constance Kent has been endlessly written about. A small sampling of the works from which the account of the murder and (later in this chapter) confession are drawn can be found in:
Daily News,
3, 6, 23, 27, 28, 30 July, 13, 14,

23 August, 8 September 1860, p.6;
Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper,
8, 15, 22, 29 July, 5, 19, 16 August, 19, 16 September 1860, 17 March 1861; p.12;
Reynolds’s Newspaper,
29 July, 19, 26 August, 16 September 1860;
The Times,
4, 12, 17, 21, 26, 28 July, 6, 14, 16 August, 3, 4, 8, 19,

24 September, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 18, 20, 22, 29 October, 6, 7, 10, 26 November, 1, 11 December 1860, 1 February 1861, 20 January 1862, 28 March 1863, 26, 27 April, 5, 6 May, 29 June, 22, 24 July 1865, 24 March, 28 August 1866;
Lancet,
15 July, 2 September 1865;
London Review,
April, May, July, September 1865;
Reynolds’s Miscellany of Romance,
June 1865. Pamphlets include: ‘A Barrister-at-Law’,
The Road Murder: Being a Complete Report and Analysis of the Various Examinations and Opinions of the Press of This Mysterious
Tragedy
(London, [n.p.],1860); ‘A Disciple of Edgar Poe’,
Who Committed the Road Murder? or, The Track of Blood Followed
(Manchester, Abel Heywood, [1860]), J.W. Stapleton,
The Great Crime of 1860: Being a Summary of the Facts Relating to the Murder Committed at Road.
(London, E. Marlborough, 1861) [this is by a friend of Samuel Kent]. More contemporary discussions of the case include: John Rhode [pseud. Cecil Street],
The Case of Constance Kent
(London, Geoffrey Bles, 1928); Yseult Bridges,
Saint – with Red Hands?
(London, Jarrolds, 1955); Ian Ousby, ‘Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone and the Constance Kent Case’,
Notes and Queries,
21:1, 1974, p.25; Bernard Taylor,
Cruelly Murdered: Constance Kent and the Killing at Road Hill House
(London, Souvenir, 1979). Kate Summerscale,
The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, or, The Murder at Road Hill House
(London, Bloomsbury, 2008) is a return to the archival sources, and is invaluable.
the fatal privy
Summerscale,
Suspicions of Mr Whicher,
pp.88, 70.

369
must be the truth: ‘A Disciple of Edgar Poe’, Who Committed the Road Murder?, p.3; Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four, p.51.
respectable position:
‘Charles Martel’ [Thomas Delf],
The Diary of an Ex-Detective
(London, Ward & Lock, 1860), p.106.
taste nor morals:
[Margaret Oliphant], ‘Sensational Novels’,
Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine,
91, May 1862, p.568.

370
revenge, and crime:
Margaret Oliphant,
Salem Chapel
(Edinburgh, William Blackwood & Sons, [1862?]), pp.215ff., 232.
pleasant club-rooms:
Charlotte M. Yonge,
The Trial: More Links of the Daisy Chain
([1864], London, Macmillan, 1888), pp.162, 188–9; Braddon,
Aurora Floyd,
vol. 3, p.287.

371
in the century:
Mary Elizabeth Braddon,
The Doctor’s Wife,
ed. Lyn Pykett ([1864], Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1998), p.12.; Conan Doyle,
A Study in Scarlet,
p.17.
discovering the perpetrator:
Henry Mansel, ‘Sensation Novels’,
Quarterly Review,
113, April 1863, pp.481–514; [Matilda C. Houstoun],
Such Things Are
(London, Saunders, Otley, and Co., 1863, pp.116–18.

372
with extreme scepticism: London Review, April 1865, p.451.

373
of eight pups: London Review,
‘Assassins’ Cartes-de-Visite’, August 1865;
Bell’s Life,
‘Greyhound Produce, &c.’, 21 January 1871.
guilty of a murder:
[Christina Broun Cameron],
Not Proven
(London, Hurst & Blackett, 1865).
she killed her child: John Harwood, Miss Jane, the Bishop’s Daughter (London, Richard Bentley, 1867).

374
for the female murderer:
The two versions are: Mrs Henry Wood, ‘St Martin’s Eve’, in
New Monthly Magazine,
99 (London, Chapman & Hall, 1853), pp.327–42; and
St Martin’s Eve
(London, Bentley & Son, 1866).
secret and vengeful: Dickens, Edwin Drood, pp.88–90.
murderous monomania: Andrew Forrester, ‘A Child Found Dead’, The Female Detective, pp.194, 183; J. Redding Ware, The Road Murder. Analysis of this Persistent Mystery … (London, W. Oliver, 1865).
of English detective-novels:
T.S. Eliot, introduction to the Oxford World’s Classics edition of
The Moonstone,
1928, p.xii. For more on the identification of J.R. Ware, see my ‘Commentary’,
Times Literary Supplement,
18 June 2010, pp.14–15.

375
prepared enigma:
‘The Enigma Novel’,
Spectator,
28 December 1861.

376
run by nuns:
Collins,
Armadale,
pp.522–3, 529.
a rose is: Doyle, ‘The Naval Treaty’, in Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, p.467.

377
or somnambulism:
Letter,
The Times,
2 August 1860, p.10.

378
without explanation: Anon., The Boy Detective.
or young adults:
John Springhall, ‘Disseminating Impure Literature: The “Penny Dreadful” Publishing Business since 1860’,
Economic History Review,
New Series 47, August 1994, pp.567–84.
hear everything: Braddon, Trail of the Serpent, pp.433, 441–2; Hayward, Revelations of a Lady Detective, p.101; Collins, The Moonstone, pp.441–3; Conan Doyle, Study in Scarlet, pp.61–2.

379
coincidence and providence:
William Travers, ‘The Boy Detective’, unpublished playscript, for performance at the Effingham Theatre, June 1867 [at the Britannia, 1867], Lord Chamberlain’s Plays, BL Add MSS 53059 (P).
roaming the streets: Petrow, Policing Morals, p.56.

380
are upon us:
Ainsworth,
Rookwood,
vol. 1, p.3.
emblematic scene:
Ellis and Comer, ‘The Red Barn’.
Tableau. Curtain:
Tom Taylor,
The Ticket-of-Leave Man,
in Rowell,
19th-Century Plays. which fools everyone:
C.H. Hazlewood,
The Mother’s Dying Child
(London, Thomas Hailes Lacy, [n.d]), vol. 64. The British Library catalogue suggests a date of 1850 for this play, but p.2 says ‘first performed at the Britannia … 1864’, and Allardyce Nicoll,
A History of Late Nineteenth Century Drama, 1850–1900
(Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1946), also dates the play to 1864. If 1850 were correct, this female detective would predate all other female detectives, and also all male detectives. It seems not only unlikely, but impossible.
tone of voice: Jerome, Stage Land, pp.73–4.

381
nothing to give:
George B. Ellis, ‘The Female Detective, or, The Foundling of the Streets’, unpublished playscript for production at the Britannia Theatre, June 1865, Lord Chamberlain’s Plays, BL Add MSS 53043 (H).
Celebrated Dog Bob:
J.F. McArdle, ‘The Dog Detective: A Dramatic Sketch’, unpublished playscript, for performance at the Surrey Theatre, October 1876, Lord Chamberlain’s Plays, BL Add MSS 53225 (E). 383
only twenty minutes:
The case of Frederick Baker has been compiled from:
Bell’s Life,
31 August, 7 December 1867;
Birmingham Daily Post,
30 August, 24 December 1867;
Daily News,
27, 28, 30 August 1867;
Hampshire Telegraph,
28, 31 August, 4 September, 4, 7, 21, 24 December 1867, 4 January 1868;
Hull Packet,
30 August 1867;
Illustrated Police News,
7, 14 September, 14 December 1867;
Leeds Mercury,
24 September 1867;
Lloyd’s Weekly,
5 April 1868;
Pall Mall Gazette,
29 August 1867;
The Times,
6, 7, 24, 27 December 1867, 9 January 1868. The
Illustrated Police News
also published a ‘special’,
The Alton Murder! The Police News Edition of the Life and Examination of Frederick Baker
(London, Illustrated Police News, [1867]); Anon.,
The Hampshire Tragedy: Being a full and true account of the Cruel Murder! of Fanny Adams…
(Norwich, Upcroft, [1867]), mirrors much of the journalism.
one idea: Tomahawk,
‘Merry and Wise’, 4 January 1868.