The Invention of Murder (80 page)

385
of Eugene Aram: Tyson, Eugene Aram, p.61.
died raving mad: Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, p.238. of this episode: Davis, Britannia Diaries, p.153.
eye looked away:
My main sources of information for Dickens’ readings are Philip Collins,
Charles Dickens: The Public Readings
(Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1975), and Malcolm Andrews,
Charles Dickens and His Performing Selves: Dickens and the Public Readings
(Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2006). Collins,
Dickens and Crime,
pp.25, 265–71, is also extremely helpful.

386
advanced in years:
Dickens,
Bleak House,
pp.403–4; the
Bath Chronicle
piece was reprinted in
The Times,
‘A Detective in His Vocation’, 17 September 1853; George Thomas Lowth,
High Places
(London, Hertford, 1861), vol. 2, p.207.

387
no difficulty:
National Archives, PRO, HO 45/9442/66692; Charles Tempest Clarkson and J. Hall Richardson,
Police!
(London, Field & Tuer, 1889), p.274; ‘Complete Sensational Library’, Anon.,
Reaping the Whirlwind: A Detective Story
(No. 7, London, n.p., [1890?]), pp.9–10.
for several hours:
The disguises appear in:
The Sign of Four,
‘A Scandal in Bohemia’, ‘The Man with the Twisted Lip’, ‘The Final Problem’, ‘The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax’ and ‘The Empty House’.
person’s incognito:
Walter Benjamin, ‘The Paris of the Second Empire’,
Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings,
ed. Michael W. Jennings (Cambridge MA, Belknap, 2003), vol. 4, p.27.
of the artiste: The Times,
28 September 1887, p.3.

393
slow and painful:
The case of Mary Ann Cotton has been compiled from:
Daily News,
26 February, 7 March 1873;
Illustrated Police News,
31 August, 16, 30 November 1872;
Leeds Mercury,
24 October 1872;
Lloyd’s Weekly,
20 September 1872;
Manchester Guardian,
26, 28 September, 2, 5, October, 11, 12 December 1872, 22, 26 February, 6, 7, 14, 21, 25 March 1873;
North Wales Chronicle,
3 August 1872;
Northern Echo,
24 March 1873;
Observer,
6 October 1872;
Reynolds’s Newspaper,
30 March 1873;
The Times,
7 October 1872, 8 March 1873. Arthur Appleton,
Mary Ann Cotton: Her Story and Trial
(London, Michael Joseph, 1973) is invaluable, encompassing much of the local newspaper coverage.
execution accomplished:
‘Wholesale Poisoning Case in the County of Durham’ (London, [printer illegible], [1873]), Bodleian Library, Firth c.17(99); ‘Execution of Mary Ann Cotton, at Auckland, County Durham’ (no place of publication, printer, [1873]), Bodleian Library, Firth c.17(98); ‘Trial, Sentence, & Condemnation of Mary Ann Cotton, the West Auckland Secret Poisoner’ (no place of publication, printer, [1873]), Bodleian Library, Harding B 12(184); ‘Execution of Mary Cotton, at Durham, for the West Auckland Poisonings’ (no place of publication, printer, [1873]), Bodleian Library, Harding B9/3.217.
a new touring version:
Ellis and Comer, ‘The Red Barn’.

394
freak storm:
The advertisements for Mary Ann Cotton in Madame Tussaud’s appeared in
Reynolds’s,
and in editorial matter in
Lloyd’s,
in April and May 1873; advertisements appeared in the
Illustrated Police News
from 3 May through June 1873. For the display history, the catalogues of Madame Tussaud’s in the British Library list the model from 1875 through an (undated, but 1890s) catalogue. By 1905, the model no longer appears. The Thornley show:
John Bull,
31 October 1874, p.745.
after the execution:
The title and date of the show are noted in Appleton,
Mary Ann Cotton,
p.134, but not the source of this information.
the following year: Bell’s Life,
‘Coquetdale Meeting’, 29 August 1874.
a penny a pair: Cited in Clive Emsley, Hard Men: Violence in England since 1750 (London,
Hambledon, 2005), p.58.

398
words at night:
Lucy Brown,
Victorian News and Newspapers
(Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1985), p.13.
columns, on Monson:
The comparison is made in Curtis,
Jack the Ripper,
p.13.

399
he was released:
The account of the death of Cecil Hambrough and the trial of Monson, as well as Monson’s later history, have been compiled from:
Aberdeen Weekly Journal,
31 August, 1, 4, 5, 9, 14 September, 3, 14 October, 4, 23 November, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24 December 1893, 24 January 1894;
Birmingham Daily Post,
31 August, 1 September 1893, 19, 20 January 1894;
Daily News,
2, 4, 6, 14 September, 6 October, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 December 1893, 17 January 1894;
Glasgow Herald,
29, 30, 31 August, 4, 5, 7, 9, 14 September, 2 November, 8, 13, 14, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 December 1893;
Graphic,
16 December 1893;
Illustrated Police News,
9, 16, 23 September, 21 October, 16, 23, 30 December 1893;
Lloyd’s Weekly,
3, 10, 17, 24 September, 1, 8 October, 5 November, 17, 24, 31 December 1893, 3, 17 February 1895;
Pall Mall Gazette,
19, 29, 30 September, 9 October, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 22 December 1893, 6, 7, 9, 10 April 1894, 29 January 1895;
Reynolds’s Newspaper,
3, 10 September, 17, 24 December 1893;
The Times,
1, 5, 9 September, 5 October, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 26, 30 December 1893, 15, 17, 19, 29, 24, 25, 30 January 1894, 29, 30, 31 January 1895. The Monson vs Tussaud case: 1 Q.B. 671 and
National Observer,
2 February 1895, p.313. Twentieth-century accounts of the trial can be found in William Roughead,
Classic Crimes;
John W. More,
Trial of A.J. Monson
(Edinburgh, William Hodge, [1908]). The Monsons’ own take on the events is related in A.J. Monson,
The Ardlamont Mystery Solved, to which is appended Scott’s Diary
(London, Marlo & Co., 1894), while Mrs Monson’s views appeared in the magazine
To-Day,
23 July, 6, 13, 20 and 27 August 1898.
on to the floor: Graphic, 14 April 1894, p.434.

400
Hambrough’s body: Aberdeen Weekly Journal,
p.1, 28 December 1893;
Liverpool Mercury,
p.1, 13 January 1894;
Western Mail,
‘Local Amusements’, 27 December 1893.

402
becoming a tutor:
C.L. Pirkis,
The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective,
pp.48ff. Pirkis published six Loveday Brooke stories in the
Ludgate Monthly
between February and July 1893, with one more following in 1894; she then stopped writing, and founded the Canine Defence League.

408
agreed: guilty:
The case of Eleanor Pearcey has been compiled from: Old Bailey trial transcript, ref. t18901124–43;
Aberdeen Journal,
27, 30 October, 12 November, 18 December 1890;
Belfast News-Letter,
24 December 1890;
Birmingham Daily Post,
4, 27 November, 22, 25 December 1890;
Bristol Mercury and Daily Post,
1, 3, 4, November, 4, 6, 22, 27 December 1890;
Daily News,
4, 10, 12 November, 4, 24 December 1890;
Glasgow Herald,
2 December 1890;
Hampshire Telegraph,
21 March 1891;
Illustrated Police News,
1, 22, 29 November, 6, 13, 20, 27 December 1890;
Ipswich Journal,
8 November 1890;
Leeds Mercury,
28 October, 1 November, 30 December 1890;
Liverpool Mercury,
30 October 1890;
Lloyd’s Weekly,
26 October, 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 November, 7, 14, 21, 28 December 1890, 15 March 1891, 26 December 1897;
Northern Echo,
28 October 1890;
Observer,
26 October, 2 November, 14, 21 December 1890;
Pall Mall Gazette,
27, 28, 29, 30 October, 1 November, 4 December 1890;
Reynolds’s Newspaper,
2, 9, 16 November, 14, 21, 28 December 1890, 4 January 1891;
The Times,
27, 28, 29, 30 October, 3, 4, 12, 19 November, 2, 3, 4, 24 December 1890;
Western Mail,
31 October, 24 December 1890, p.5. F. Tennyson Jesse,
Murder and its Motives
(London, William Heinemann, 1924), gives a good overview; Melville L. MacNaghten,
Days of My Years
(London, Edward Arnold, 1914), should be treated with caution.

409
executed if found guilty: Figures in Wilson, Murderess, pp.315–16.
demand for the paper:
Catling,
My Life’s Pilgrimage.
Catling mistakenly dates the murder and subsequent reporting to October 1900, not 1890.

411
to be excluded: Evening Standard,
19 April 1886, cited in Clarke,
Pimlico Murder,
p.206;
Pall Mall Gazette,
‘Occasional Notes’, 4 December 1890;
Women’s Penny Paper,
13 December 1890, p.120.
in the Perambulator:
The information that Madame Tussaud’s purchased all the goods from Mrs Pearcey comes from two documents cited by Chapman,
Mme Tussaud’s Chamber of Horrors,
pp.99–100. I have found Chapman unreliable, and indeed the clipping she cites from
Lloyd’s
she dates 24 November, although from its content it was written after the verdict, which was handed down on 3 December. Therefore I have made some judgements about who might have sold what, based on who probably owned the goods.
Leeds Mercury,
30 December 1890, p.4, noted that on display, along with the tableau, were the receipts for the purchase, ‘signed by Mrs. PEARCEY herself and the landlord’. Joseph Tussaud’s comment can be found in the
Pall Mall Gazette,
‘The Value of Murderers’ Relics’, 28 October 1892. Hertford Gaol purchase: Pamela Pilbeam,
Mme Tussaud and the History of Waxworks
(London, Hambledon and London, 2003), p.179. Frank Hogg’s moustache, and the price of the pram:
Western Mail,
‘Hogg Sold His Beard’, 24 December 1890. No other source suggests that Hogg sold his wife and child’s clothes, and Madame Tussaud’s did not seemingly display a receipt from Hogg, but the clothes are particularly itemized in the advertisements, and it therefore appears likely it was he who would have been entitled to sell them.
the first three days: Pilbeam, Madame Tussaud, p.179.
see that, now: Punch,
‘At the Regent Street Tussaud’s’, 17 January 1891, p.25.

413
who go rogue:
Wiener,
Men of Blood,
pp.146–7;
Biographical and Descriptive Sketches of the Distinguished Characters which Compose the Unrivalled Exhibition and Historical Gallery of Madame Tussaud and Sons
(London, M’Corquodale, 1889); Anthea Trodd,
Domestic Crime in the Victorian Novel
(Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1989), pp.158–9. The two Sherlock Holmes stories are ‘The Adventure of the Speckled Band’ and ‘The Adventure of the Copper Beeches’, both 1892.

414
fell swoop: Licensed Victualler’s Mirror,
‘Between Ourselves’, 4 November 1890 and 9 December 1890.

419
a guilty verdict:
The case of Israel Lipski is compiled from: Old Bailey trial transcript, ref. t18870725–817;
Illustrated Police News,
6, 20, 27 August 1887;
Lloyd’s Weekly,
3, 31 July, 7, 14, 21, 28 August 1887;
Pall Mall Gazette,
29 June, 1 July, 13, 15, 16, 18, 20, 22 August 1887;
Reynolds’s Newspaper,
3, 31 July, 21, 28 August 1887;
The Times,
29 June, 2, 4, 15, 30 July, 1, 15, 19, 22, 23, 25 August 1887. Martin L. Friedland,
The Trials of Israel Lipski
(London, Macmillan, 1984), is invaluable, and I have relied heavily on it for the account both of the trial and the later campaign in the
Pall Mall Gazette.
Lipski’s solicitor, J. Hayward, produced a pamphlet,
The Case of Israel Lipski now Lying under Sentence of Death for the Murder of Miriam Angel
(London, 1887), but I have been unable to locate a copy.

422
Lipsky’s awful fate:
Anon., ‘The Whitechapel Tragedy: Condemnation of Lipsky’ ([London], Taylor & Smith, [1887]).
anonymous – contribution:
The verses are cited by Friedland,
Trials of Israel Lipski,
p.176, but the suggestion that they may have been written by a
Pall Mall Gazette
journalist is my own.

423
kills himself Israel Zangwill, ‘The Big Bow Murder’, in E.F. Bleiler, ed., Three Victorian Detective Novels: The Unknown Weapon, by Andrew Forrester; My Lady’s Money, by Wilkie Collins; The Big Bow Mystery, by Israel Zangwill (New York, Dover, 1978).
Jekyll commits suicide: Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and Other Stories, ed. Jenni Calder ([1886] Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1979).

424
details of a hanging: Punch,
‘The Strange Case of Dr. T. and Mr. H.’, 6 February 1886; sales figures: July 1886, Stevenson,
Letters,
vol. 5, p.275; sermons: Ibid., 25 May and 18 September 1886, pp.259, 322;
Pall Mall Gazette,
‘The Nightmare at the Lyceum’, 7 August 1888.
to improve the world: Pall Mall Gazette,
October 1888 issues, passim, collated in Christopher Frayling, ‘The House that Jack Built: Some Stereotypes of the Rapist in the History of Popular Culture’, in Sylvana Tomaselli and Roy Porter, eds.,
Rape: An Historical and Cultural Enquiry
(Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1986), p.191.
Rainhill murderer:
Whittington-Egan,
William Roughead,
p.308.