This is a book that tells us about the cases that the police in Scotland Yard had to deal with.. Some of them were solved and some weren't.
The firs one is he Erdware Road murder. The nude torso of a woman is found, and the vicim urns ou to be Hannah Brown. She disappeared around Christmas Eve in December 1836. Her mutilated torso was later discovered wrapped in a package on Edgware Road (December 26, 1836), with her head and limbs subsequently recovered in other London locations. Hannah's fiancé claimed during his trial that her death was accidental during an argument, though the jury rejected his story. He was convicted of willful murder and publicly hanged on May 2, 1837, outside Newgate Prison before a massive crowd. Sarah Gale, Greenacre's mistress/common-law partner, was found in possession of Hannah Brown's jewellery and attempted to flee to America with him. She was convicted of being an accessory/harboring and had her sentence commuted to transportation to Australia.
Another case was that of 21-year-old barmaid Eliza Davis. She was found murdered in the the King's Arms Wine Vaults early on the morning of 9th May 1837. She had lived at the pub for seven or eight years. Her throat had been cut, and the publican gave the description of a customer who was in the habit of coming in to the premises at about 6am when Eliza would have opened the pub up. The Pot Boy, Jones, found the scene with a large amount of blood and the police were called for. The murder investigation was led by Inspector Aggs, but was inconclusive despite lots of possible suspects paraded in front of Mr George Wadley.
Another murder was hat of Eliza Grimwood.The murder of Eliza Grimwood on May 26, 1838, is one of Victorian London's most famous unsolved crimes. Occurring in her residence at 12 Waterloo Road, South Lambeth, the brutal slaying captivated the press, exposed the underworld of 19th-century prostitution, and became a cultural touchstone that heavily influenced Victorian crime reporting and fiction. Eliza Grimwood, a 28-year-old courtesan who went by the name "Eliza Adams," shared a house with her cousin (and probable pimp), George Hubbard. On the evening of May 25, 1838, Grimwood attended the Royal Coburg Theatre accompanied by a well-dressed, well-to-do man described as having a foreign accent or distinctive dark whiskers.The following morning, Hubbard discovered her body in her first-floor bedroom. Her throat had been cut from ear to ear, and she had sustained multiple stab wounds to her torso.The case remained permanently unsolved.
Robert Westwood, invenor of the 8-day wach was killed and there was a plethora of suspects. The murder of Mr. Westwood on June 4, 1839, is another famous unsolved violent crime from early Victorian London. A well-known watch and clock maker to the Royal Household, Westwood was found brutally killed in his residence and workshop on Princes Street in Soho. Shortly after midnight on June 4, 1839, smoke was spotted rising from Westwood's premises. Firefighters and police who broke into the home found his bedroom in flames. Westwood’s body was found on the floor amidst the smoke and fire, severely burned. Examination showed he had been struck on the head with a blunt instrument, and his throat was slit from the middle to the back of his neck, severing key arteries. Despite a £100 parish reward offered for information leading to the conviction of the perpetrator and recovery of the stolen items, no one was ever successfully prosecuted for the crime.
Lord William Russell was found murdered on 6 May 1840. The murder of Lord William Russell on May 6, 1840, was one of the most high-profile crimes of Victorian London. Unlike the unsolved street murders of Eliza Grimwood and Robert Westwood, this case involving an aristocrat brought swift police action, a sensational trial, and a major legal ethics scandal that reshaped English law.On the morning of May 6, 1840, the housemaid Sarah Mancer discovered the house in disarray—silverware was scattered, drawers were pulled out, and valuables were missing, staging a apparent burglary. Suspicion rapidly zeroed in on his Swiss valet, François Benjamin Courvoisier, who had been in Lord William's service for only five weeks. Courvoisier was convicted and hanged outside Newgate Prison on July 6, 1840, before a crowd estimated at 40,000 people.
The 1842 case of Daniel Good (popularly dubbed "The Roehampton Monster") stands as one of early Victorian London's most notorious murder mysteries. On April 15, 1842, Good visited a local shop in Wandsworth to buy a pair of trousers. A boy later accused him of stealing a pair of pants while in the store. A local police constable (PC Gardner) and the shopkeeper followed Good back to the stables at Roehampton to inspect the premises for the stolen property. While searching the harness room, the constable uncovered a severed, burned human torso hidden under a pile of hay. While the officer stood paralyzed by the discovery, Good locked the constable and shopkeeper inside the stable and fled. The remains were identified as Jane Jones, a pregnant woman who had lived with Good as his common-law wife and had recently threatened to expose his bigamous relationships. On May 23, 1842, Daniel Good was publicly hanged outside Newgate Prison before a massive, unruly crowd.
On 15 August 1842 the London Metropolitan Police officially created its plainclothes Detective Branch at Scotland Yard, marking the establishment of the first regular British detective force., led by Nicholas Pearce and John Haynes.
The first cases of this new force were:
The murder of Sarah Macfarlane on April 27, 1844, was another high-profile violent crime that shocked Victorian London, occurring on Battersea Bridge. Sarah Macfarlane had been involved in an affair with Augustus Dalmas, a French national residing in London. On the evening of April 27, 1844, during a walk across Battersea Bridge, Dalmas attacked Macfarlane, cutting her throat open in a violent assault.
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