Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in London's West End

By Geoffrey Howse

London's West End is associated with fashion and glamour but for centuries it has had a far darker side. Geoffrey Howse has uncovered an astonishing catalogue of sinister deeds, some of them famous but others long forgotten. Read about spying, treason, embezzlement, regicide, robbery, forgery, religious persecution, suicide, murder and mutilation; and 'witness' horrendous punishments such as drawing, hanging, disemboweling, quartering, castration, beheading and burning. Earlier cases include the execution of Scottish patriots (1305/6) and three monks who dared to question the supremacy of Henry VIII in 1535. Such events attracted great public attention, as did the extraordinary execution of Charles I in 1649 and, in 1820, the hanging and mutilation of the Cato Street Conspiritors. The foul murder of the famous actor William Terriss, by a madman, in 1897, is featured as are several notable cases from the twentieth century including the horrific wartime murders of Gordon Cummins, the strange disappearances of the socialist MP Victor Grayson and Lord Lucan, the Charing Cross Trunk Murder as well as the mysterious death of boxer Freddie Mills.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Apr 6, 2006
• ISBN: 9781781596616

Book preview

FOUL DEEDS AND SUSPICIOUS DEATHS Series

Wharncliffe’s Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths series explores, in detail, crimes of passion, brutal murders and foul misdemeanours from early modern times to the present day. Victorian street crime, mysterious death and modern murders tell tales where passion, jealousy and social deprivation brought unexpected violence to those involved. From unexplained death and suicide to murder and manslaughter, the books provide a fascinating insight into the lives of both victims and perpetrators as well as society as a whole.

Other titles in the series include:

Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Birmingham, Nick Billingham

ISBN: 1-903425-96-4. £10.99

Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Bolton, Glynis Cooper

ISBN: 1-903425-63-8. £9.99

Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Colchester, Patrick Denney

ISBN: 1-903425-80-8. £10.99

Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Coventry, David McGrory

ISBN: 1-903425-57-3. £ 9.99

Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths Around Derby, Kevin Turton

ISBN: 1-903425-76-x. £9.99

Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in & around Durham, Maureen Anderson

ISBN: 1-903425-46-8. £9.99

Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in London’s East End, Geoffrey Howse

ISBN: 1-903425-71-9. £10.99

Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Hampstead, Holburn & St Pancras, Mark Aston

ISBN: 1-903425-94-8. £10.99

Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Hull, David Goodman

ISBN: 1-903425-43-3. £9.99

Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths Around Leicester, Kevin Turton

ISBN: 1-903425-75-1. £10.99

Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Manchester, Martin Baggoley

ISBN: 1-903425-65-4. £9.99

Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Newcastle, Maureen Anderson

ISBN: 1-903425-34-4. £9.99

Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Newport, Terry Underwood

ISBN: 1-903425-59-X. £9.99

Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in and Around Scunthorpe, Stephen Wade

ISBN: 1-903425-88-3. £9.99

More Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Wakefield, Kate Taylor

ISBN: 1-903425-48-4. £9.99

Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in York, Keith Henson

ISBN: 1-903425-33-6. £9.99

Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths on the Yorkshire Coast, Alan Whitworth

ISBN: 1-903425-01-8. £9.99

Please contact us via any of the methods below for more information or a catalogue.

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Dedication

This book is dedicated to a true Londoner

Tracy P Deller

Who loves the West End

First Published in Great Britain in 2006 by

Wharncliffe Books

an imprint of

Pen and Sword Books Ltd

47 Church Street

Barnsley

South Yorkshire

S70 2AS

Copyright © Geoffrey Howse 2006

ISBN: Paperback 1-84563-001-7

eISBN: 9781844682997

The right of Geoffrey Howse to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Contents

Introduction

Acknowledgements

Sources and Further Reading

A Map of the Parish of St Paul’s, Covent Garden from Stow’s Survey of 1755. Author’s collection

Introduction

London’s West End, as distinct from West London, which is quite different in all respects (West London being those relatively modern London Boroughs to the West of the metropolis, the West End being at the heart of it), is contained within a relatively small area. The West End is not as clearly defined as that part of London popularly referred to as the ‘Square Mile’, the City of London, which has remained London’s financial district since the ancient Roman city was founded over two thousand years ago. The West End is largely situated within the ‘other city’, the City of Westminster, founded a thousand years later. The City of Westminster grew around Westminster Abbey, founded by Edward the Confessor, Saint and English King, born c.1003, who reigned from 1042–66, and his palace of Westminster, now the Houses of Parliament. The West End of today lies largely within Westminster itself, and partly in the modern London Borough of Camden and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. As well as incorporating some of the most famous theatres, hotels, shopping streets and arcades in the world, the West End has been, for centuries, the place where the monarch and other members of the Royal Family, aristocratic, noble, wealthy, fashionable and famous, usually kept a London residence. The West End’s identity has always been jealously guarded to keep it special and to distinguish it from that part of London east of the Tower of London known as the East End, which has a very distinctive character and history, but not as those from the West End would have it, as important and distinguished as their own. Whereas the East End largely grew up along the River Thames and the eleven Tower Hamlets, over many centuries, dating principally from early Norman times, the West End’s development as a fashionable area of any significance can be roughly dated to the closing decades of the sixteenth century, when the area began to be developed on a large scale and theatres and other places of entertainment became an important feature. Despite the supposed gentility of the West End, there has been a considerable amount of foul deeds perpetrated there, as you will see in the chapters that follow.

The West End consists of parts of the City of Westminster and includes Mayfair, Belgravia, parts of Victoria, Knightsbridge, Bayswater, Marylebone, Fitzrovia, Holborn and Bloomsbury, Strand, Piccadilly, St James’s, Adelphi, St Giles, St Martin’s, Soho and Covent Garden. Within these areas are other smaller districts which have their own individual characters. The present day Oxford Street, formerly known as Tyburn Road, could be said to bisect the West End but not quite in equal portions. It was along this thoroughfare that condemned prisoners were brought on their way to be executed at Tyburn, situated where Edgeware Road meets Oxford Street in the vicinity of Marble Arch.

Within the pages of this book you will find many references to Tyburn and to prisoners being drawn to their executions there. To clarify what drawing actually meant and to avoid confusion, here is a brief explanation. There were three kinds of drawing. In the vast majority of cases drawing means dragging to the place of execution, where hanging disemboweling and quartering followed. But drawing sometimes means dragging till the sufferer died of the mere dragging. In some cases drawing means tugging by horses in opposite directions till the sufferer was torn to pieces. Drawing in any of its forms appears to have been extremely unpleasant, and usually had only one outcome, death.

I have attempted to present as truthful and honest account as possible and wherever practicable have given my source information. I apologize unreservedly for any errors or omissions.

An early nineteenth century engraving of an execution outside Newgate Gaol. Author’s collection

Acknowledgements

Iris Ackroyd, Keith Atack, Vera Atack, Susan Barnes, Anna Blackburn, Joan Bostwick, Christine Boyce, Robert (Bob) Alan Dale, Kathleen Dale, Iris J Deller, Joanna C Murray Deller, Ricky S Deller, James Friend, John Goldfinch, Doris Hayes, Ann Howse, Doreen Howse, Kathleen Howse, Richard Huggett (1929–2000), Dr Hidayat Hussein, Tammy Jones, Brendan E McNally, John Marsh, Eleanor Nelder, Stanley Nelder, Dr Declan O’Reilly, Jackie Thomas, Julia Wiggett, Helen Vodden, Katie Vollens, Adam R Walker, Christine Walker, Darren J Walker, David Walker, Ivan P Walker, Paula L Walker, Suki B Walker, Dave Webster and Terry Webster of D Webster and son, Clifford Willoughby, Margaret Willoughby, Whittington Hospital social work team, the staff of the British Library, the staff of the British Library Newspaper Archive, Colindale, the staff of the Guildhall Library, the staff of the National Archive, Kew. I would particularly like to thank John D Murray who has assisted me over many years.

The Idle Apprentice executed at Tyburn, as depicted by William Hogarth (1697–1764) Author’s collection

CHAPTER 1

Foul Deeds and Murder through the Ages, 1236–1984

Tyburn Tree has its First Victims 1236

… he should hang so long as anything should be left whole of him.

In Tyburn Tree Its History And Annals by Alfred Marks, a fascinating volume which refers to the text of many rare and ancient documents, what is believed to be the first record of Tyburn Tree reads:

1236 About this time some bold but rash nobles in England, seduced by we know not what spirit, conspired together, and entered into an execrable alliance to ravage England like robbers and night-thieves. Their design, however, became known, and the chief of the conspiracy – to wit, Peter de Buffer, one of the king’s doorkeepers – was taken prisoner, and by him others were accused. In order to whose execution a dreadful machine called a gibbet, was set up in London, and on it two of the chief conspirators were hanged, after having engaged in single combat. One of them was killed in the fight, and was hanged with his head cleft open, and the other, hanged alive, breathed forth and his wretched life on the same gibbet amid the lamentations of the assembled multitude.

The site of Tyburn Tree on the traffic island at the junction of Edgeware Road with Bayswater and Oxford Street, close to Marble Arch. A bronze plaque, close to the bollard in the right foreground, marks the spot. The author

Execution of a Spy 1295

… he should hang so long as anything should be left whole of him.

Having being discovered spying for the French and found guilty of treason, judgement on Sir Thomas Turberville was pronounced by Sir Robert Brabazun, on the great dais in Westminster Hall, that he should be:

… drawn and hanged, and that he should hang so long as anything should be left whole of him.

Sir Thomas was drawn on a fresh ox-hide, and one chronicler wrote that he was so drawn that he might not die too quickly. He was drawn from Westminster to the Conduit of London in Cheapside, and then back into the West End to the gallows at Tyburn.

Cruel Deaths of the Scottish Patriots 1305 & 1306

If he is of nobler blood than the other parricides, he shall be hanged higher than they.

On 23 August 1305, Sir William Wallace, champion of Scottish independence (captured near Glasgow and brought to London), was firstly drawn from Westminster to the Tower of London and from there to the place of execution, where he was hanged on a specially constructed high gallows, before being cut down alive, disembowelled and quartered. The place of execution as most chroniclers insist, was undoubtedly Tyburn. ‘The Elms’ is mentioned in Chronicles of the reigns of Edward I and Edward II, although this term has been used for both The Elms at West Smithfield, as well as The Elms at Tyburn. The sentence ordered that Wallace’s head should be exposed on London Bridge. This is the first recorded instance of a severed head having being exposed there. His quartered body was displayed in Newcastle, Berwick, Perth and Stirling. In 1306 there were two further executions of Scottish leaders. On 7 September Symon Frisel (Fraser), was hanged as a thief, beheaded as a murderer, then the body was hung on a gibbet for twenty days before it was burnt. The head was fixed on a pole upon London Bridge, near the head of Wallace. On 7 November, the Earl of Athol, who claimed to be of royal lineage, was executed. Edward I said of him, ‘If he is of nobler blood than the other parricides, he shall be hanged higher than they.’ Lord Athol was brought to London and condemned at Westminster. Then, as he was of royal descent, instead of being drawn to the place of execution, he rode on horseback. He was hanged on a gallows fifty feet high. Then let down, half alive, so that his torment might be the greater, very cruelly beheaded (the chronicler does not say exactly how this was done), then the body was thrown into a fire, that had previously been kindled in sight of the sufferer, and reduced to ashes. The head was placed on a spike on London Bridge but higher than the other ‘traitors’, in regard to his royal descent.

Quartering of An Embezzler 1377

He was first drawn most uncomfortably to the place of execution …

In April 1377, Sir John Menstreworth was executed at Tyburn, having being found guilty of embezzlement. Sir John had embezzled large sums of money entrusted to him by no less a personage than the King (Edward III) himself, for payment of His Majesty’s soldiers in France. The traitorous knight had fled to Pamplona in the kingdom of Navarre, where he was captured and brought back to London. He was first drawn most uncomfortably to the place of execution, then hanged and afterwards he was cut down and his body was divided into four quarters and sent to four principal cities in England. Sir John’s head was placed on a pike on London Bridge, where it remained for ‘a long time’.

Monks Suffer at Tyburn 1535

… these blessed fathers be now as cheerfully going to their deaths as bridegrooms to their marriage …

On 18 June 1535, three monks of London’s Charter House, named Thomas Exmew, Humphrey Middlemore and Sebastian Newdigate, were drawn to Tyburn, hanged and quartered, for denying the King’s supremacy. Sir Thomas More (1478–1535), distinguished statesman and scholar (canonized 1935), himself shortly to be executed, in July, for similar reasons (in his case he was beheaded and spared any mutilation, at the express command of the King, because he had held the highest office in the land. His execution shocked educated Europe), saw them from his cell, being taken out of the Tower and said to the lieutenant of the Tower’s wife:

Lo, dost thou not see, Meg, that these blessed fathers be now as cheerfully going to their deaths as bridegrooms to their marriage? Wherefore mayest thou see, mine own good daughter, what a great difference there is between such as have in effect spent all their days in a strait, hard, penitential and painful life religiously, and such as have in the world, like worldly wretches as thy poor father has done, consumed all their time in pleasure and ease licentiously. For God, considering their long continued life in most sore and grievous penance, will no longer suffer them to remain here in this vale of misery and iniquity, but speedily hence taketh them to the fruition of his everlasting deity. Whereas thy silly father, Meg, that like a most wicked caitiff hath passed forth the whole course of his miserable life most sinfully, God, thinking him not worthy so soon to come to that eternal felicity, leaveth him here yet still in the world, further to be plunged and turmoiled with misery.

Murder and Mutilation in Long Acre 1687

She was found guilty of petty treason and sentenced to death.

In 1687, Mary Aubrey, a midwife, murdered her husband and chopped off his head and limbs, in Long Acre, Covent Garden, assisted by her young son. She was found guilty of petty treason and sentenced to death. A verdict of petty treason, considered more serious than murder, was established when any person out of malice took away the life of someone to whom he or she owed special obedience. For instance, as in this case, a wife murdering her husband, or a servant killing his or her master or mistress, or an ecclesiastic his superior. However, a wife’s accomplices in the murder of a husband would not be guilty of petty treason. Mary Aubrey was hanged and then burned at Tyburn. Her son was acquitted as he was considered to have only acted under his mother’s coercion.

Mary Aubrey dismembering her husband’s body, assisted by her young son, in 1687. Her hanging and burning at Tyburn is depicted top left. Author’s collection

A Fortuitous Reprieve 1705

He said the pain he felt in hanging was infinitely surpassed when his blood was recovering its usual course of circulation.

John Smith was condemned to die at the Old Bailey, on 5 December 1705 for burglary, he was convicted for breaking into shops in Leadenhall Market and stealing fifty pairs of shoes, one hundred and forty-eight pairs of gloves and twenty-two pairs of stockings. On 12 December 1705, he was conveyed from Newgate to Tyburn. James Montague in The Old Bailey Chronicle 1700–83 writes:

After hanging five minutes and a quarter, a reprieve was brought … The malefactor was cut down and taken with all possible expedition to a public house where proper means was pursued for his recovery, and with so much success that the perfect use of all his faculties was restored in about half an hour.

There are some members of the criminal classes who simply do not seem to be able to mend their ways. Having survived this dreadful ordeal any reasonably minded person would have counted themselves extremely lucky and mended their ways. One would have thought Smith would not have wished to place his life in peril again, particularly when one bears in mind his own account of his experience on the dreaded ‘Triple Tree’. Smith said that when he was first turned off he felt excessive pain, but that it almost immediately ceased. The last circumstance he recollected was like an irregular and glimmering light before his eyes. He said the pain he felt in hanging was infinitely surpassed when his blood was recovering its usual course of circulation. He was known thereafter as half-hanged Smith.