The Maul and the Pear Tree: The Ratcliffe Highway Murders 1811

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Just before midnight on 7 December 1811, the Marrs were in their shop and residence preparing for the next day's business when an intruder entered their home. 7 December fell on a Saturday, then pay day for many British working people and the busiest day of the week for shopkeepers. Charing Cross and Victoria stations still remain, and the former still offers a Left Luggage service although responsibility for any dismembered corpses found within has been outsourced.

In a fashion, although the Ratcliffe Highway (now simply named The Highway) has changed a lot since 1811. John Williams became a main suspect in the case after the maul that had been used in the Marr family murder was linked to a sailor who lodged at the Pear Tree Inn, where Williams also stayed. He had the opportunity to take the maul, whilst his behaviour after the murders was seen as suspicious, and his clothing was reported to be torn and bloody. Ablass was a seaman who had sailed with Williams aboard Roxburgh Castle. He had a history of aggressive behaviour and had been involved in the unsuccessful mutiny aboard the ship, and was placed in confinement afterwards, while Williams was thought to have simply been led astray by his shipmates. Ablass was drinking in company with Williams at The King's Arms on the night of the murders, and was a far better match for Turner's description of the killer. He was also lame, matching the earlier eyewitness description of one of the men running up the Highway after the first murders, and was unable to account for some of his time on the nights of both murders. He was detained as a suspect. When evidence emerged that Marr, Williams and Ablass had all served together as seamen before Marr went into business on his own, it was suggested that there were links, and possibly old scores to settle, between the three. The story finally came to an end two and a half weeks later when the police located remaining members of the gang hiding out in a house in Sidney Street, but not before a firefight lasting seven hours which has also become notorious –‘the siege of Sidney Street’. Can I visit the crime scene?Seven people were murdered altogether. Although a possible suspect was eventually apprehended, he hanged himself before he could be properly questioned, and the murders were never conclusively solved.

The Kentish Gazette, 31 December 1811, detailed yet more suspects. Sylvester Dryscoll was arrested because some ‘bloody breeches [were] found in his possession.’ A groom named Anthony Aldmond was taken into custody because: Here, all is tinged with malevolence. “Buildings,” Wilson writes, “were always crime scenes,” and even the poetry of nature is laden with threats. “ Lyrical Ballads contained a message De Quincey understood: Consciousness is a guilt-ridden voyage and wisdom comes at the cost of misery, solitude, and sympathy with life in all its modes.” Wilson’s prose is at its best in such lines, when she mirrors and amplifies De Quincey’s own style. “De Quincey’s writing,” she notes, “always resounds like an echo chamber;” the clauses ricochet off each other, spiraling upwards, occasionally creating cacophony but more often a swelling noise of terror and awe. Guilty Thing is less unruly but still captures that propulsion that drives De Quincey’s greatest writings. The police were in no doubt, and both Adelaide Bartlett and George Dyson were brought to trial in April 1886. On either side of the way are poor, squalid shops. Through- [-79-]out the day the road and the pavement are crowded with barrows laden with fish, and never says nothing to us. S'elp me Cot, vot vith railvays an' Sailors' Homes, there'll soon be no living inWorsley is Joint Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces but is best known as a presenter of BBC Television series on historical topics, including Elegance and Decadence: The Age of the Regency (2011), Harlots, Housewives and Heroines: A 17th Century History for Girls (2012), The First Georgians: The German Kings Who Made Britain (2014), A Very British Romance (2015), Lucy Worsley: Mozart’s London Odyssey (2016), and Six Wives with Lucy Worsley (2016). What little clothing she was wearing was stained with curious marks, and a foam-like substance was to be found around her mouth. Rivett was the nanny to the three children of her mistress, Veronica Lucan -better known as Lady Lucan, the wife of Richard John Bingham, the seventh Earl Lucan.

All three had been bludgeoned to death – using, it was later presumed, a bloodstained hammer which was located in the couple’s bedroom. The newspapers seem to have held little doubt that he was the Ratcliff Highway killer; whether it was a sense of inevitable injustice or a guilty conscience that led him to take his own life before legal judgement was passed is a mystery which died with him. The hours passed without discernable benefit for the besieging force. Midway through the morning Home Secretary Winston Churchill gave permission for the army to be used and in a short time a detachment of the Scots Guards turned up. Their participation transformed the situation. Equipped with powerful Lee Enfield rifles the soldiers virtually shot the second floor to pieces, forcing the duo to move downstairs and fire from the first and ground floor windows. But here too they were subject to a galling fire.Those who had seen the corpses testified and the surgeon who had examined them also gave his report. The jury returned a verdict of willful murder by a person or persons unknown. The narrative explains how and why the readers’s original delight in the gory even sordid murders gradually developed into a preference for the more genteel country house murder mystery. For over 100 years Oxford World’s Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford’s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more. On 24 December, more than two weeks after the Marr family had been murdered and five days after the killing of the Williamson family, the maul was identified as belonging to a sailor named John Petersen, who was away at sea. The information was volunteered by a Mr Vermiloe, the landlord of The Pear Tree, who was incarcerated in Newgate Prison for debt. Constables searched the premises and found Petersen's trunk, which was missing a maul. Vermiloe recalled that not only had the maul been in the chest, but that he himself had used it and was responsible for chipping it. That was a significant lead. It has been noted that the substantial reward money for information leading to the arrest of the murderers would have cleared Vermiloe's debts. Murray went to the front door to let Olney in, but stumbled across another corpse, that of Celia Marr. She lay face down, her head battered, her wounds still emitting blood. Murray let in Olney and together they searched for Timothy Marr. They found him behind the shop counter, battered to death. Murray and Olney rushed to the living quarters, and found the infant dead in his crib, which was covered with blood. One side of the infant's face had been crushed and his throat had been slit so that his head was nearly severed from his body.