East End Murders: From Jack the Ripper to Ronnie Kray

159 Pages·2009·4.91 MB·English

by  Neil R. Storey

East End
MURDERS
From J R
ACK THE IPPER
to R K
ONNIE RAY
East End
MURDERS
From J R
ACK THE IPPER
to R K
ONNIE RAY
N R. S
EIL TOREY
First published 2008
The History Press
The Mill, Brimscombe Port Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG
www.thehistorypress.co.uk
Reprinted 2010, 2011, 2013
This ebook edition first published in 2013
All rights reserved
© Neil R. Storey, 2008
The right of Neil R. Storey to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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EPUB ISBN 978 0 7524 8445 7
Original typesetting by The History Press
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. The Ratcliffe Highway Murders
1811
2. The Businessman, the Actress & the Dismembered Mistress
Henry Wainwright, 1875
3. To Kill an Angel
Israel Lipski, 1887
4. The Autumn of Terror
Jack the Ripper, 1888
5. Jack’s Back?
The Murder of Frances Coles, 1891
6. The Whitechapel Newspaper Shop Murder
Conrad Donovan & Charles Wade, 1904
7. Blood on the Streets
The Tottenham Outrage, the Houndsditch Murders & the Siege of Sidney
Street
8. Second Time Around
William Cronin (1897 & 1925)
9. Axe Murder at the Palace
John Frederick Stockwell, 1934
10. Murder at The Blind Beggar
Ronald Kray, 1966
Select Bibliography
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
T
he author would like to express his gratitude to the following: above all my
thanks go again to Stewart P. Evans for his enduring friendship, knowledge
and generosity. It would be remiss of me not to thank the wonderful Rosie too
for her kind and thoughtful hospitality. Again it has been a pleasure and
privilege to meet such fascinating people while indulging in some of the darkest
research; I would particularly like to acknowledge Don Rumbelow for his advice
on the chapter ‘Blood on the Streets’. I would also like to thank Tower Hamlets
Local Studies Library, Whitechapel Library, Dr Stephen Cherry, Colin and
Rachel Stonebridge, Les Bolland, Clifford Elmer Books, Philip Hutchinson,
Robert ‘Bookman’ Wright, Elaine Abel, Great Yarmouth Library and of course
my dear family, beloved Molly and son Lawrence for their support and love for
this author and his research.
INTRODUCTION
I
n this volume I shall be taking you on a journey through the history of murder
in the East End. Tragically murder, manslaughter, accidents and suicides have
brought death to these streets on many occasions, be it wrought in the pursuit of
crime – perhaps a theft, a rape, a robbery gone wrong – or perhaps during a
drunken brawl; some of these crimes are bizarre, vengeful, gross, debauched,
mad or just plain bad. All happened here. I do not attempt to retell every one of
them but I have chosen what, I trust you will find, are a selection of the more
fascinating cases, from the Regency period to the Swinging Sixties, every one of
them infamous, some of them terrifying the populace in their day and all of them
with some curious aspects and twists of fate or horror to intrigue the modern
reader.
So often while I pursue and investigate the stories of crime in the nineteenth
and early twentieth century I would like to be able to travel back in time and ask
a question, examine the site for myself before time changed it beyond recall and
talk to the investigating officers. When considered in contrast to the long scale of
history these cases are often, frustratingly, fairly recent. We can be fairly certain
visits were made by criminologists in the days, years or decades after the crimes
while events were still in living memory, but these visits are seldom recorded…
but I have found one.
Come back with me to 19 April 1905, when a young barrister named S.
Ingleby Oddie met up with his friend Dr Gordon Brown at the Police Hospital,
Bishopgate. Oddie was allowed to bring some friends with him, and the entire
party consisted of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Professor Churton Collins, Harry
Brodribb ‘H.B.’ Irving, Dr Crosse and three detectives from the City of London
Police. Thus were gathered together some of the finest crime writers and medical
experts of their day – who then embarked upon a tour of the Jack the Ripper
murder sites led by Dr Brown, the man who had conducted the post-mortem on
Catherine Eddowes. He also examined the body of Alice Mackenzie, and took
part in the investigation into the Pinchin Street torso, accompanied by detectives
well versed in the case. Tragically one can only imagine the conversation as the
group made their journey around the murder sites little changed since the blood
first ran across the cobbles in 1888; however, in his book Inquest (1941), Oddie
did record his impressions of the places they visited and undoubtedly reflected
some the comments and impressions shared by the other members of the group: