Author: Richard Jones

London is, most certainly, an ever changing city and this applies particularly to the East End of London. It isn’t difficult to see why this should be. Bordering the City of London – the wealthiest  square mile on […]

One of the most overwhelming things about the Jack the Ripper murders is just how many suspects there have been over the years. A SCARY NUMBER OF SUSPECTS Indeed, so many people have found their names put forward […]

On Monday 8th October 1888, with the Jack the Ripper murders generating huge amounts of newspaper coverage the World over, and people of the East End of London despairing that the police had any hope of catching the […]

Ploughing through the 19th century newspapers in search of stories that provide us with an insight into the social habits and norms of bygone times – particularity in relation to crimes and how the authorities dealt with perpetrators […]

On Tuesday 18th January 1887 an “appalling disaster” occurred at the Hebrew Dramatic Club – situated at the back of number 3 Prince’s-street (which is today called Princelet Street), Spitalfields – when the raising of a false alarm of […]

Until the 1830’s the only legal source of bodies for doctors, surgeons and scientists to use for medical research was the public executioner. Unfortunately for the medical fraternity, however, juries were tending to return guilty verdicts less and […]

In late November 1888, with London still recoiling at the horrific details of the brutal slaying of Mary Kelly that had taken place earlier that month, a murder took place in the Havant district of Portsmouth that bore […]

The Illustrated Police News was, in many ways, ahead of its time in the way in which it brought some truly sensational stories to its readers on a weekly basis. Indeed, reading through its pages, you really do […]

By the end of October 1889, the Jack the Ripper murders appeared to have come to an end and the people of London had resumed their everyday lives, no doubt relieved that their nightmare was over. The newspapers […]

On the 26th of April, 1836, the following article appeared in The Reformer newspaper. SUICIDE OF MR. R. SEYMOUR. Thursday afternoon an inquest was held at the King’s Arms Inn, Liverpool-road, Islington, before Mr. Stirling and a very respectable jury, […]