There were more unsolved murders in London than those carried out by Jack the Ripper in the 1880s.
On Saturday the 21st of March, 1891, The Birmingham & Aston Chronicle published the following article that suggested that a man had confessed to two of the murders that remained unsolved.
CONFESSION OF A MURDERER
A young man named Walter Frederick Chadwick has been arrested by the Manchester police and remanded by the local magistrates, charged with being concerned in the murder of Mrs. Samuels, at Kentish Town, in 1887, and of Miss. Lucy Clarke, in George Street, Marylebone, in the following year.
The evidence against him was founded on a confession he was alleged to have made to a woman with whom he had been living.
The Portsmouth Evening News, on Wednesday the 18th of March, 1891, went into a bit more detail:-
TWO LONDON MYSTERIES
ALLEGED CONFESSION IN MANCHESTER
Manchester, Tuesday.
At the Manchester Police-court, to-day, a respectably dressed young man, who gave the name of Walter Frederick Chadwick, was charged with being concerned in two murders in London, that of Mrs. Samuel, at Kentish Town, on the 11th March, 1887, and Mrs. Lucy Clark, in George-street, Marylebone, in 1888.
The prisoner had been living with a woman in Vine-street for about eighteen months, and to her he had made certain admissions, which came to the knowledge of the police and led to his arrest.
In answer to the charge, the prisoner said, “Very well, I can’t help it,”
Chief Inspector Jarvis, from Scotland Yard, was in attendance, and asked that the prisoner should be remanded.
THE MURDER OF MRS SAMUELS
The prisoner’s paramour, a young woman named Louisa Davies, dressmaker, was examined, and said that about nine months ago, and continually since, Chadwick had told her that one of them spotted the house where Mrs. Samuels lived, and proceeded to rob it, and when Mrs. Samuels appeared knocked her on the head.
They drove away a trap.
As to the alleged murder of his aunt, the prisoner told the witness that he had not killed her, but he had a good idea who had.
Replying to the prisoner, the witness said that he was sober when he made the statements to her, and that he distinctly stated that he struck the blow at Mrs. Samuels.
The accused was remanded.
A GOOD-LOOKING FELLOW
The prisoner, who was dressed in a fashionable suit of clothes, is a good-looking fellow, and is about 28 years of age.
He listened very attentively to the evidence, and, beyond one exception, conducted himself calmly.
He evidently appreciated the gravity of the charge made against him.
HIS BACKGROUND
It seems that the prisoner formerly lived in Duke Street, Manchester-square, and in Gloucester-street, Warwick-street, London, which city he left about two-and-a-half years ago.
He is known to the police under the aliases of Conyers and Richardson.