Just how commonplace murder was in the East End of London in the 19th century is evident from the number of reports in the various newspapers of the day.

Many of the homicides that were reported in the press involved spouse murders – and the majority of these were of husbands murdering wives.

There were also numerous reports of prostitutes – or “unfortunates” as they were often referred to as – being murdered by their clients.

One such crime was reported by The Tewkesbury Register  in its edition of Saturday the 23rd of March, 1872:-

MURDER IN RATCLIFFE

An inquest has been held at the London Hospital, by the coroner for East Middlesex, respecting the death of Caroline Elizabeth Crew, aged 29, an unfortunate woman well known in the neighbourhoods of Ratcliffe and Limehouse, who was stabbed by a man named John Kirby, aged 19, in a house of ill-fame in York-road, Ratcliffe, on the morning of Sunday week.

ELLEN CREW’S TESTIMONY

The first witness called was Ellen Crew, the wife of a trimmer in an iron foundry, who said the deceased was her step-daughter.

The witness believed that she had got her living by charring, although witness had heard that she was a prostitute.

CLARA STEEL’S EVIDENCE

Clara Steel, of 2, York-road, Ratcliffe, deposed that, at about a quarter-past one on Sunday morning, the deceased and a young woman named Rachael Williams came into the house, when the landlord, his wife, and the witness were sitting in the kitchen.

Kirby and another young man came with them, and the accused and the deceased went together into the back kitchen.

Shortly afterwards the latter came back for a moment and then returned to Kirby.

The witness then heard a scream, and the deceased staggered into the kitchen with a knife sticking in her breast.

She pulled the knife out, and saying, “Oh dear, I am stabbed,” fell insensible to the ground.

The knife produced – an ordinary clasp-knife – was the weapon with which the girl had been stabbed.

WHY DID HE STAB HER

In answer to the coroner, the witness said that she did not know why the accused had stabbed the girl.

He had paid her six shillings, and perhaps he thought she was going to run away with it, and so he became “wild” about it.

The witness did not think the deceased intended to rob him.

She had never been, she believed, charged with robbery.

THE LANDLADY’S TESTIMONY

Jane Wynne, the landlady of the house, corroborated the evidence of the last witness, and added that when the deceased came back into the kitchen it was to give her two shillings out of the six shillings she had received.

CONSTABLE GOLDSMITH’S TESTIMONY

George Goldsmith, a police-constable, said that on the morning in question he saw Kirby running from No. 2, York-road.

Having previously heard a woman scream, the witness stopped him, when the man said, “You need not stop me. I give myself up. I have stabbed a woman.”

The witness took him into custody, and the girl Crew was removed to the hospital.

On Monday the accused was taken before the magistrate and remanded.

THE DOCTOR’S EVIDENCE

Mr. John Howell Thomas, the house surgeon at the London Hospital, described the nature of the wound, and said that it would have been produced by a knife like the one found.

The girl lingered until Thursday morning, when she died at six o’clock.

SUMMING UP AND VERDICT

The coroner having summed up, the jury, after a short deliberation, returned a verdict against John Kirby, aged 19, for feloniously killing and slaying the said Caroline Elizabeth Crew; and the coroner made out his warrant for the committal of the accused to Newgate to await his trial.