One of the many frustrations when you attempt to investigate unsolved crimes from the distant past is trying to ascertain the actual facts about what happened, and to resist the temptation to speculate.

The Jack the Ripper crimes are a prime example of this, since much of what is now written or stated about the case is often little more than a particular author’s interpretation of the facts, mostly with a view to proving that their pet suspect was responsible for the murders.

The Jack the Ripper atrocities aside, when you delve into the archives and discover a potential true crime tale, it can sometimes prove difficult to figure out if a crime actually did take place, since newspapers were forever picking up on stories that they quickly lost interest in, presumably because the police came into possession of information that rendered further investigation redundant.

With the loss or destruction of so many of the police records from the era, you can’t even consult the source behind a particular story, and thus you find yourself left with the ultimate mystery, in that you know that there was a mystery, but you just don’t know what the actual mystery was.

A DISCOVERY ON WHITECHAPEL ROAD

Such a case occurred in February, 1910, when workmen digging the foundations for a wall behind a parade of shops on Whitechapel Road, made a gruesome discovery that suggested that foul play had been committed thirty to forty years previous.

One of the shops, in 1910, was that of Mr. E. Levy, a trader in what were known as Manchester goods – that is household linen, and cotton goods such as sheets, pillow cases, and towels – so called because at the time Manchester was considered Cottonopolis, or centre of the cotton industry.

THE MURDER OF HARRIET LANE

The stretch of Whitechapel Road where the shop stood had blazed into infamy in September 1875, when it was discovered that Henry Wainwright, whose brush making business was located at number 215 Whitechapel Road, had murdered his lover, Harriet Lane, the previous September, and had buried her body beneath the floor of his premises.

Wainwright was heavily in debt, and in September 1875, he was forced to sell the premises.

Realising that the new owner might unearth the evidence of his awful crime, he enlisted the aid of his brother Thomas to dig up Harriet’s body, and, having done so, he cut the body up and wrapped the pieces in cloth, creating two foul-smelling parcels.

He then asked ex-employee, Alfred Stokes, to help him load the foul smelling bundles onto a cab in order to move them to a location in Borough south of the Thames.

THE SEVERED HEAD

When Wainwright went to hail a cab, Stokes became suspicious about the contents of the parcels, and so opened one of them, only to find himself confronted first by a human head, and then by a severed hand.

Quickly covering the remains up, he waited for Wainwright to return with a four-wheeler cab, helped him load the parcels aboard, and then sprinted behind the cab, notifying a policeman en route of what he had seen.

THE ARREST OF HENRY WAINWRIGHT

The two chased after the cab as it crossed London bridge, where the policeman pulled the vehicle up, and demanded to look inside the parcels.

Wainwright tried to bribe him not to do so, but the officer was insistent, and Wainwright’s crime was uncovered.

He was tried at the Old Bailey for the murder of Harriet Lane, found guilty, and sentenced to death.

WAINWRIGHT’S EXECUTION

His execution took place at Newgate Prison on the morning of December the 21st 1875, and, according to newspaper reports, he was calm and stoic as he walked to the scaffold, but, as the hood was placed over his head, his breathing became heavy and frantic.

Moments later, the trapped was pulled, and Henry Wainwright’s laboured breathing stopped.

So notorious was his crime that, had you mentioned the Whitechapel Murder or Whitechapel murderer to someone prior to 1888, it would have been the murder of Harriett Lane by Henry Wainwright that they would have presumed you were talking about.

MEMORY HAD WANED

By 1910, however, the memory of the Wainwright murder had waned in the district, and few people would have given it much thought whenever they passed the line of buildings beneath which Harriet Lane’s remains had lain between September 1874 and September 1875.

Until, that is, on Saturday the 19th of February, 1910, workmen set about digging the foundations for a wall that was to be constructed behind Mr Levy’s shop that abutted Vine Court, and made a discovery that brought memories of it flooding back.

Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper took up the story in its next day’s edition:-

SKELETON UNEARTHED IN WHITECHAPEL

Startling Discovery Recalls Grim Story of the Seventies

STRANGE COINCIDENCE

The East End police are investigating an extraordinary discovery at the back of a tradesman’s shop in the Whitechapel-road, where workmen have unexpectedly unearthed two skeletons within a short distance of the spot at which the body of Harriet Lane, victim of a memorable tragedy of the seventies, lay buried for a year.

The discovery was made by men employed by Messers. Beaumont, of Priory Works, Bromley-by-Bow, who were carrying out a contract to erect a wall at the rear of a Whitechapel-road shop and warehouse, occupied by Mr. E. Levy, who carries on a large wholesale business in Manchester goods.

TWO SKELETONS FOUND

To put in the foundations the men had to break up the concrete in the small open yard at the rear, abutting on Vine Court, and when about six or seven feet below the surface they found two skeletons – one almost complete, and the other with some of the bones missing.

Despite the damp nature of the earth, the bones were well preserved, and, although one had the appearance of being that of a woman, it was impossible to judge the sex of the other, the bones having been smashed by pick and shovel. An examination of the surrounding earth led to the belief that tunnelling operations had been undertaken in order to place the bodies in the position in which they were found.

THE DOCTOR’S FINDINGS

The police were informed of the discovery, and an examination of the bones was made by Dr. Jones, the divisional surgeon, who, beyond certifying that the remains were human and that they had been buried between thirty and forty years, could throw no light on the discovery.

The matter is now in the hands of Detective-Inspector Wensley.

The bones were removed to the mortuary, and notification sent to Mr. Wynne Baxter, the East London Coroner, but it is not expected that a public inquiry will be held.

EXCITEMENT IN WHITECHAPEL

The discovery has created some excitement in the neighbourhood, and was the subject of much discussion yesterday, owing to the fact that not far away is the shop in which Henry Wainwright murdered Harriet Lane in September, 1874. and buried the evidence of his crime in a grave at the back of his shop.

A CURIOUS FEATURE

The Nottingham Post, on Monday the 21st of February added that:-

“A curious feature of the discovery is that the human bones were mixed with a number of animal bones, the presence of which tends to deepen the mystery.

The remains were removed to the local mortuary the police, and information was sent to Mr. Wynne Baxter, the East End Coroner, whose decision as to whether he will deem it necessary to hold an inquest is being awaited with some interest.

So far as can be ascertained in the locality there is no record of a cemetery having been situated in that part of Whitechapel, and the only possible conclusion at present is that the remains are those of two victims of foul play.

AN UNDISCOVERED CRIME?

That same day The Morning Leader reported on a consensus that was forming in the district that the remains might be connected with another nefarious crime by Henry Wainwright, given that they appeared to have been placed in the earth at the time his premises were located nearby:-

“Locally it is thought that the discovery of the two skeletons – one of which is that of a female – points to further evidence of Wainwright’s villainy, more especially as an examination of the remains has elicited the opinion that they have been underground between 30 and 40 years.”

And with that, the story disappeared from the newspapers.

TWO FURTHER SKELETONS FOUND

In late April that same year, two further skeletons were found on the opposite side of the road by labourers who were working at the back of the Pavilion Theatre, and once again the press were quick to link the find to Henry Wainwright, albeit, as with the earlier discovery, there was little further mention of the after the brief initial flurry.

I can only presume that, in both cases, the Coroner, Wynne Edwin Baxter, decided that an inquest was unnecessary, possibly because the skeletons had been there for so long that solving the case would by then have been impossible, and the police reached the same conclusion.

NO REAL SOLUTION

So, as is often the case with Victorian mysteries, we are left with one that is tantalising but which, like the Jack the Ripper murders, has no effective solution.

It’s just one of so many stories that turned up, occupied the press for a few days, and then faded from the public record, leaving us with yet another mysterious case to ponder.

No doubt things went on behind the scenes, and a solution might well have been arrived at, but what it was we are annoyingly destined to remain oblivious to it, unless of course one of you has an idea as to who the skeletons might have been, and how they came to be buried on opposite sides of Whitechapel Road.