Murder Maps. Drew Gray

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      20

      PART ONE — EUROPE.

      In December 1811, two brutal sets of murders shook London and prompted calls for a more professional police force. A watchman responding to Margaret Jewell’s (dates unknown) cries for help discovered the first. Her master, Timothy Marr (c. 1787–1811), had sent her to fetch some oysters for supper. However, on her return, Margaret found the door locked and received no response to her incessant knocking, prompting the next-door neighbour and a nightwatchman to come to her aid. When they managed to enter through the back of the shop, they found a scene of horror inside. The apprentice, James Gowen (1797–1811), was lying in a pool of blood, his face shattered. Mrs Marr’s (1787–1811) body was nearby, blood still oozing from her head. Her husband was found also beaten to death and their baby boy was upstairs in his cot, his throat cut.

      The Marrs lived on the Ratcliffe Highway in Wapping, east London, an area notorious for crime, prostitution and poverty. But this crime was

      beyond the imagination of even the most hardened denizen of the Highway and it sent shock waves through the capital. When, twelve days later (19 December), another family was massacred, the panic in east London reached unprecedented heights. A crowd outside the King’s Arms pub watched as lodger John Turner (dates unknown), clad only in his underclothes, descended a makeshift rope to safety. When the onlookers broke in, they found the landlord, John Williamson (1755–1811), lying dead on the cellar steps. He had been beaten and his throat slashed, and defensive wounds to his arms testified to a forlorn attempt to save himself. His wife, Elizabeth (1751–1811), and the family’s maid were found nearby, having suffered a similar fate.