In the early hours of New Year’s Day, 1886, 41-year-old grocer Thomas Bartlett was found dead in his home in Pimlico. Investigations led to the identification of a German tailor named Franz Muller, who had attempted to pawn a gold watch chain belonging to Briggs. Charing Cross and Victoria stations still remain, and the former still offers a Left Luggage service although responsibility for any dismembered corpses found within has been outsourced. With the population of London and even the rest of Britain so disturbed, soon rewards were being demanded, so that the perpetrator or perpetrators could be brought to justice.

Lucy Worsley, OBE (born 18 December 1973) is an English historian, author, curator, and television presenter.The Ratcliffe Highway murders brought to public attention the limited abilities of London's fragmented police forces, and were one of the factors that led toward the formation of the Met in the years to come. Two hundred years later and Ratcliffe itself has disappeared (although, in another of Google Maps' curious quirks, it's still listed as an area of East London). Yet in a city that often seems fixated on the macabre, the brutal nature of these crimes, and their unsolved nature, has propped the mystery up over the centuries. And so John Williams was taken into custody. The Kentish Gazette, 31 December 1811, reports on what happened next: And yet, the main suspect was John Williams, alias Murphy, who would not live to defend himself. John Williams – Felon of Himself

John Williams’ body was exhumed a hundred years later when a water main was installed in Cable St and his skull was kept for many years as a curiosity behind the bar in the public house at the crossroads. In recent years, The Crown & Dolphin has been converted to flats but I have not been able to discover what became of the skull. Does anyone know? how much augmented is the suspicion of guilt against a man, who to escape justice, has recourse to self-destruction! All homicide is murder till the contrary shall be shewn. The law ranks the suicide in the worst class of murderers, and this is a case of unqualified self-murder. This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( July 2020) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) John Williams became a main suspect in the case after the maul that had been used in the Marr family murder was linked to a sailor who lodged at the Pear Tree Inn, where Williams also stayed. He had the opportunity to take the maul, whilst his behaviour after the murders was seen as suspicious, and his clothing was reported to be torn and bloody. For John Williams, guilty or innocent, was not to rest easy in death. His burial was just about as brutal as the murders he was suspect of committing, a barbarous end to a barbarous set of crimes.

No language can explain the grief depicted in every countenance on witnessing the coffins containing the unfortunate bodies of Mr. Marr, Mrs. Marr, and her infant. The affliction of the aged parents, the brother and sisters of the deceased was the most heart-rending spectacle. This leaves space for the reader to worry about historical details, whereas in the second half of the book, with the narrative firmly under way, the pace is so efficiently ratcheted up as to preclude all mundane questions. Until then, characters anachronistically travel by carriage when they would be far more likely to have used the river; a man reads the inscription on a coin in the street at night, quite a feat before gas lighting. More troubling is a writing style that tips from the colourful into the bizarrely baroque with phrases that sound wonderful, but don't appear to have any meaning: "the Great Public Leviathan was up and out of its chair and scooping down the atmosphere with a gigantic spoon"; or my favourite, "But revolution, like sodomy, was just another form of desire".

In the early hours of 3rd January a long file of police officers wound their way through the silent streets of the East End to Sidney Street, which runs from Commercial Road in the south to the junction of Whitechapel and Mile End Roads to the north. The officers had not been told what their mission was but they knew that it was dangerous because the married men had been excluded. Some were armed but their weapons, antique revolvers, tube rifles and shotguns, were more suited to a museum than a gun battle. and behold, so has the temper of' Moses. Snarling, like a hyena, he shows his yellow fangs, rebuketh his hand-maiden There are two notable folk songs called Ratcliffe Highway; one is a traditional folk song ( Roud 598; Ballad Index Doe114; Wiltshire 785]. The other, Roud 493, also called The Deserter and famously recorded by Sandy Denny and Fairport Convention, concerns a young man who is pressed-ganged into the navy on the Highway. gesticulation, and bright treacherous eyes ; rough, weatherbeaten men from the Arctic Seas; bronzed, hirsute fellows And even a month later, Bell’s Weekly Messengeron 19 January 1812 reports how‘The public mind continues naturally alive to every farther search and discovery respecting the late horrible murders.’

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The body was eventually identified as that of 36-year-old Minnie Bonati, the estranged wife of an Italian waiter. Who did it? The same night the initials were discovered on the maul, and twelve days after the first killings, the second set of murders occurred at The King's Arms, a tavern at 81 New Gravel Lane (now Garnet Street). The victims were John Williamson, the 56-year-old publican, who had run the tavern for fifteen years; Elizabeth, his 60-year-old wife; and their servant, Bridget Anna Harrington, who was in her late 50s. The King's Arms was a tall two-storey building, but despite its proximity to the Highway it was not a rowdy establishment, as the Williamsons liked to retire early. This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( October 2023) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) For over 100 years Oxford World’s Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford’s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.