by Sarah Wise
prisons
children in
floating, or “hulks”
religious reform and
vagrants in
prosecutors, private
prostitutes
pubs. See also specific pubs
order of visits to
as resurrectionist meeting places
Pye Corner (meat market)
Quadrant (County Fire Office)
Quakers
Queen Square magistrates office
Radicals
Randall, John
Reform Act (1832)
Reform Bill (1831), defeat of
civil unrest following
satirized as “burking”
resurrectionist(s) (body snatchers)
Anatomy Act and effort to end
anatomy schools pay, not to supply rivals
Bishop’s success and early arrests as
Brookes’s dispute with, over prices
convictions and punishments for
demise of, as trade
fiction on
gangs and
Holywell Mount feud among
lack of historical information on
May becomes
meeting places and
methods of
number of
panic over murders by
payments to, by surgeons for legal costs
piecing together criminal careers of
prices for corpses and
slang names for
tools of
Williams becomes
Revelations of Prison Life (Chesterton)
Rex v. Lynn (1788)
Reynolds, George William MacArthur
Richardson, Ruth
Rippingille, Edward
Rockingham Arms pub
Roe, Mr.
Ronchatti, Alexander
Ross, Eliza
Rotch, (magistrate)
Rowan, Charles
Royal College of Physicians
Royal College of Surgeons of England
Russell, Rev. Dr. Whitworth
St. Albans, duchess of, Harriot Mellon
St. Albans, duke of
St. Andrew’s parish, Holborn
St. Bartholomew’s Hospital
St. Clement Danes Church burial ground (Green Ground)
St. Clement Danes workhouse
St. Giles parish
St. Leonard’s Church
St. Luke’s
St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields watch house
St. Mary’s parish
St. Matthew’s parish
St. Pancras parish
St. Pancras workhouse graveyard
St. Paul’s Church
St. Paul’s parish
St. Thomas’s Hospital. See also United Hospitals of St. Thomas’s and Guy’s
Scharf, George
Scotland Yard, Detective Branch
Scott, Sir Walter
Seagrave, James
settlement system
Sewell, Sir John
Shearing, John
Shearing, Thomas
Shepherd, Thomas Hosmer
Shields, Michael
appearance of
arrest of
attitude of
Bishop’s confession and
Bow Street magistrates hearings and
career of, in resurrection trade
charges vs., dropped
coroner’s inquest and
meeting places and
Pigburn murder and
social ostracism of
trial and
Shoreditch
workhouse
Signs of Murder (Hunter)
silk trade
Simpson, Abigail
Simpson, Constable
Slaughtering of Horses Bill (1824), defeat of
sledge beggars
Smirke, Robert
Smirke, Sydney
Smith, George
Smith, J. T.
Smith, John Gordon
Smith, (missing youth)
Smith, Mr. (St. Bartholomew’s Hospital)
“Smithfield bargain”
Smithfield (Smoothe Field)
changing attitudes toward
markets and slaughter houses of
passageways and criminality in
“snotter-haulers”
Soane, John
Society for Foreigners in Distress
Society for Relieving the Houseless Poor
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Society for the Suppression of Juvenile Vagrancy
Somerville, Dr. James Craig
Soup Society
South, Dr. John Flint
Southey, Robert
Spencer-Warren, Mary
Spitalfields
Spitalfields Gang (body snatchers)
Spoor, James
Starbuck, Charles
Statute of Apprentices, repeal of (1814)
Stow, John
Strand
streets
entertainers
who has right to be in
Stringall (body snatcher)
Stuart, Lord Dudley Coutts
“Student of 1815, A”
subpoenas
Sue, Eugène
Sullivan, William
Sunday Times
Sun (newspaper)
surgeons. See also anatomists; medical profession
allow public to view dissection
attacked by Radicals
Bow Street magistrates hearings and
cost of corpses for
education of
fears of murder to supply
Old Bailey trial and
Pigburn case and
resurrectionist’s legal expenses and
secrecy of, about dissections
urged not to accept fresh corpses
Surgeons Hall
Survey of London (Stow)
Sussex, duke of, Augustus Frederick Hanover
Tale of Two Cities, A (Dickens)
Taunton, Samuel
Tavernor, Thomas
Taylor, Ann
Taylor, Joseph
Thames river
Thames River Police
Thomas, Joseph Sadler
arrest and
arrests of Sarah and Rhoda and
background of
Bishop children and
Bow Street magistrates hearings and
charge against Bishop and Williams and
coroner’s jury praises
on darkness of London streets
evidence amassed by
identification of Italian Boy and
“information received” and
life of, after executions
May’s list and
Old Bailey trial and
Pigburn murder and
Shields and
vagrant children and
witnesses and
Thurtell, John
Tighe (Tye), Robert (James Kettle or Cattle)
Tilt, Charles
Tim Buc Too (street-crossing sweeper)
Times
Tindal, Sir Nicholas Conyngham
Tories
Town Swamps and Social Bridges (Godwin)
Trader, Thomas
Trench, Sir Frederick
Trial and Execution of the Burkers for Murdering a Poor Italian Boy, The (broadsheet)
Trueby, John
Trueby, Sarah
Trueby family
Turner, Elizabeth
Tuson, Edward
Twyford, Samuel
typhus epidemic of 1837–38
Tyrrell, Frederick
unemployment
Unicorn tavern
unions
United Hospitals of St. Thomas’s and Guy’s. See also Guy’s Hospital; St. Thomas’s Hospital
University College
urbanization
Vagabondiana (Smith)
vagrancy. See also poor and destitute
Vagrancy Act (1824)
arrest of Italian boys under
“vagrant collectors”
Vaughan, Sir John (Baron)
Vaughan, (resurrectionist)
Vaux, James Hardy
Victoria, Queen of England
Vidocq, Eugène-François
vivisection
vote, expansion of
Waddy, James
Wade, John
wages
Waithman, Alderman
Wakely, Thomas
Walsh, Caroline
Wandsworth policing
Warburton, Henry
Ward, Edward
Ward, John
Warner, Elizabeth
Warren, Mrs., tomb of
weaving trade
Weekly Dispatch
Weeks, James
Welch, Catherine
Wellington, duke of
West, (tailor)
West End
Westminster Hospital
Weston, Jane
Whackett, (gravedigger)
White, Charles (victim of attempted burking)
White, (magistrate)
White, (murdered Lincolnshire drover’s boy). See also drover’s boy from Lincolnshire
Whitechapel
Wigley, Thomas
Wild, Jonathan
Wilkinson, William
William IV, King of England
Williams, Morris Meredith
Williams, (publican)
Williams, Rev. Dr. Theodore (vicar of Hendon)
background of
confessions and
newspaper reports and
Williams, Rhoda Bishop (Rhoda Head, stepdaughter and half-sister of Bishop, wife of Williams)
confessions and
executions and
life of, after execution
marries Williams/Head
Old Bailey trial and
Pigburn murder and
taken into custody
Williams, (runaway boy)
Williams, Thomas (East End body snatcher), name of, possibly borrowed by Head
Williams, Thomas (of Eaton), name of, possibly borrowed by Head
Williams, Thomas (originally Thomas Head, aliases William Jones, John Head)
appearance of
arrest of
attempt of, to sell boy’s corpse
background of
Bishop’s confession and
body of, after execution
Bow Street magistrates hearings and
charges vs.
clothes of, exhibited by executioner
confession of
confession of, additional reported after death
confession of, official
coroner’s inquest and
criminal career of
Culkin and
execution of
exonerates May
lack of evidence vs.
language of
likeness of, after death
man waves goodbye to, at Old Bailey
medical profession and
name and aliases of
note to Russell before execution
Nova Scotia Gardens cottage of
Old Bailey trial of
phrenology of skull of
physiognomy of skull of
Pigburn murder and
plaster casts of head sold
in prison after trial and
resurrection trade and
Sarah Bishop on
verdict vs.
Wilson, “Daft Jamie”
Wilson, John
women
abandoned
missing
sold by husbands
Wontner, John
Wood, Alderman (sheriff of City)
Wood, Charles (blind beggar)
Wood, Thomas (alias Buxton or Cox)
Wood, Thomas (undersheriff)
Woodcock, Hannah
Woodcock, William, Jr.
Woodcock, William, Sr.
Wordsworth, William
workhouse paupers, attempted burking of
workhouses
working classes. See also lower classes
workingmen’s organizations
About the Author
SARAH WISE is a historian of Victorian England, with a special focus on poverty and class, criminal justice, urban architecture, and the city in literature. Also a journalist, she has written for The Guardian, The Observer, and The Independent on Sunday, as well as Marie Claire and other magazines. The Italian Boy is her first book. She lives in London.
Metropolitan Books
Henry Holt and Company, LLC
Publishers since 1866
115 West 18th Street
New York, New York 10011
Metropolitan Books™ is a registered trademark of Henry Holt and Company, LLC.
Copyright © 2004 by Sarah Wise
All rights reserved.
Published simultaneously in the United Kingdom by Jonathan Cape, London.
First Edition 2004
eISBN 9781466867802
First eBook edition: March 2014
* “Stanch” or “staunch” meant trustworthy, loyal. It had a secondary meaning: close, private, tight-lipped, and it could be that Bishop was indicating Williams’s ability to be discreet—essential for successful body snatching.
* There is a striking similarity between this passage and the paragraphs in chapter 52 of Oliver Twist that describe Fagin’s trial at the Old Bailey, and it may well be that Charles Dickens reported the Italian Boy case from the press benches.12