2: “Oh, my poor head; oh, my poor head”: S July 13, 1871, 6.
3: he looked at her and saw... a battered and bloody mass: OB, testimony of Donald Gunn and Michael Harris.
3: “Let me die”: T May 5, 1871, 11; OB, testimony of Donald Gunn.
3: a small pool of blood, cold and clotted into the mud: OB, testimony of Donald Gunn.
3: Two feet from the woman was a pair of women’s gloves: OB, testimony of Donald Gunn. A full description of Jane’s clothes is given in KM April 29, 1871, 4.
3: Gunn looked up and down the road: OB, testimony of Donald Gunn.
3: his sergeant, Frederick Haynes, happened to be there: OB, testimony of Donald Gunn and Frederick Haynes.
4: Haynes... jumped to the conclusion... assaulted sexually: DN May 5, 1871, 6.
4: the blood had ceased to flow from many of her wounds: MP May 5, 1871, 8.
4: She had obviously lain here for several hours: OB, testimony of Frederick Haynes.
4: “Oh, save me!”: MP May 5, 1871, 8; T May 5, 1871, 11.
4: police surgeon and medical officer of health for the district: Census Returns of England and Wales, 1871, for David King; BMJ September 6, 1873, 295; LA November 11, 1865, 554.
5: both were fresh out of Guy’s Hospital’s medical school: BMJ August 18, 1928, 325; Census Returns of England and Wales, 1871, for Michael Harris and Frederic Durham; Wilks and Bettany 488.
5: a nurse stripped off her clothing: OB, testimony of Michael Harris; Times May 31, 1871, 12.
5: She was completely unconscious and perceptibly cold from loss of blood: S July 13, 1871, 6.
5: Most of her wounds were deep and cleanly cut: Harris divulged his notes about Clouson’s injuries at both her inquest and at the magistrate’s hearings on the case, but his fullest account is in the official transcripts of Edmund Pook’s trial: OB, testimony of Michael Harris.
5: inflicted by a weapon both sharp and heavy: DN April 27, 1871, 3.
5: this woman had fought her attacker face-to-face: One early newspaper report (DN, May 1, 1871, 3) claimed that the doctors at Guy’s Hospital considered that the first blow was to the back of the head with a blunt instrument, rendering the woman immediately insensible. No other reports confirm this claim, and Dr. Harris’s various testimonies soundly contradict it.
5: her temporal bone was bashed inward: OB, testimony of Michael Harris; KM May 6, 1871, 5.
6: a horizontal three-inch trench of smashed bone... swollen brain bulged through: OB, testimony of Michael Harris; Daily News May 1, 1871, 3.
6: like all of the other wounds, recently inflicted: KM May 6, 1871, 5.
6: the doctors found no signs whatsoever that she had been assaulted sexually: KM May 6, 1871, 5.
6: Harris and Durham estimated that she was between twenty-three and twenty-five years old: DN April 27, 1871, 3, April 28, 1871, 6; S April 28, 1871, 3.
6: the thick calluses... a servant: DN May 1, 1871, 3.
6: And she was dying: DN April 27, 1871, 3; May 1, 1871, 3.
6: Dr. Harris ordered that... day and night: MP May 5, 1871, 8.
6: Sergeant Haynes examined her clothing: T May 31, 1871, 12; IPN May 6, 1871, 4; KM May 6, 1871, 5.
6: They were the walking-out clothes of a servant girl: DN April 28, 1871, 6; MP April 29, 1871, 3; T May 12, 1871, 5; OB, testimony of Michael Harris.
7: two small keys to boxes or suitcases: OB, testimony of John Mulvany.
7: James Griffin... had already come to Kidbrooke Lane: T May 31, 1871, 12.
7: Griffin was a twenty-five-year veteran of the Metropolitan Police: In Griffin’s January 1, 1846 marriage record he describes himself as a “gardener”; but by June of that year the newspapers begin reporting his activities as a police constable. Church of England Parish Registers, 1754–1921 marriage record for James Griffin; S June 30, 1846, 4.
7: appointed superintendent of Greenwich Division four years earlier: Griffin became superintendent between January 4, 1867, when a police report designates him Inspector, and January 21, 1868, when another reports him as superintendent. MP January 4, 1867, 7; January 21, 1868, 3.
7: the forensic value of footprint evidence was well known by 1871: Critchley 160.
8: He, at least, realized that the footsteps told a story: DN May 1, 1871, 3; T May 5, 1871, 11.
8: He walked north up the lane another three hundred yards: while Haynes stated during the coroner’s inquest that the brook was only ninety or a hundred yards from the scene of the crime, at both the magistrate’s hearing and the trial of Edmund Pook he claimed it to be three hundred yards away. Manchester Evening News May 5, 1871, 2; T May 5, 1871, 11; July 13, 1871, 11; OB, testimony of Frederick Haynes.
8: Haynes crossed the brook on a little plank, where he observed on the far bank a stone: T May 5, 1871, 11; WM May 31, 1871, 2; OB, testimony of Frederick Haynes.
8: The assailant, Haynes thought, had stopped on his flight northward: MT May 13, 1871, 3; S May 2, 1871, 7.
8: Another of the many officers... more potential evidence in the mud: OB, testimony of Edwin George Ovens.
9: At eight o’clock that morning... in Greenwich: OB, testimony of Thomas Layzell [sic].
9: Their cottage was about a third of a mile from the spot: T May 17, 1871, 12.
9: Lazell’s father, prostrate with gout: DN May 5, 1871, 6.
9: It was... a bloody white handkerchief: OB, testimony of Thomas Layzell [sic].
10: he had found the cloth... north from the spot where the woman had been found: OB, testimony of James Griffin. Transcripts of Lazell’s trial testimony in the Daily News (July 15 ,1871, 5) suggest that the cloth was found outside of Lazell’s own garden, but that location is speculation by Edmund Pook’s defense attorney, not a fact spoken by Lazell.
10: Later that morning, he made his way down the lane: DN May 5, 1871, 6.
10: Willis and the police thought the cloth far less valuable: DN May 5, 1871, 6.
10: the police kept the cloth... dog whistle: OB, testimony of James Griffin; DN May 5, 1871, 6.
11: he spied it lying on a bed of leaves: IPN May 6, 1871, 4; T July 13, 1871, 11; S July 13, 1871, 6; OB, testimony of Thomas Brown.
11: Its sixteen-inch handle... a string was looped: T May 3, 1871, 11; MP May 17, 1871, 7.
11: Stamped onto the steel... “J Sorby” and a trademark: T May 31, 1871, 12.
11: a magnificent almshouse... attributed to Christopher Wren: Joyce 1.
11: Brown found the hammer five yards from that footpath: IPN May 6, 1871, 4; S July 13, 1871, 6.
12: Thomas Brown carefully took up the hammer and carried it to his neighbor: OB, testimony of Thomas Brown, Lucy Brown, and Thomas Hodge.
12: Mulvany... had joined the force in 1848: London, England, Births and Baptisms, 1813–1906; London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754–1921. In John Mulvany’s 1829 baptismal record his father, Michael Mulvenny, is listed as a “servant”; in the register for Mulvany’s 1850 marriage, his father is listed as a “coachman.” Payne 27; Cobb 108.
12: As a detective... chased Irish revolutionaries—Fenians—in Liverpool and Paris: S July 31, 1865, 7; MP September 2, 1865, 7; T December 21, 1865, 11; MP February 22, 1869; T June 3, 1870, 11; T June 18, 1870, 11; Payne 79–80, 85.
12: Mulvany had already been to Eltham that afternoon: OB, testimony of Frederick Haynes and John Mulvany.
13: Indeed he would, the next day, show it to his supervisor, Dolly Williamson: OB, testimony of Frederick Adolphus Williamson.
13: The hammer... delivered into the hands of Inspector Mulvany: OB, testimony of Charles Wilson.
13: plasterers had been at work... place of assault: MP April 29, 1871, 3.
14: “take hold of my hand”: DN April 28, 1871, 6; KM April 29, 1871, 4.
14: “Emily, don’t beat me so cruelly”: S April 28, 1871, 3.
14: “Oh, Emily—Oh, Ned, don’t”: MP April 29, 1871, 3.
14: “Oh Edward, don’t murder me!”: Sheffield Independen
t May 6, 1871, 9; Morpeth Herald May 6, 1871, 3.
14: sighing “Emily” or “Sarah”: S April 28, 1871, 3; MP May 1, 1871.
14: when asked her identity, she weakly uttered “Mary Shru—”: DN May 1, 1871, 3; T May 1, 1871, 5.
14: Michael Harris... under his care: MP May 5, 1871, 8; DN May 5, 1871, 6.
15: another young woman... a little pond in Lee: DN April 28, 1871, 6; KM April 29, 1871, 4.
15: Any fears... the woman found in the pond: MP April 29, 1871, 3; S April 29, 1871, 3.
15: the woman’s parents in Peckham: Census Returns of England and Wales, 1871, for James W. and Mary A. Surridge.
15: ...police suspicion at first centered on Woolwich: DN April 28, 1871, 6; MP April 29, 1871, 3; BDP April 29, 1871, 8.
15: one soldier there was soon arrested: DN April 29, 1871, 2; BDP April 29, 1871, 8; GH April 29, 1871, 5.
15: A rifleman from Woolwich, claimed another report, had been spotted early that Wednesday morning: MP April 28, 1871, 7.
15: a sergeant of a Scotch regiment entered an Eltham beer shop: DN April 28, 1871, 6; MP April 28, 1871, 7.
16: Several came, but no one succeeded in recognizing her for certain: GH April 29 ,1871, 5.
16: George Evans... the comatose woman at Guy’s Hospital: S April 28, 1871, 3, April 29, 1871, 3; DN April 28, 1871, 6.
17: Mary Caladine slept... in the adjacent slum of St. Giles: Census Returns of England and Wales, 1871, for Mary Caladine.
17: That Christian charitable institution... “reclamation”: Ranyard 265–6; “Sketches from the Great City,” 13.
17: “lured... in an unwary moment”: Ranyard 269.
17: Jeanie Kay, came to Guy’s on the Friday...: MP April 29, 1871, 3; S April 29, 1871, 3; Census Returns of England and Wales, 1871, for Jeanie Kay. (The newspapers state the matron’s name was “Mrs. Key,” but the census entry for Jeanie Kay is conclusive.)
18: the sad story of Alice, her surname withheld: S May 1, 1871, 6; MP May 1, 1871, 4; DN May 1, 1871, 3.
18: she “fell from the path of virtue...”: S May 1, 1871, 6.
18: The matron of the home implored Alice to leave the soldiers: S May 1, 1871, 6.
19: “a companion of soldiers at Woolwich”: MP May 1, 1871, 4.
19: The chaplain of the Alice’s Greenwich home... the battered woman: MP May 1, 1871, 4; S May 1, 1871, 6.
19: the “lowest dens of infamy in Woolwich”: S May 1, 1871, 6.
19: ‘a brown barège, trimmed with brown fringe’: S May 1, 1871, 6.
19: they had already scoured the shops: DN May 1, 1871, 3.
20: the police had tracked down the London agent for J Sorby hammers: S May 31, 1871, 6; MP May 31, 1871, 3.
20: a Sorby #2 hammer was hanging by a string in the shop window: T May 31, 1871, 12; OB, testimony of Jane Mary Thomas.
20: she hadn’t heard about it: KM May 20, 1871, 5.
20: neat entries, all of them written in her hand: OB, testimony of Jane Mary Thomas.
20: The two of them scanned the book: OB, testimony of Jane Mary Thomas.
20: the larger #3 hammer sold for two pennies less than the smaller #2: T May 17, 1871, 12.
20: they were interrupted by a woman who needed a compass saw: OB, testimony of Jane Mary Thomas.
21: important enough to bring Detective Inspector Mulvany to the shop: KM June 3, 1871, 5; OB, testimony of Samuel Thomas.
21: —On the evening of Saturday, the 22nd of April: KM May 6, 1871, 5.
22: And on this Sunday, April 30... thousands came: MP May 6, 1871, 5.
22: footprints in the slushy mud had obliterated the crime scene: SI May 6, 1871, 9.
22: still visible in defiance of rainshowers of the days before: DN May 1, 1871, 3.
22: everyone sought out a souvenir: MP May 6, 1871, 5; DN May 6, 1871, 3.
22: Someone placed a rudely constructed cross at the site: MP May 6, 1871, 5.
22: These “pilgrims,” it was obvious, were overwhelmingly working-class: GDC May 13, 1871, 2.
23: “There are among us... large numbers of men and women”: DN May 8, 1871, 5.
23: “The neighborhood of Eltham at present offers a spectacle”: PMG May 10, 1871, 4.
23: “If in other and less favoured countries”: DN May 8, 1871, 5.
24: When she died, the woman was two months pregnant: T July 13, 1871, 11.
CHAPTER TWO: JANE
25: the same hour, the same minute: 9:15, according to the Times May 2, 1871, 10.
25: Trott’s home was hard by the Thames: Census Returns of England and Wales, 1871, for William Trott.
25: His father had been a lighterman... his sons would become lightermen: Census Returns of England and Wales, 1861, for John Trott; Census Returns of England and Wales, 1871, for William Trott, Alfred Trott, and William Trott Jr.; Census Returns of England and Wales, 1881, for Thomas Trott, Henry Trott.
25: That was the path... Trott’s daughters would take: Census Returns of England and Wales, 1841, for Elizabeth Hancock [Trott]; Census Returns of England and Wales, 1871, for Charlotte Trott; Census Returns of England and Wales, 1881, for Charlotte [Trott] Ives, Alice Trott.
26: two thousand descriptions of the victim: DN April 29, 1871, 2.
26: “...Aged about twenty-five years...”: R April 30, 1871, 5. The radical and sensational Reynolds’s Weekly was one of the most popular Sunday newspapers of the day and particularly popular among the working class. And Reynolds’s was the one Sunday newspaper that week which carried a full description of the victim at Guy’s. It was, therefore, almost certainly the Sunday newspaper that William Trott read on the evening of April 30.
27: Charlotte thought she knew where Jane had been last week: MEN May 5, 1871, 2.
27: her mood had altered completely: BM May 5, 1871, 3, records that Charlotte claimed of Jane “that she seemed happier than she had been during the last six or seven weeks.” Other reports, however, note that a headache she had that evening dampened her spirits: KM May 6, 1871, 5.
27: they set out with their two items after midnight: KM May 6, 1871, 5; DN May 5, 1871, 6.
27: important enough to impel him to swift action: KM May 6, 1871, 5.
28: Jane had often spent her days off with her aunt and uncle Trott: KM May 6, 1871, 5.
28: Griffin ordered the victim’s clothes sent from the station house: RN May 7, 1871, 6.
28: the scrap of imitation Maltese lace they brought matched the lace on her jacket perfectly: KM May 6, 1871, 5.
28: Jane’s birthmark—a mole on her right breast: KM May 6, 1871, 5; SI May 5, 1871, 3.
29: In any case, it was clearly Jane’s photograph, and it matched the body before them: L May 14, 1871, 10.
29: “very stout and well-looking”: T July 13, 1871, 11.
29: Jane’s father, James, had been a fisherman before taking up work closer to home: Board of Guardian Records, 1834–1906, and Church of England Parish Registers, 1754–1906, for Maria Cecilia Clouson; Census Returns of England and Wales, 1861, for James Robert Clouson.
29: a son who died as an infant: England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes, death record for Charles James Elias Clouson.
29: Jane was a “religious and virtuous” and “good handsome” girl: S May 2, 1871, 7.
30: a diligent student both at a local day school and at Sunday school: William Trott described her Sunday school as “Wesleyan Baptist School.” He likely meant the school attached to the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Deptford. S May 2, 1871, 7; GDC May 13, 1871, 2.
30: In 1863 tuberculosis killed Jane’s thirteen-year-old sister, Sarah: S May 2, 1871, 7.
30: In 1866, it killed her mother: England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes, death record for Jane [Elizabeth] Clouson; GDC May 13, 1871, 2.
30: He slipped across the Thames to the Isle of Dogs: Census Returns of England and Wales, 1871, for James Robert Clouson.
30: she is listed as a “visitor” with a family in Croydon: Census Returns of England an
d Wales, 1871, for Maria C. Clouson.
30: Jane then began her working life: GDE May 13, 1871, 2; WDP May 23, 1871, 3.
30: the captain’s many children and grandchildren: Census Returns of England and Wales, 1871, for Archibald Thomas Taylor.
30: Griffin knew Ebenezer Pook and he knew him well: OB, testimony of Ebenezer Pook; KM June 3, 1871, 5.
31: Of the 1.2 million English servants recorded in the 1871 census, 780,040, or roughly two-thirds, were “general domestics,” or maids-of-all-work: Horn 232.
31: most... moved on by their twenties: Dawes 86; Beeton 1005.
32: “The general servant, or maid-of-all work... commiseration”: Beeton 1001.
32: Their battles against dirt... eighty hours a week or more: Burnett 171; McBride 55.
32: Her duties, as elaborated by Beeton: Beeton 1001–1005.
32: cleaning the privy or water closet: At several points in her diaries, Hannah Cullwick, who worked at this time as a maid-of-all-work, describes this as one of her regular tasks. Cullwick.
32: she, too, was expected to be clean and so reflect her employer’s cleanliness: Beeton 1002, Dawes 85.
32: She generally interacted almost entirely with her mistress: Beeton 1002, 1003.
33: “...subject to rougher treatment than either the house- or kitchen-maid”: Beeton 1001.
33: The Pooks were relatively new to the middle class: Census Returns of England and Wales, 1851 and 1861, for Ebenezer Pook.
33: they might have been playmates: Indeed, many years later, in 1888, a cousin of the Pooks claimed that Jane and Edmund actually were playmates when young. Geography argues against this. AS March 20, 1888, 5.
33: the need to observe and preserve that distance became that much greater: Horn 14.
33: Maids-of-all-work were generally prohibited from having “followers”: Dawes 36.
34: Any serious moral breach... grounds for instant dismissal: Dawes 12.
34: an otherwise eminently appropriate suitor by the name of James Harley Fletcher: DN May 5, 1871, 6; Census Returns of England and Wales, 1861, for James Harley Fletcher; Census Returns of England and Wales, 1871, for Mary Ann Fletcher.
34: She and Edmund were now keeping company, she told them: S May 5, 1871, 7.
35: Aunt Elizabeth... tried repeatedly to dissuade Jane from seeing Edmund: T May 5, 1871, 11.
Pretty Jane and the Viper of Kidbrooke Lane Page 25