In 1838, Eliza Grimwood was murdered in a house of ill-fame at number 12 Wellington Terrace, Waterloo Road. Her throat was cut. Dickens wrote up the story in Three Detective Anecdotes as the tale of The Countess. Inspector Field of Dickens’s article On Duty with Inspector Field investigated, and the case demonstrates the painstaking search …
G is also for Greenacre
G is also for Greenacre: at the end of 1850, Dickens was sitting for his portrait with the artist William Boxhall. The picture was never finished. WP Frith said that Dickens told him: Well I sat a great deal, and the picture seemed to me to get worse – sometimes it was like Ben Caunt …
H is for Hardman
H is for Hardman From the Lancaster Guardian, Saturday 5th September 1857: The sentence of death passed upon Edward Hardman at the last Lancaster Assizes, for the wilful murder of his wife, by the administration of poison, was carried into effect at on Saturday… Edward Hardman was hanged at Lancaster gaol two weeks before Dickens …
H is also for Holiest
H is also for Holiest I couldn’t resist this one. If Edward Hardman lived up to his name, then consider the case of the Reverend Mr Holiest, Perpetual Curate of Frimley Grove. Holy, he might have been, but that did not stop his murderers for the poor reverend was murdered on the 27th September, 1850 …
