55 In 1858 Whicher caught the valet . . . Essex cornfield. From reports in The Times, 30 June and 6 & 12 July 1858. Investigation into the murder of PC Clark from Metropolitan Police file MEPO 3/53.
55 In 1859 . . . sued Bonwell for misconduct. The Bonwell case inspired an extraordinary editorial in the Daily Telegraph of 10 October 1859: 'This London is an amalgam of worlds within worlds and the occurrences of every day convince us that there is not one of these worlds but has its special mysteries and its generic crimes . . . It has been said . . . that Hampstead sewers shelter a monstrous breed of black swine, which have propagated and run wild among the slimy feculence, and whose ferocious snouts will one day up-root Highgate archway, while they make Holloway intolerable with their grunting.' Quoted in Black Swine in the Sewers of Hampstead: Beneath the Surface of Victorian Sensationalism by Thomas Boyle (1988). See also reports in The Times of 19 September to 16 December 1859.
55 A couple of months before he was despatched . . . rings fall to the floor. From reports in The Times of 25 April, 4 & 7 May, 12 June 1860.
56 He was 'an excellent officer . . . take on any case'. From A Life's Reminiscences of Scotland Yard (1890) by Andrew Lansdowne.
56 If Whicher was certain . . . a man to me.' From 'A Detective Police Party', House-hold Words, 27 July 1850.
56 He was not above . . . left cheek. From Scotland Yard Past and Present: Experiences of Thirty-Seven Years (1893) by Timothy Cavanagh.
CHAPTERS 5 to 14
The main sources for these chapters are: the Metropolitan Police file MEPO 3/61, which includes Whicher's reports on the murder, Whicher and Williamson's expenses claims, letters from the public and notes from the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police; The Great Crime of 1860 (1861) by J.W. Stapleton; and newspapers including the Somerset and Wilts Journal, the Bath Chronicle, the Bath Express, the Bristol Daily Post, the Frome Times, the Trow-bridge and North Wilts Advertiser, the Devizes Advertiser, the Daily Telegraph and The Times. Other sources are given in the notes below.
CHAPTER 5
59 It was another dry day . . . sailed overhead. Details of birds from Natural History of a Part of the County of Wilts (1843) by W.G. Maton; A History of British Birds (1885) by Thomas Bewick; The Birds of Wiltshire (19 81), edited by John Buxton. Weather here and subsequently from local newspapers and from Agricultural Records 22O-1968 (1969) by John Stratton.
59 In this part of England . . . suffocate it in mud. From The Dialect of the West of England (1825, revised 1869) by James Jennings, and Dialect in Wiltshire (1987) by Malcolm Jones and Patrick Dillon.
60 There were at least four pubs . . . impossible to unravel. Occupations and businesses from the census returns of 18 61. Information on mills from Warp and Weft: The Story of the Somerset and Wiltshire Woollen Industry by Kenneth Rogers (1986), Wool and Water by Kenneth G. Ponting (1975) and exhibits in the Frome and Trowbridge local history museums.
61 Samuel Kent was disliked . . . three or four shillings a week. From a report in the Frome Times of 17 October 1860. Joseph Stapleton did not accept that Samuel was unpopular – he claimed that his colleague's 'urbanity and concessory spirit' had done much to popularise 'an obnoxious law'. Elsewhere in his book, though, he said Samuel was victimised by those to whom he was 'personally obnoxious by his faithful discharge of official duty'.
61 the Temperance Hall. This was a building erected by the subscription of villagers who were opposed to alcohol, particularly the sale of beer on the Sabbath and the custom of children fetching beer for their parents. The Somerset and Wilts Journal reported that many had assembled in the hall on the Wednesday before the murder, while the rain pelted down outside, to belt out Temperance tunes; they were accompanied by the twenty-two members of the Road Fife and Drum Band, with Charles Happerfield, the postmaster, on piano.
62 A cloth merchant . . . finest houses in the area. Information on Ledyard from A History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume 8 (1965), edited by Elizabeth Crittall.
64 Affluent mid-Victorians . . . in their own quarters. In The Gentleman's House: Or How to Plan English Residences from the Parsonage to the Palace (1864) Robert Kerr advised: 'The family constitute one community; the servants another. Whatever may be their mutual regard and confidence as dwellers under the same roof, each class is entitled to shut its door upon the other, and be alone.' Quoted in A Man's Place: Masculinity and the Middle-Class Home in Victorian England (1999) by John Tosh.
66 Whicher was familiar . . . the wrong way. In 'The Modern Science of Thief-taking' by W.H. Wills, House-hold Words, 13 July 1850.
68 The writers of the mid-nineteenth century . . . cut off. From Mary Barton (1848) by Elizabeth Gaskell; The Female Detective (1864) by Andrew Forrester; and 'The Modern Science of Thief-taking', House-hold Words, 13 July 1850.
68 One case that turned on such evidence . . . Greenacre was hanged in May 1837. For Greenacre's capture, see Dreadful Deeds and Awful Murders: Scotland Yard's First Detectives (1990) by Joan Lock.
69 In 1849 the London detectives . . . railway-station locker. For the Mannings' murder of Patrick O'Connor, see The Bermondsey Horror (1981) by Albert Borowitz and MEPO 3/54, the police file on the case.
69 The detectives . . . steamships. During the investigation – on 1 September 1849 – the Illustrated London News drew consolation from the fact that 'detection is sure to dog the footsteps of crime – that the guilty wretch, flying on the wings of steam at thirty miles an hour, is tracked by a swifter messenger – and that the lightning itself, by the wondrous agency of the electric telegraph, conveys to the remotest parts of the kingdom an account of his crime, a description of his person'.
69 Whicher checked the hotels . . . against the killers. Details of Whicher's role in the investigation from MEPO 3/54 and Dreadful Deeds and Awful Murders: Scotland Yard's First Detectives (1990) by Joan Lock.
69 two and a half million copies. Figure from Victorian Studies in Scarlet (1970) by Richard D. Altick.
69 A series of woodcuts . . . dashing action heroes. In The Progress of Crime; Or, The Authentic Memoirs of Maria Manning (1849) by Robert Huish.
70 He awarded Whicher . . . £15. From MEPO 3/54.
70 The next year . . . the detective had found. From 'The Modern Science of Thief-taking', House-hold Words, 13 July 1850.
71 In east London in 1829 . . . her next two children, Saville and Eveline. As well as The Great Crime of 1860 (1861) by J.W. Stapleton, this account of the Kent family's past draws on certificates of birth, marriage and death, and documents in the Home Office file HO 45/6970.