In the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221B Baker Street, the upper floors are made up as though they were really the 221B sitting room, Holmes' bedroom, Watson's bedroom, etc. (The old-style furnishings, the little can of tooth powder, the whole place is fascinating, the sitting room is FANTASTIC and anyone who has a chance should definitely visit.)
I was looking up my photos for reference in order to write ACD-canon fic, and on the wall of Holmes' bedroom are 13 portraits of Victorian era murderers- I could recognise Crippen and Lizzie Borden off the bat, but I didn't know the others. So I decided to see if I could track them down.
Incidentally?
Murderpedia makes for some pretty interesting reading, especially looking through all the stuff from the 1800s and earlier. But it allows you to search by country and lists the date of the murders committed, which I found MUCH more helpful for narrowing things down by photograph than Wiki or straight googling.
Top to bottom and left to right, the portraits on Holmes' wall are:
Florence Maybrick - Convicted of the arsenical poisoning of her husband in 1889, but the conviction was contested.(
Arsenic was then regarded by some men as an aphrodisiac and tonic, and James Maybrick had certainly taken it on a regular basis. -wiki) She was released in 1904.
There was speculation that her husband was Jack the Ripper, and a forged diary to that effect was 'found' in the early 1990s.
Dr Edward William Pritchard - Poisoned both his wife and his mother in law with aconite and antimony in 1865. A fellow doctor had suspected him of poisoning them over a long period, but never spoke up, although an anonymous letter was sent to the authorities, leading to Pritchard's arrest. Was suspected of, but never charged with, the earlier murder of a servant, Elizabeth McGrain.
Frederick Deeming - Moved to England from Australia with his wife and 4 children, then murdered them and buried them all under the hearthstones of their house near Liverpool. Married again, took his second wife back to Australia, where he murdered her too! And buried her in cement under the hearth. Was finally apprehended while in possession of a new fiance (and a new barrel of cement). Executed in Old Melbourne Gaol, the same jail as Ned Kelly. (1891-1892)
Deeming was another suggested Ripper suspect.
Franz Muller - Hanged for the first murder committed on a British train. The carriage was first class, closed, and at that time there was no corridor– when the train arrived at Hackney Wick, the compartment was bloody and empty, and the victim Thomas Briggs had been dumped on the tracks, and subsequently died. Muller stole his watch, gold spectacles, and hat, which led to his identification after he sold the chain to a jeweler named Death.
Amelia Dyer - A former nurse who took up baby farming, and later moved on to placing advertisements to adopt unwanted babies of unwed mothers. She would then take the babies home and strangle them with white thread or tape from her sewing basket. Was executed in 1896 for 6 known murders, but speculation on her actual victim total is in the hundreds.
--
uncertain-- my photo of this portrait has reflected glare across the torso of the woman. She looks a little like
Mary Ann Cotton (believed to have murdered 21 people with arsenic) and a little more like
Kate Webster (a maid who murdered her employer, dismembered her body and boiled off most of the flesh before dumping the bones in the Thames), but doesn't quite match either one.
Dr Thomas Neill Cream - A Scottish-Canadian serial killer who became known as 'The Lambeth Poisoner'. Convicted of murder in Chicago in 1881, he was released in 1891, moved to England, and murdered four prostitutes with strychnine between 1891-1892. He was caught after bringing himself to police attention by trying to anonymously frame other doctors for his crimes.
Charles Frederick Peace - A famous burglar and master of disguise for over 20 years. He tamed wild animals, played the violin, carried his burglary tools in his violin case. In 1876 he shot and killed his lover's husband, but escaped capture until two years later when he was caught during a failed robbery. He is mentioned by name in
The Adventure of the Illustrious Client.
Henry Wainwright - Murdered his mistress Harriet Lane in 1874, then dug her up and dismembered her body a year later. He was caught when one of the men helping him move the parcels to his brother's house discovered they were full of decomposing body parts.
Hawley Harvey Crippen - In 1910 became the first murderer caught with the aid of wireless communication. He and his mistress tried to escape England after his wife Cora's disappearance was brought to police attention (by a Welsh strongwoman called
Vulcana, who is fascinating in her own right), and the remains of the body found in his cellar.
Dr George Henry Lamson - He became a morphine addict after the Crimean war, and poisoned his handicapped brother-in-law with aconite in the Dundee cake in order to gain control of the family money (1881).
--
unknown-- The second to last portrait is of a well-dressed woman wearing an enormous hat. She's very distinctive looking, but I haven't managed to ID her yet.
Lizzie Borden -
Lizzie Borden took an axe /And gave her mother forty whacks./And when she saw what she had done, /She gave her father forty-one. The actual number of blows were 18-19 and 11, respectively, and Lizzie Borden was declared innocent at her trial, but the murders were never solved.
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