STRAIGHT TO THE HEART

See Also: MURDERS; PLACES OF EXECUTION

In late 1811 the three members of the Marr family and their servant were killed in their home in Wapping. Twelve days later another couple and their servant were also slain nearby. They too were at home when they were murdered.

John Williams, a sailor, was accused of the killings. Officials who were attached to Shadwell Stipendiary Magistrates' Court arrested him. He was lodged in Coldbath Fields Prison. There, he managed to hang himself.

To Wapping's population violence on the street was a familiar sight. What horrified them was that the murderer had broken into people's households and killed them there. In the local community there was a deep sense of resentment that Williams's suicide had frustrated the due exercise of justice. The magistrates consulted the Home Office. Using a precedent that had been set eighteen years earlier, the department of state gave permission for the man's corpse to be exhibited and then buried at a crossroads.

In what was a licensed instance of a folk custom, the sailor's body was placed on an adapted cart that was pulled through the streets of the district. The vehicle was paused temporarily before sites that were connected to the murders. At the intersection of Cannon Street Road and Commercial Road, a stake was driven through the cadaver's heart. It was then interred head first in a vertical hole.

In 1886 Williams's skeleton was rediscovered by men who were excavating a trench so that a gas pipe could be lain in it. The landlord of The Crown & Dolphin pub retained the seaman's skull as a curiosity.

Location: The Crown & Dolphin, 56 Cannon Street Road, E1 0BH (orange, blue)

Commercial Road, E1 1NL (purple, red)

The King's Arms, 81 Garnet Street (formerly Gravel Lane), E1W 3QS. Where the second set of murders occurred. (red, yellow)

60 The Highway, E1W 2BF. The Marrs lived at what was No. 29. (orange, white)

David Backhouse 2024