Victim Eight: The Ratcliffe Highway Murders

Old Blood

A killer prowled the streets of London in 1811, 80 years before Jack the Ripper. But in 1811, there were no police to catch the fiend who brutally murdered seven people along Ratcliffe Highway. Would there be a victim eight?

Sources:

“Chapter 1. The Death of a Linen Draper.” Spitalfields Life. December 7, 2021-December 31, 2021. https://spitalfieldslife.com/2021/12/07/the-ratcliffe-highway-murders/

Fairburn, John. Fairburn’s Account of the Dreadful Murder of Mr. Marr and Family. (London: John Fairburn, 1811.)

James, P.D. and Critchley, T.A. The Maul and the Pear Tree: The Ratcliff Highway Murders 1811 (New York: The Mysterious Press, 1971).

Jeffries, Bob. “The Ratcliffe Highway Murders December 1811.” Thames Police Museum. http://www.thamespolicemuseum.org.uk/h_ratcliffehighwaymurders_1.html

Ramsland, Katherine. “The Ratcliffe Highway Murders.” Crime Library. https://www.crimelibrary.org/serial_killers/history/ratcliffe_murders/index.html

“Ratcliffe Highway.” St. George-in-the-East Church. http://www.stgitehistory.org.uk/ratcliffhighway.html

Staveley-Wadham, Rose. “Horror and Hysteria: The 1811 Ratcliffe Highway Murders.” The British Newspaper Archive. April 22, 2021. https://blog.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/2021/04/22/the-1811-ratcliff-highway-murders/

The Times, December 1811-February 1812

Music: Credits to David Fesilyan and Luke Holizna

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