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AP Wolf
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Apwolf
Post Number: 2264
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Friday, July 01, 2005 - 5:32 pm: | 
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I know there has been discussion on the board concerning the explosions at the Tower of London in 1885; and as ever I fear that what I post may already be the subject of various dissertations, but as I’ve searched the site and not found them I’ll continue.
In 1885 the police were already timing how long it took to walk from Mitre Square to Aldgate High Street and other points of Whitechapel because they has arrested a certain Burton in connection with the explosions at the Tower of London.
This Burton lived at 5 Mitre Square, in the house of a London City police officer, H. Wilson.
I don’t believe I have seen this City of London police officer mentioned in later reports connected with the murder of Eddowes. |
Natalie Severn
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Severn
Post Number: 2141
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Friday, July 01, 2005 - 6:13 pm: |
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Hi [again]AP
when I was researching something on these dynamite explosions the other week I came across a piece about "agents provocateurs" employed so the police could get a handle on the fenians activities etcetc.
Its possible this chap was one of these and it all went wrong or maybe he was a double agent? |
Debra J. Arif
Detective Sergeant
Username: Dj
Post Number: 57
Registered: 4-2005
| | Posted on Friday, July 01, 2005 - 6:53 pm: |
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Hi AP
I remember reading something about this, but can't recall where at the moment.
However in the version of events that I read Burton was said to have been lodging in Mitre Square and it also mentioned a city policeman living in the same square ( though I am sure it didn't say in the same house), it was the city policeman who noticed that Burton did not work and so reported him and he was subsequently put under surveilance, and arrested when he was found to be associating with another man connected to Tower explosion.
The city policeman who lived in Mitre Square is also mentioned in the 'Leather Apron' book but he isn't named.
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Robert Charles Linford
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Robert
Post Number: 4623
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Friday, July 01, 2005 - 7:07 pm: |
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Debra, good to have you back.
I will email you.
Robert |
Robert Charles Linford
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Robert
Post Number: 4625
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, July 02, 2005 - 5:24 am: |
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James Want, a policeman, was listed as living at St James Place, synagogue in 1881. Does this mean he was Jewish?
Robert |
AP Wolf
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Apwolf
Post Number: 2266
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, July 02, 2005 - 2:28 pm: |
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Natalie
I don't think this Burton chap was a double agent or anything like that, as the police really went for him big-time... but you never know.
Debra
lovely to hear from you again.
Burton was a lodger at the Wilson's house at 5 Mitre Square, the evidence in court of both PC Wilson and his wife leave no room for doubt.
See the reports starting in The Times from Feb. 10th 1885. |
AP Wolf
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Apwolf
Post Number: 2267
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, July 02, 2005 - 4:58 pm: |
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Another former City of London policeman, Joseph Allinson, was prosecuted and jailed in August of 1891 for receiving stolen goods from the Kearley & Tonge warehouse in Mitre Square, though using a porter at the warehouse as a 'thief'.
Quite a few City of London cops lining up here on behalf of Kearley & Tonge.
I was also able to find a clerk in their employ at this time, who 'travelled' on their behalf, but in the end he 'travelled' too far with £200 he had nicked and fled to the Cape.
The amazing thing was that a police inspector was sent all the way to the Cape to bring him back! |
Debra J. Arif
Detective Sergeant
Username: Dj
Post Number: 58
Registered: 4-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, July 02, 2005 - 5:41 pm: |
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AP, nice to be back thanks
I looked it up, and the account I remembered was from the ex copper Charles Tempest Clarkson's book , he also got wrong the fact that Cunningham and Burton arrived at Liverpool docks, he said Southampton.Just reading The Times reports now.
I wonder if it was the same city pc living at no. 5 Mitre Square in 1885 and 1888 or was it just a 'police house'
In the 1888 account the city policeman was said to be living next door to a vacant house that was up for let. |
AP Wolf
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Apwolf
Post Number: 2269
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, July 02, 2005 - 6:13 pm: |
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Glad to see you, Debra.
The City of London police discovered that it took three minutes for a constable to walk from Mitre Square to Aldgate High Street in 1885, but by 1888 when they tried the same experiment on the same constable it took an hour and a half.
He said in his defence:
'But I was walking from Aldgate High Street to Mitre Square which is much longer; and I drunk a bucket of brandy on the way.'
I think there was a Met. cop living there as well. |
Debra J. Arif
Detective Sergeant
Username: Dj
Post Number: 59
Registered: 4-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, July 02, 2005 - 6:34 pm: |
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>>Mitre Square contains but two dwelling houses, one inhabited, singular to state, by a city policeman, the
other being "to let". The other buildings, of which there are three, are large warehouses. In the south-east corner and near to the entrance from Mitre Street is the back yard of some premises in Aldgate, but the railings are closely banded.
It was just under these that the woman was found quite hidden from sight by the shadow cast by a corner of the adjoining house.
"Leather apron", or, The horrors of Whitechapel, London, 1888 Philadelphia, [1888?]. 79pp.<<
Was there a shortcut through the railings to Aldgate High Street in 1885 that didn't exist in 1888 do you think?
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Debra J. Arif
Detective Sergeant
Username: Dj
Post Number: 60
Registered: 4-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, July 02, 2005 - 6:45 pm: |
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Hi Robert
Your email is not responding again!it keeps getting returned to me. |
AP Wolf
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Apwolf
Post Number: 2271
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, July 03, 2005 - 5:46 pm: |
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Robert
You don't appear to be there to me either. Hope you haven't fallen in the water.
Debra
there didn't need to be a shortcut from Aldgate High Street to Mitre Square for someone who could scale eight foot walls. |
