The Ripper of Waterloo Road: The Murder of Eliza Grimwood in 1838

by Jan Bondeson

WHEN JACK THE RIPPER first prowled the streets of London, an evening newspaper commented that his crimes were as ghastly as those committed by Eliza Grimwood’s murderer fifty years earlier. Hers is arguably the most infamous and brutal of all nineteenth-century London killings. Eliza was a high-class prostitute, and on 26 May 1838, following an evening at the theatre, she brought a ‘client’ back to her home in Waterloo Road. The morning after, she was found with her throat cut and her abdomen viciously ‘ripped’. The client was nowhere to be seen.

The ensuing murder investigation was convoluted, with suspects ranging from an alcoholic bricklayer to a royal duke. Londoners from all walks of life followed the story with a horror and fascination – among them Charles Dickens, who took inspiration from Eliza’s death when he wrote the murder of Nancy in Oliver Twist. Despite this feverish interest, the case was left unsolved, becoming the subject of ‘penny dreadfuls’ and urban legend.

Unusually for a crime of this early period, the diary of the police officer leading the investigation has been preserved for posterity, and Jan Bondeson takes full advantage of this unique access to a Victorian murder inquiry. Skilfully dissecting what evidence remains, he links this murder with a series of other opportunist early Victorian slayings, and, in putting forward a credible new suspect, concludes that the Ripper of Waterloo Road was, in fact, a serial killer claiming as many as four victims.

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime

289 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 13, 2017

About the author

Outside of his career in medicine, he has written several nonfiction books on a variety of topics, such as medical anomalies and unsolved murder mysteries.

Bondeson is the biographer of a predecessor of Jack the Ripper, the London Monster, who stabbed fifty women in the buttocks, of Edward 'the Boy' Jones, who stalked Queen Victoria and stole her underwear, and Greyfriars Bobby, a Scottish terrier who supposedly spent 14 years guarding his master's grave.

He is currently working as a senior lecturer and consultant rheumatologist at the Cardiff University School of Medicine.


(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eliza Grimwood, a better prostitute, was found brutally murdered in her home. Was it the customer she was last seen with? Her landlord/friend/pimp? Some famous personality unknown? A mysterious foreigner? This 1838 crime is one of the most discussed murder cases of the Victorian Age and the author did a tremendously well job in getting all the facts and figures together. His research is outstanding and he sums up what the police found out back then and where modern criminology would lead to. Besides he refers to many other cases of crime, murder, draws an excellent picture of the 19th century (illustrations and pictures of the persons involved included). I know the area the murder took place very well and literally visited all the streets and locations with the detective. Couldn't put the book down and enjoyed every single chapter. An exciting read, for all fans of crime, not only those who happen to live in London. Highly recommended!

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

An unsolved murder from 1838 is the incident around which is built an examination of lot of different aspects of London life at the time. I thought that some of the already well known facts about Queen Victoria were borderline relevant but there for background, presumably. More interesting to me were the details of the houses, no longer there, built so close to Waterloo Bridge that they had two floors of cellars extending down to the dry arches; the social milieu and the economics of prostitution at the more comfortable end of the scale; the lives of the servant and shopkeeper class; the way in which the press of the day reported these events and the public reaction, which is clearly the forerunner of some tabloid reporting and some obsessive behaviour today. The author also considers why people are fascinated by old crimes, and whether there is any point so long after the event when no DNA evidence is suddenly going to be found to clear up the mystery, and although the suggestion is that perhaps there isn't, a credible suspect for this murder is suggested, with a possible link to two other unsolved murders from the same period (hence the "ripper" of the title - an early serial killer, in other words).

[Cleopatra Pullen · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1838 a high-class prostitute, Eliza Grimwood, took a French-speaking gentleman home to her shared lodgings. The following morning Eliza was found with her throat cut and her abdomen slashed. Her fellow housemates, who included her boyfriend William Hubbard had not heard a sound except a single yap from her pet dog.

Jan Bondeson is a crime historian with more than twenty books to her name and she starts by setting the stage, describing London at the early time of Queen Victoria’s reign. He gives special attention to the Waterloo Bridge and the perception of prostitute demonstrating the prurient interest from the public and the different classes of ‘working women.’ We also get a whistle-stop tour of the most notable murder of the time including the Ratcliffe murder and that of Hannah Brown by James Greenacre and Sarah Gale. This is a book packed full of information with references to sources and lots of pictures of the subjects and not confined to those in the penny dreadfuls of the time. In fact the illustrations that are present on many of the pages bring to life the points the author is making with perfect placement, something I much prefer to those books that confine these to the centre pages.

As Eliza and the mysterious French speaker had arranged to meet at The Strand we are treated to some of the plays that may have been showing on that fateful night of Friday 26 May 1838, sadly it is not possible to know what was on the bill of this small but packed theatre that night. Eliza and her ‘guest’ alighted a Hansom cab which took them back to Waterloo Road but who the man was has never quite been established.

Inspector Charles Frederick Field was called to the scene, a former actor he had been one of the first officers of the New Police when it formed in 1829. Jan Bondeson takes a pause to enlighten her readers to other crimes that this, probably the best-known Policeman in London encountered over the course of his career. There is no doubt that life in the force at that time was hard but the crime were not investigated in quite the isolation as I perhaps thought. First came the inquest.

In true melodramatic fashion the inquest was given the run-around by local characters either not giving the information they held or alternatively throwing suspicion in all direction so that even the most trivial of facts became obscured. All of which kept the news flowing with Charles Dickens taking such a keen interest Nancy of Oliver Twist fame is believed to have been inspired by poor Eliza Grimwood.

Of course a true-crime begs to be solved even all these years later and with the help of Inspector Field’s diary, which is perfectly preserved, along with newspaper articles and other contemporary offerings, Jan Bondeson is sure she has found the culprit and it seems to me that he provides a very compelling argument for his case. Of course as in the case with all these types of crime, despite even the most in-depth, and the author studied this crime over a decade prior to this book being written, can’t ever give us a conclusive answer and sadly no court of law will pronounce its judgement.

For lovers of Victorian true crime The Ripper of Waterloo Road gives a comprehensive examination not only of the crimes committed but wider commentary on the life and times without allowing itself to get into too wide a discourse which would make the book far too unwieldy.

[Pete daPixie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps it was the turgid school lessons on the English Industrial Revolution that has stifled my interest ever since on all things Victorian. However, recently I have developed an interest in 19th century murder mysteries, of which there are many.
Jan Bondeson's 'The Ripper of Waterloo Road' (2017) provides the details of what was clearly a big deal in London back in 1838. What is most interesting in this well-researched investigative work, some one hundred and eighty years after the event, is that the author offers a very plausible 'case closed' in linking the killer of Eliza Grimwood to a serial murderer of two or three other unsolved cases of the time. A murderer who was convicted and hanged at Newgate for the killing of Lord William Russell.

[Siri Olsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Ripper of Waterloo Road: The Murder of Eliza Grimwood in 1838 is a fascinating exploration of a largely forgotten murder in the earliest years of the Victorian age. The author does a fantastic job of collecting, organising and presenting the evidence, while also drawing parallels to contemporary murders, detailing the early origins of the London police force, and bringing his own interpretations and theories to bear on the case. A great read for people who, like me, enjoy historical true crime. HIghly recommended.

[Boadicea · Rating 1 out of 5]

Abysmal. Racist, sexist, and while I understand the murder took place in the 19th century, the author seemed to revel in, especially, insulting and demeaning the women who had to make ends meet by selling themselves. I would not recommend this book to anyone

[Abbey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This went on way too long for what little information it kept just rehashing and regurgitating.

[Bill Aitken · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting and well-researched

I really enjoyed this book as it imparted a great deal of information I had not known previously about the Grimwood murder. I'm not entirely sure I agree with the Courvoisier conclusion, but it does fit with many of the known facts. The only thing I would take exception to is the author's repeated use of the epithet "misogynist" when referring to Inspector Field. Firstly, Field had to deal with women from the criminal underbelly of London on a daily basis. His reliance on their truthfulness would have been sorely tried and I don't feel that this is taken properly into account. There is no evidence that he was otherwise than gentlemanly when conversing with ladies outside that class. Secondly, the use of the word rings strangely out of place in an otherwise investigative book and seems to say more about the author than the man. However, the work does elsewhere praise the detective as he deserves and is entertaining and interesting.