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The Place and the People

Victorian London was a place of contrasts. Between 1800 and 1900 the population increased from one million to 6 million. The Industrial Age had arrived at the same time as Britain’s Empirical expansion. This brought great wealth and led to impressive building projects, which in turn raised land value. The moneyed classes moved to areas such as Hampstead and the West End. The poorer classes were forced into the alleyways in the back streets of the East End of London in such areas as Whitechapel and Lambeth.

These overcrowded alleyways were places where poverty, sickness and crime were rife. They were overrun by cockroaches and vermin. 

 Journalist Henry Mayhew described London at the time “there is more virtue and iniquity, more wealth and more want, brought together into one dense focus than in any other part of the earth.” 

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It is somewhat understandable then, that some women would turn to the streets to try and improve their lot, though often the money would be spent on alcohol as an escape from their surroundings. 
The “gentlemen” of London were only too happy to indulge these women. Lodging houses openly advertised rooms for hire by the day.

In contrast, outside these dismal alleys, could be found a more “normal” street life. Here were the Music Halls and Theatres, or even the main thoroughfare of Waterloo Bridge where the girls would pick up their trade.
Although this type of life could be very brutal, at least since 1888 they had not had the shadow of Jack the Ripper hanging over them.

That was until October1891.

And So it Started

In the middle of the night, an intern named Johnson, from Lambeth Medical Institute was called out to make an urgent call to a lodging house off Commercial Street.
Here he found 19 year old prostitute, Ellen Donworth convulsing and clutching at her chest and abdomen. Her companions told Johnson that she had said that “a gentleman” had given her some drink from a bottle with “white stuff in it”. He immediately recognised the symptoms of system poisoning and sent for the police. She was whisked off to St Thomas’s hospital but died in the carriage on the way there.

Two days later, a post-mortem found that her stomach contained a fatal dose of strychnine.
 (Angus McLaren, in his book “Prescription for Murder” describes the effects of strychnine poisoning. “The most terrifying aspect…is that although the convulsions are terrible, you do not lose consciousness; in fact, the mental faculties are largely unimpaired until death ensues. You know you are dying. The first symptoms are feelings of apprehension and terror followed by muscle stiffness, twitching of the face, and finally tetanic convulsions of the entire body. The body relaxes, and then the spasms strike again. You have a sense of being suffocated. Indeed, death is actually caused by anoxia — lack of oxygen due to contraction of the lungs. All the muscles go rigid and the face and lips turn blue. Death occurs in one to three hours, the face fixed in a macabre grin…”)

The police knew they were looking for a vicious and cruel murderer.

The following day a newspaper carried the headline “The Lambeth Mystery”. Although police were carrying out enquiries their only suspect was a man who had been living with Donworth, but he was soon ruled out as her killer.

For six months or so the murder of Ellen Donworth appeared as a “one-off” killing.

However in April 1892 two prostitutes were found by the owners of a lodging house in Stamford Street. They had been alarmed at the agonising cries they heard from the rooms above them and ran up the stairs to find one woman on the landing and one in the bedroom. Both of them were dying most horribly. They were Alice Marsh and Emma Shrivell. Neither of them made it to the hospital.
Witnesses later told the police that they recalled earlier that evening seeing the women out and about with a “Topper” –a gentleman in a top-hat.

The autopsy revealed that they had both died of strychnine poisoning.

Witness statements in both cases, gave similar descriptions of a gent in a top hat, wearing glasses and led police to believe they were looking for one man.
Letters were also being brought forward to the police. All were blackmail letters in the same hand but signed in different names. They accused various innocent doctors and physicians of the murders, saying that if payments were not made damning evidence would be presented to the police thus ruining their careers, by association. A puzzling side of the contents of the letters was that they not only contained the names of the murdered women but also of two women who the police were unaware of as being victims: Matilda Clover and Lou Harvey.

The matter now turned into a full police investigation, checking chemists’ registers and investigating any men with a known history of violence towards women. They even considered that there was a possibility of the man being linked to sailing, as the two known events had taken place six months apart.

The Detective and The Doctor

There was an American detective living in London at this time, called John Haynes, who was hoping to get an opportunity to join the police force of New Scotland Yard. He had taken rooms above a photographer’s studio in Westminster Bridge Road.
It was here that he met another man who was having his portrait photograph taken. The two men got into conversation and the man introduced himself as Dr Thomas Neill.

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The conversation inevitably turned to the Stamford Street murders which had only happened two nights earlier. Haynes, as a detective (but uninvolved) had taken a lot of interest in the case. He was happy to find that Neill also showed an interest in the case, and hoping to learn some related medical knowledge, arranged to meet Neill later for a meal.

Over dinner that evening they discussed the killings at great length. Haynes was impressed with the doctor’s knowledge of the cases.
Probably flattered by Haynes interest, the doctor offered to show him the places where the murders had taken place.

As they walked the alleyways Neill was most eloquent in his description of the killings, as he pointed out the locations of the murders and how they had taken place. He even took Haynes onto Waterloo Bridge proffering the thought that this could have been the place where the killer had given the strychnine capsules to Lou Harvey.

As they parted that evening, what had been admiration for the doctors knowledge started to turn to a deep concern in Haynes mind.

Two days later Haynes went to New Scotland Yard. There he met the head of the C.I.D. (Criminal Investigation Department) Patrick McIntyre.
He related the events of his evening with Dr Neill and his concern about the amount of detail that the doctor had given him. He was also puzzled that Neill had mentioned two names that Haynes had not read of in any newspaper: Matilda Clover and Lou Harvey.

Like Haynes, McIntyre suspected that this information was more likely to be from the killer, rather than educated guesswork.

Dr Thomas Neill was immediately put under close observation and enquiries were made about the two unknown women. Matilda Clover, a known prostitute, was found to have been certified dead due to a mixture of alcohol and prescribed medication, but no autopsy had taken place.

Her body was exhumed from the paupers’ grave where it lay. It was found to contain strychnine.

Of Lou Harvey there was no trace.

Police enquiries soon uncovered the fact that Neill was actually Dr Thomas Neil Cream who hailed from Canada.  An investigator called Frederick Janis was sent to Canada to find out all he could about Cream’s Background.

The Story Unfolds

In fact, Thomas Cream had been born in Scotland in 1850, the eldest of eight children.
The family had emigrated to London, Ontario in Canada when he was four years old.
He went to McGill College in Montreal in 1867 and while here it was suggested that he set fire to his room to claim the insurance.
He met Elizabeth Brookes, the daughter of a wealthy Hotel owner, and later almost killed her by performing a botched illegal abortion. Her family were outraged and forced him to marry her but he left his wife the following day and fled to London, England.

In 1876 he enrolled at medical school (St Thomas’s). However he did not apply himself to his studies and failed to meet the requirements of the Royal College of Surgeons.

He moved to Edinburgh and enrolled at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons where he successfully completed his studies, qualifying in midwifery.

He then returned to Canada, and set up business as a physician and surgeon. Here he added to his income by carrying out illegal abortions.
In May1879 the body of a young woman, Kate Gardener was found in a shed to the rear of his premises; the result of a bungled abortion. He said that he had been trying to help her but did not admit to performing the abortion. No charges were brought against him.
With his reputation ruined, he moved to Chicago in August of the same year.

The body of a prostitute, Mary Anne Faulkner was discovered in 1880, again supposedly the result of a messed up abortion by Cream. Although Cream was charged there was not enough evidence to prove his guilt and he was released.

However he was eventually successfully prosecuted for the murder of Daniel Stott. Cream had been having an affair with Stott’s wife Julia. On 14th of June 1881 Daniel Stott died of Strychnine poisoning. Cream had sent a letter to the coroner blaming a pharmacist for the murder, but it was Cream that was tried and found guilty. He was sentenced to life in Illinois State Penitentiary.

The system turned out to be corrupt and in 1891 he bought his way out almost certainly by using an inheritance from the recent death of his father. (Later events have some people suggesting that he was released at least three years before this date.)

In October 1891 he returned to London, England.

During the sixth month gap that appeared in between the murder of Ellen Donworth and  Alice Marsh and Emma Shrivell, police discovered that he had in fact returned to Canada to finalise his deceased fathers affairs.

Trial and Retribution

Now convinced that they had their man, the police got a sample of Cream’s handwriting which experts confirmed matched the blackmail notes. Although the murder evidence was circumstantial they wanted him off the streets and in custody while they looked for more evidence. Therefore he was arrested on the 3rd of June 1892 on a charge of extortion, for attempted blackmail.

It was during the inquest of Matilda Cloves that the evidence began to mount up against him. Cream was recognised by witnesses who testified that they had seen him with Cloves. Evidence of his purchases of Strychnine was shown and of his speaking about her poisoning before it was discovered that she had been poisoned.
Throughout the inquest Cream appeared as a man who was not afraid of the outcome, knowing that most of the evidence was circumstantial.

However his world came crashing down when Louise Harris was called to give evidence.

Louise Harris was also known on the street as Lou Harvey.

The police had tracked her down and rather than being the dead victim that they had been looking for, she was alive and well and ready to give evidence against Cream.

She stated that Cream had given her two pills to take to “improve her complexion”.
She had not trusted him and only pretended to take the pills. At that point he had made an excuse to leave and hurried away. As soon as he had left she threw the pills into the river.

The inquest concluded that Thomas Neil Cream had consciously administered the poison to Matilda Cloves.

He was charged with the murders of Donworth, Marsh and Shrivell; the attempted murder of Lou Harvey and extortion.

He was sent to trial at the Old Bailey court, where the jury took just ten minutes to find him guilty.

In passing the death sentence Justice Hawkins described Cream’s action as “so diabolical in its character, fraught with so much cold-blooded cruelty, that it could be expiated only by your death.”

Last Words

The hanging of Thomas Neill Cream took place on the 16th of November 1892 behind prison walls.

After the executioner had put the rope around his neck, and reached for the handle that would release the trapdoor on which Cream was standing, witnesses report that Cream blurted out “I am Jack……” The noose and the drop stopped the rest.

Whether he was Jack the Ripper or not, is debatable. An important piece of evidence revolves around the date that he left the Illinois State Penitentiary.

In 1888, was he between the walls of the prison in Illinois or was he between the walls of the alleyways in the East End of London?

Other work by this writer:

The Incredible Story of Strange Fruit

The Mystery of the Screaming Man

The Mystery of Bedlam Revealed

10 Offbeat, Bizarre and Wacky Facts