The Invention of Murder (77 page)

297
happily ever after:
Mary Elizabeth Braddon,
Lady Audley’s Secret,
ed. David Skilton ([1861–2], Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1987).
a very heavy door:
Dickens, ‘Hunted Down’, p.47.

298
not be able to:
Dickens,
Bleak House,
p.796; Edward Ellis,
Ruth the Betrayer; or, The Female Spy
(London, [John Dicks], 1863), pp.1, 3, 68; Collins,
Armadale,
p.484.

299
paper cigars:
Forrester’s
The Female Detective
and the anonymous
The Experiences of a Lady Detective
are riddled with questions. Andrew Forrester’s ‘G’ stories are found in
Revelations of a Private Detective
(London, Ward & Lock, 1863) and
The Female Detective
(London, Ward & Lock, 1864), with
The Private Detective,
and
Tales by a Female Detective
being partial reissues later; the Mrs Paschal stories are found in Anon.,
Revelations of a Lady Detective
(London, George Vickers, 1864).
The Experiences of a Lady Detective
(London, Charles Henry Clarke, 1884) is credited to William Stephen Hayward, and is identical to
Revelations
apart from its cover – to the point that even the title page says
Revelations
[not
Experiences] of a Lady Detective.
The 1863 dating of
Revelations of a Private Detective
is generally considered to be suspect, as the trade
Publisher’s Weekly Circular
advertised it in 1864, five months before
The Experiences of a Lady Detective.
However the British Library’s copy carries an acquisition stamp dated 9 January 1863, which reopens the question.
The Experiences of a Lady Detective
has itself sometimes (almost certainly wrongly) been catalogued as published in 1861. In the discussions of the first female detective, however,
Ruth the Betrayer
appears to have been entirely overlooked, and yet it was issued in parts in 1862, with the British Library’s single-volume edition carrying an acquisition stamp dated 28 February 1863.
For a discussion of the dating of the first story to use women detectives: Michele B. Slung,
Crime on her Mind: Fifteen Stories of Female Sleuths, From the Victorian Era to the Forties
(Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1975), p.17; Dagni Bredesen, ‘Conformist Subversion: Ambivalent Agency in
Revelations of a Lady Detective’, Clues: A Journal of Detection,
25, 1, 2006, 20–32; Dagni Bredesen, in her introduction to
The First Female Detectives:
The Female Detective
(1864)
and Revelations of a Lady Detective
(1864)
(Ann Arbor, MI, Scholars Facsimilies & Reprints, 2010), casts an entirely new light on the reality of women detectives in the nineteenth century, although it appeared too late for me to incorporate her discoveries into my text. I am grateful to Professor Bredesen for sharing her thoughts on Forrester with me.
For ‘paper cigars’, Isabella F. Romer,
The Rhone, the Darro, and the Guadalquivir: A Summer Ramble in 1842
(London, Richard Bentley, 1843), vol. 1, p.252.
to be bought off:
Thomas de Quincey, ‘William Godwin’, in
The Collected Writings of Thomas de Quincey,
ed. David Masson (Edinburgh, Adam & Charles Black, 1890), vol. 11, pp.329–30; Reynolds,
The Mysteries of London,
vol. 1, p.32; Dickens,
Martin Chuzzlewit,
p.867.

300
under her bed: James McLevy, McLevy, The Edinburgh Detective (Edinburgh, Mercat, 2001), and McLevy Returns (Edinburgh, Mercat, 2002); these collections reprint stories from Curiosities of Crime in Edinburgh during the Last Thirty Years (pre-1861) and The Sliding Scale of Life, or, Thirty years’ observations of falling men and women in Edinburgh (1861); James McGovan’s stories can be found in: Solved Mysteries: or, Revelations of
a City Detective (2nd edn, Edinburgh, John Menzies, 1888), Brought to Bay, or, Experiences of a City Detective (1878) and Hunted Down, Recollections of a City Detective; Strange Clues, Traced and Tracked. Helen Blackwood and her lodgers, Wilson, Murderess, p.118.

301
bloodstains and more: Ellis, Ruth the Betrayer, pp.3–4; Forrester, The Female Detective, p.3; Anon., The Boy Detective, pp.72, 34–5.
the detective officer:
George Roberts, ‘Lady Audley’s Secret’, for performance at the Theatre Royal, St James’s, February 1863, Lord Chamberlain’s Plays, BL Add Mss 53020 (I). Some sources name the author as Robert Walters, which was a pseudonym used by George Roberts (he is credited thus on a playbill for the 1877 Olympic production); [William Suter], ‘Lady Audley’s Secret’, for performance at the Queen’s Theatre, February 1863, Lord Chamberlain’s Plays, BL Add Mss 53020 (H); C.H. Hazlewood, ‘Lady Audley’s Secret’, in George Rowell, ed.,
19th-Century Plays
(London, Oxford University Press, 1953); John Brougham, ‘The Mystery of Audley Court’, for performance at Astley’s Theatre, August 1866, Lord Chamberlain’s Plays, BL Add MSS 53052 (J).

302
imaginary crime:
Anon., ‘Sensation Literature’,
English Woman’s Domestic Magazine,
1 May 1863, p.18.

303
pardoned for the murder: Collins, Armadale, pp.527, 529–31.

304
man from Scotland Yard:
Ibid., pp.397, 406.
even out of it:
Andrew Lansdowne,
A Life’s Reminiscences of Scotland Yard
(London, Leadenhall Press, [1890]), p.7.
to detect anything:
Anthony Trollope,
The Eustace Diamonds,
ed. W.J. McCormack ([1871–73], Oxford, Oxford World’s Classics, 1998), vol. 2, p.155.
zeal, and judgment:
[Charles Dickens and W.H. Wills], ‘The Metropolitan Protectives’,
Household Words,
3, April 1851, pp.97–105.
you are overstepping Wood, Mrs Halliburton’s Troubles, pp.315, 323.

310
never have been hanged:
The details of the crime and trial of Christiana Edmunds have been compiled from: Old Bailey trial transcript, ref. t18720108–185;
Birmingham Daily Post,
22, 23, 29 August, 1, 8, 9, September 1871, 16, 17 January 1872;
Daily News,
23, 25 August,

1, 9, September 1871, 16, 17 January 1872;
Illustrated Police News,
9, 16 September 1871, 20 January, 10 February 1872;
Lloyd’s Weekly,
27 August, 3, 10, 17 September 1871, 21 January 1872;
Pall Mall Gazette,
25 November, 30 December 1871, 21 January 1872;
Reynolds’s Newspaper,
20, 27 August, 3, 10 September 1871, 21, 28 January, 19 May, 18 August 1872;
The Times,
1, 8, 9 September 1871, 12 January 1872.

311
happens to tell him so:
George Eliot,
Middlemarch,
ed. W.J. Harvey ([1871–2], Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, 1985), p.187. For more on the sources Eliot used for her medical and forensic information, see Anna Theresa Kitchel,
Quarry for Middlemarch
(Berkeley, University of California Press, 1950). I am grateful to Michael Wolff for alerting me to this book.

315
rang through the building:
The case of Adelaide Bartlett has been examined repeatedly.
I have compiled my account from: Old Bailey trial transcript, ref. t18860405–466.
Bell’s,
19, 20 April 1886;
County Gentleman,
27 February 1886;
Illustrated Police News,
20, 27 February, 1, 6, 8, 13, 20, 27 March, 17, 19, 24 April 1886;
John Bull,
24 April 1886;
Lloyd’s Weekly,
10 January, 7, 14, 21, 28 February, 7, 14, 21 March, 18 April 1886;
Pall Mall Gazette,
19, 20 February, 5, 13, 19, 20 April 1886;
Reynolds’s Newspaper,
28 February, 14, 28 March, 18 April 1886;
The Times,
13, 16, 19 27 February, 1, 8, 13, 20 March, 6, 7, 8, 14, 17, 19, 20 April 1886. Magazine reports include:
Cornhill,
Edward Clarke, ‘Leaves from a Lawyer’s Casebook: The Pimlico Mystery’, 49, 1920;
Lancet,
[editorial], 24 April 1886, 1, pp.794–5, ‘Feminine Pruriency’, 24 April 1886, 1, p.800, Alfred Leach, ‘The Case of Edwin Bartlett: Mercurialism; Death from Liquid Chloroform; Necropsy’, 22 May 1886, 2, pp.968–70; 29 May 1886, 2, pp.1017–18. Edward Beale, barrister for the defence, published
The Trial of Adelaide Bartlett for Murder…
(London, Stevens & Haynes, 1886), and Sir Edward Clarke,
The Story of My Life
(London, John Murray, 1918), has useful detail. There are several modern recountings of the case: Yseult Bridges,
Poison and Adelaide Bartlett: The Pimlico Poisoning Case
(London, Macmillan, 1970); Kate Clarke,
The Pimlico Murder: The Strange Case of Adelaide Bartlett
(London, Souvenir, 1990); and Sir John Hall,
Trial of Adelaide Bartlett
(Edinburgh, William Hodge, 1927).

316
the same readiness:
Conan Doyle,
A Study in Scarlet
([1887], Harmondsworth, Penguin, 2007), pp.7–10.

317
of his audience:
Conan Doyle, ‘The Adventure of the Six Napoleons’ in
The Return of Sherlock Holmes
([1905], Harmondsworth, Penguin, 2008), p.241.

318
man than yourself: Gould Penn, The Life of the Reverend George Dyson and his Strange Adventures with Mrs. Bartlett (London, Williams & Co., [1886]).
Latin verbs:
Cited in Whittington-Egan,
William Roughead,
p.203.

319
goes mad:
Richard Dowling,
Tempest-Driven. A Romance
(London, Tinsley Bros., 1886).
the word ‘Forgive’:
F.C. Philips and C.J. Wills,
The Fatal Phryne
(London, Sonnenschein & Co., 1889).

321
trial by combat:
The case of Abraham Thornton is compiled from:
Examiner,
23 November 1817;
Hull Packet,
28 April 1818;
Morning Chronicle,
7, 17, 18, 19, 24 November 1817, 26 January 1818;
The Ladies’ Monthly Magazine,
1 March 1818. Pamphlets include: Anon.,
Thornton’s Trial!! The Trial of ABRAHAM THORNTON… for the Murder of Mary Ashford …
(new edn, Warwick, E. Heathcote, [1817]); Anon.,
Wager of Battle. Thornton and Mary Ashford; or, An Antidote to Prejudice
(London, Akerman, 1818); Anon.,
An Investigation of the Case of Abraham Thornton, Who was Tried at Warwick, August 8,1817, for The Wilful Murder, and Afterwards Arraigned for the Rape, of Mary Ashford; (of which charges he was that day acquitted;) …
‘by an attorney-at-law’ (London, James Harper, 1818); Edward Holroyd,
Observations upon the Case of Abraham Thornton … Shewing the Danger of Pressing Presumptive Evidence Too Far …
(3rd edn, London, J. Mawman, 1819). A twentieth-century trial transcript can be found in Sir John Hall, ed.,
Trial of Abraham Thornton
(Edinburgh, W. Hodge, 1927), and the case has also been examined by the London Feminist History Group, Anna K. Clark, ‘Rape or Seduction? A Controversy over Sexual Violence in the Nineteenth Century’, in
The Sexual Dynamics of History: Men’s Power, Women’s Resistance
(London, Pluto Press, 1983), pp.13–42. Daniel J. Ernst, ‘The Moribund Appeal of Death: Compensating Survivors and Controlling Jurors in Early Modern England’,
The American Journal of Legal History,
28, April 1984, pp.164–88, explores the legal history of this stratagem. I am grateful to Professor John Langbein for this reference.

322
portrait of Thornton: Bell’s Life,
‘Illustrated Newspapers’, 27 December 1884.
Parish of Aston: Revd Luke Booker, A Moral Review of the Conduct and Case of Mary Ashford, in Refutation of the Arguments Adduced in Defence of her Supposed Violator and Murderer (Dudley, John Rann, 1818), p.55.

323
triumphs over evil: William Barrymore, Trial By Battle; or, Heaven Defend the Right (London, J. Duncombe, [1831]).
ever served up:
H. Chance Newton,
The Old Vic. and its Associations
(London, Fleetway Press, n.d.]), pp.64–5.
shoots himself Anon., The Murdered Maid; or, The Clock Struck Four!!! (Warwick, ‘printed for the author’, 1818).
Inordinate Passions:
Anon.,
The Mysterious Murder; or, What’s the Clock, a Melodrama in Three Acts, Founded on a Tale Too True
(Birmingham, ‘printed for and sold by the author’, [?1818]); the attribution of the authorship to the Birmingham prompter is Richard Altick’s,
Studies in Scarlet,
p.87.

324
contaminating atmosphere:
Scott,
Journals,
18 November 1826, p.274; Anon., ‘The Somnambulist’,
Figaro in London,
22 April 1839, p.12.

326 just at the crown: Anon., ‘The Murderers of the Round Tower Inn’, Lord Chamberlain’s Plays.
ready to be produced:
The case of Mary Anne Burdock has been compiled from:
Bell’s Life,
19 April 1835;
Bristol Mercury,
11, 18, 21 April 1835;
The Times,
13 April 1835. Later reports include:
Glasgow Herald,
12 March 1856;
Illustrated Police News,
4 October 1890; the two broadside collections listed below; and a single trial report, Anon.,
Trial of Mary Ann Burdock, for the Wilful Murder of Mrs. Clara Ann Smith, by Administering Sulphuret of Arsenic …
(Bristol, W.H. Somerton, [1835]).