He remained in the shop with his wife Celia, their 3 month old son and his young apprentice called James Gowan. When John Williams’ body took its final journey, there was concern over whether the level of public sentiment might boil over into violent unrest, however, in the event the occasion was, for the most part, marked by solemnity. When Margaret Jewell walked down the Highway she found Taylor’s oyster shop shut. Retracing her steps along the Ratcliffe Highway towards John’s Hill to pay the baker’s bill, she passed the draper’s shop again at around midnight where, although Mr Marr now had put up the shutters with the help of James Gowen, the shop boy, she could see Mr Marr at work behind the counter. Those who had seen the corpses testified and the surgeon who had examined them also gave his report. The jury returned a verdict of willful murder by a person or persons unknown. Sitting down after a hard day’s work, slippers on, guard lowered… for the last 200 years murder has been the topic to which readers turn for comfort and relaxation.”

The group – John Bishop, Thomas Williams, and James May – were arrested at King’s College, and tried at the Old Bailey the following month. There are two notable folk songs called Ratcliffe Highway; one is a traditional folk song ( Roud 598; Ballad Index Doe114; Wiltshire 785]. The other, Roud 493, also called The Deserter and famously recorded by Sandy Denny and Fairport Convention, concerns a young man who is pressed-ganged into the navy on the Highway. The rise of medical schools had created a demand for specimens, and the legal supply of executed criminals (the only bodies permitted to be used for the purpose) could not keep pace.

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The Victorian boom in rail travel revolutionised the transport of persons and goods across the country, but nevertheless, many people were concerned about the potential for crime on the lines. On Saturday 7th December 1811 at around 1130pm, Timothy Marr, the owner of a drapers shop at 29, Ratcliffe Highway, was preparing to close his business for the night. Inside the premises were four other people apart from himself: his wife Celia and their three and a half month old baby, also called Timothy, and two non-family members-their apprentice, James Gowan and Margaret Jewell, their serving girl. Within the hour, Jewell alone would remain alive; all of the others would lie brutally and horribly murdered. They would be the first victims in a series of murders that would both grip and terrify the entire East End of London. As the frightened group struggled to leave this Hellish scene they found a 'ripping chisel' close to the body of young Cowan. The chisel did not appear to have been used in the murders. Charing Cross and Victoria stations still remain, and the former still offers a Left Luggage service although responsibility for any dismembered corpses found within has been outsourced.

Finally, here's a short video clip of Iain Sinclair discussing the murders in 1999 whilst wandering around St George in the East: Although this may seem bizarre, not to mention macabre, today it was at the time a common practice and one to which the authorities often turned a blind eye. It is that most famous work, the opium essay, which has paradoxically stood in the way of properly appreciating De Quincey’s many other contributions to literature. In Rebecca Solnit’s biography of Eadweard Muybridge, she describes how the photographer “undermined his vast output of good work with his great work.” Had he never done his excellent Yosemite studies, he might have been known for his less ambitious San Francisco cityscapes, and the Yosemite photos, in turn, have been all-but-forgotten by the later motion studies that changed the world. It’s a phrase that applies even more so to De Quincey. His landmark masterpiece, Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, in which he invented at least two genres (the drug memoir, and the narrative of the nocturnal urban flâneur), has guaranteed his fame and immortality, but has eclipsed the other excellent work he produced throughout his life. Today, the former sensation has been largely forgotten, although in 1971, famed crime fiction author P. D. James, working with police historian T. A. Critchley, wrote ‘The Maul and the Pear Tree’ and argued persuasively within for Williams’ possible innocence.in a moment, dancing like a madman upon his flattened saintship, while he scatters to the winds whole handfuls of

The story finally came to an end two and a half weeks later when the police located remaining members of the gang hiding out in a house in Sidney Street, but not before a firefight lasting seven hours which has also become notorious –‘the siege of Sidney Street’. Can I visit the crime scene? In fact, some people took the time in the months following the Williams burial to inspect the case more closely and concluded that two, perhaps three, perpetrators must have been involved.Another man from the ship had returned to his rooms at around the same time as Williams had.He was detained but later freed.These suspects, who were allowed to answer for themselves only vaguely, may have been very good suspects indeed.However, the investigation was so uncoordinated and so filled with irrelevant testimony while ignoring productive leads that there was little chance of achieving real justice.

It appears that a principal witness, Mrs Vermilloe, the landlady of the Pear Tree, had been intimidated or threatened and also that she was convinced of the innocence of John Williams. To me, John Williams’ suicide speaks of his expectation of the outcome of any trial, irrespective of whether he was guilty or innocent. He took his own life rather than live through the ordeal that he knew lay ahead. Just before midnight on 7 December 1811, the Marrs were in their shop and residence preparing for the next day's business when an intruder entered their home. 7 December fell on a Saturday, then pay day for many British working people and the busiest day of the week for shopkeepers.