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Italian Boy   James Greenacre   John Brill   Eliza Davis     Eliza Grimwood    Robert Westwood   Nicholas Pearce   Charles Otway   Richard Gould  Lord William Russell     Courvoisier     Daniel Good

Early Murder Investigations

In the first twelve years of the Metropolitan Police's existence there was no detective branch.   

One murder case in 1831 involved the scandal of robbing graves in order to provide bodies for medical training.   This was not a specific offence at the time if no property had been stolen with the body, but the murder of an Italian boy by grave robbers in 1831 went beyond the activities of normal ‘resurrectionists’.   Their desire to find a fresh body which could be offered for sale to a medical school actually led them to commit a murder for this purpose.  The case was investigated by local Superintendent Joseph Thomas of F (Covent Garden) Division, and it resulted in the execution of a John Bishop and Thomas Williams amid much publicity and scandal.

Another difficult case involved the gruesome murder of Hannah Brown, whose torso was found in Edgware Road in December 1836.  Her head was found 10 days later in a canal near Stepney, and the legs were found in Camberwell.   It was ten weeks before the victim was identified by her brother, but in a tribute to diligent local detective work undertaken by Inspector George Feltham and PC Pegler of T Division, James Greenacre, who had been due to marry Hannah Brown, was successfully caught and convicted of her murder.

In February 1837, a 15-year-old boy named John Brill went missing near Uxbridge.   The boy had recently been a witness against poachers, and one of their fathers joined the search party and found the boy's murdered body suspiciously quickly.    The Commissioner sent Sergeant Charles Otway of A Division,  the first recorded request for a Metropolitan Police officer to be sent to assist an investigation outside the Metropolitan Police District.     

In days before the opening hours of public houses became restricted, a 21-year-old barmaid Eliza Davis was found murdered at the King's Arms public house near Regents Park early on the morning of 9 May 1837.   Her throat had been cut, and the publican gave the description of a customer who was in the habit of coming in to the premises at about 6am.  The murder investigation, by Inspector Aggs, was inconclusive, despite the help of PC Pegler who had helped track down James Greenacre, and although a great number of possible suspects were traced, none was identified by Mr Wadley the publican.  

 Another throat-cutting case involved the death of a good looking 28-year-old prostitute Eliza Grimwood who seemed to have made her living by crossing over the Thames from Lambeth to meet men at the West End theatres.   Inspector Field from L Division traced a cab driver who had brought Eliza and a gentleman back to her lodgings, and made numerous other enquiries, including, at one point arresting the dead woman’s partner, William Hubbard.   Despite these heroic efforts, however, there was never sufficient evidence to close the case.  

In June 1839, the police quickly arrived to put out a fire in a watchmaker’s shop in Soho and in one of the smoke-filled rooms they found the murdered body of Robert Westwood.   Over 80 of Mr Westwood’s valuable watches had been stolen.   There was no shortage of people who had a grievance against the prickly Mr Westwood, but whilst Superintendent Thomas Baker of C Division and Inspector Beresford traced many people who could help the inquest jury, there was no evidence to prove a case against any one suspect.  Inspector Nicholas Pearce and Sergeant Charles Otway from A Division were drafted in to help the enquiry, and made many efforts to trace one of Westwood’s neighbours, a paper-hanger by name of Nicholas Carron who had fled to America immediately after the murder.    But again the case remained unsolved.

 The prospect of a reward did clarify the person responsible for the fourth case, which occurred on 17 March 1840, when John Templeman of Pocock's Fields, Islington was found murdered.   A suspect pot boy, Richard Gould, was prosecuted, but the case failed for lack of evidence.  After Gould's acquittal of murder, Charles Otway pursued him to the ship in which he was about to sail for Sydney, armed with a warrant for the burglary of Mr Templeman's house, with which Gould had not previously been charged.   Otway tricked Gould into signing a confession to the murder and brought him back to London where Gould was then sentenced to transportation.   Despite, from Otway's point of view, making the best of an unsatisfactory outcome, the inducement, in the form of the prospect of sharing in a reward, was held to be unfair, and Charles Otway's career as a potential detective came to an end.   This did not hold him back permanently, however, because he retired in May 1853 as the Superintendent of C Division.

 In May 1840, when Lord William Russell fell victim to the fifth murder, the newspapers had begun to expect failure in these investigations, and the absence of an immediate arrest started to tip the scales of the argument towards appointing specialist detectives.   The two uniform police constables who attended the scene near Park Lane, Mayfair, were followed by Inspector Tedman and a Sergeant of the neighbouring D Division. After them, in rapid succession, came Inspector Beresford and Superintendent Baker from C Division who had earlier been involved in the Robert Westwood case, and then even the Commissioner Richard Mayne.    

Richard Mayne, who regularly undertook personal supervision of contentious murder cases, then called in from A Division the officer whom he judged best qualified for dealing with the case - Inspector Nicholas Pearce.   The A Division operated from Great Scotland Yard itself and often acted as a reserve of well-qualified officers to deal with special assignments.  Pearce, who had joined the new police as a Sergeant, had previous police experience by virtue of having been a Bow Street patrol.    Pearce commenced his investigation by undertaking a careful search of Lord Russell's home, and soon found evidence implicating his manservant Courvoisier, who was later duly convicted and sentenced to death.   The case was solved.

In February 1837, a 15-year-old boy named John Brill went missing near Uxbridge.   The boy had recently been a witness against poachers, and one of their fathers joined the search party and found the boy's murdered body suspiciously quickly.    The Commissioner sent Sergeant Charles Otway of A Division,  the first recorded request for a Metropolitan Police officer to be sent to assist an investigation outside the Metropolitan Police District.     

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