Having been a beat reporter for a few years, I'm used to the facts finding me. That hasn't been the case with Mary's story.
Research is fascinating but can be overwhelming. I find myself getting sidetracked by research in an effort to find that one illusive fact that will thread together an unforgettable story. I have no previous knowledge of or even interest in the Victorian era, so I'm having to conduct a great deal of ancillary research just to get a sense of time and place.
I'm not complaining - mind you - because finding nuggets of fact
mired in the useless detail of scholarly work is like hooking a large
fish after an otherwise fruitless day on a cold lake. Instantly, I'm
filled with excitement and the
angst of hours sifting throughunusable material vanishes.
Most of the accurate and best research I've located is housed in library and newspaper archives in England. I've sent for 235 pages of court records from the National Archives and expect them any day. I also had the good fortune of visiting the Boston Public Library where I found excellent newspaper accounts of Mary's investigation and trial. I'm scanning them now and will upload on another post.
Through newspaperarchives.com I located much of the American coverage. I'm including some of the more interesting write ups here. It took some time to locate these clippings, as I hadn't realized how badly reporters deformed Mary's name. Her last name was spelled Pearcy, Piercey, Percy, Percie, depending on the account. In the American press, Mary was known as Nellie Pearcey, not Mary Pearcey. Worse still, Phoebe Hoggs was spelled Phoebe Hobbs in the American press.
This has made research most challenging but somehow apt too, as Mary is beginning to emerge as something of a shape shifter; a woman with
enough imagination to constantly reinvent her past and present
depending on the moment.
Something of interest to Ripper aficionados is how quickly the rumor spread that Phoebe and baby Tiggie's murders were the work of Jack the Ripper. I've included an article written by an American journalist that debunks that wildly spreading rumor. It really sheds light onto the psychology and constant fear that permeated the Hampstead and Whitechapel communities.
In my research, I've had the good fortune of running into several people who are much more skilled at research than I. They've been willing to share their valuable time and invaluable information with me and I'm most grateful.
For me, the most challenging part of my research lies in reconstructing Mary's early life. So far, my greatest "find" has been in local historian and geneology guru Chris Reynolds.
His website can be viewed here: http://www.hertfordshire-genealogy.co.uk/home.htm
Chris has been more than helpful in piecing together Mary's early life. For example, I discovered that Mary was not 10 when her father was executed as previously thought, but more like 19. This means she would have met Frank Hogg almost immediately after moving to London.
I now question if she really tried to hang herself in the family garden upon receiving the new her father was dead.
With Chris's help, I learned that Mary's mother name was Mary and that Mary Eleanor was called Ellen, not Mary. I have so much more genealogical research to conduct, but Chris's detailed understanding of the Wheeler family has helped immeasurably.
Another interesting fact is that is seems Mary did, in fact, have a brother. This may very well have explained why her blinds were drawn that fateful afternoon. I will be interested to learn when her brother died. Her explanation to Mr. Pearcey that her blinds were drawn out of respect and grief may well have been true.
The next and most important phase of research will be piecing together what life was like in Hampstead in the early part of the 19th century. Chris has suggested the following book: Larkrise to Candleford. I secured a copy from our local university library and was quite happy with that find.
Cottage Life in a Hertfordshire Village has proved more difficult to find and purchase. It's very expensive at $110.00. Should anyone find a discounted copy, even if abused, I'd be willing to buy it.
Enjoy the articles included.
More information to come.
Happy reading.
3 comments:
You mean the Early 20th Century, surely, or the Edwardian Era.
There are many indices of Mary Pearcey's guilt.
The fact of being seen by 4 different witnesses according to you and at least the one seeing her coming out of Bonny Street (NW1) and going under the Railway arches doubled over pushing a pram.
Although if that was me I would've come out via Jeffries Street, having grown up there, since that is more discrete. There is no real hiding under that huge railway arch, and anyway via Jeffries Street is the best route to get to S. Hampstead; as is going under the Railway Arch.
Not much getting around that, neither of the AMOUNT of blood found at that place, not even 100 mice could make that much blood.
Then there is the washing of the clothes and the attempts to burn others as found in the fireplace, as well as some bloodstained "Novelettes", partially burned and alluded to by you in the text.
You neglect to include the fact that the neighbour, on hearing the disturbance of two smashed windows also gave back a Wicker Dress Stand, later found to be in the flat by the Police.
Mrs Hogg was found to have a ragged cut on her arm, so it is easy to surmise that she was hit from behind and on the side and since the pathologist testified that the first blow was enough to kill, if not render senseless and convulsing, then it was Mrs Hogg who smashed at least one pane of the Kitchen window.
The Poker Handle matched the cranial wounds exactly, it was testified. Again, not easy to get around in open court.
In order to fit Mrs Hogg into the Pram, even doubled over it would be needed to somehow fold her head so that it did not stick out, hence the horrific wounds to her neck.
I refer again to witnesses placing Mrs Hogg's perambulator at Wheeler/Pearcey's address and subsequent sightings of Pearcey/Wheeler and not Mrs Hogg later that day.
You omit that the brass nut to one of the Pram's wheels was found right next to Mrs Hogg's corpse.
Finally Pearcey/Wheeler clearly had motive, means and opportunity.
Mrs Hogg and especially her Baby should not've been killed in such a gruesome manner for simply being Mr Hogg's legal family, least not baby Tiggie.
How this can even begin to be justified as "Bitter-sweet" or as some sort of Crime of passion beggars belief, neither deserved to die, or in such a manner.
Being a common-Law "Wife" of a Carpenter living on Bayham Street is hardly "Lower Middle Class", looking at the actual class records for that area and knowing it well personally, Bayham Street has never been Lower Middle Class except in the 1990s.
Lodging in 3 rooms for about 7s a week in a situation that is right next to a Railway line and the noise and shaking that attends that hardly makes Priory road/Ivor Street Lower Middle class either, he style if buildings concerned are those for workmen and minor clerks working for the railways, as the demographics of the time and for that area indicate.
There is nothing in Wheeler's Family history that indicates anything lower middle class at all, no jobs that required an education or skill are indicated, least not being a kept woman.
The women in the court that you indicate;
A) Had the spare time, unlike the lower classes.
B) Wanted to see what a gruesome murdering Home-wrecker looked like, let alone the extraordinary media interest in the case and it's lurid details.
Which again makes it very strange that anyone could even begin to empathise with such a person.
She did not work but lived off men as a mistress and still went looking elsewhere looking to wreck other legal marriages, and finally to rob an innocent woman and her baby Girl of their lives in a most brutal and callous manner, even more callous was not owning up to it and showing any kind of remorse.
Given that she obviously had a mental condition or two, it again underlines why we do not have the death penalty anymore, because it did not dissuade her or Jack the Ripper, let alone when you kill the wrong person (Rillington Place).
What a shame our cousins have not figured that out yet.
Good luck with your little story, I'm sorry but I still find your justifications quite baffling.
Your research (or whoever has researched on your behalf) is peppered with inaccuracies, some minor and others howlingly incorrect. Whether this is intentional is hard to say but to someone like me, who has spent more hours than you can know researching this case, they add little weight to the alleged hard work you've put in.
What you claim to have unearthed, many of us have known since the early 1990's. It's just a shame you still know so little about the subject you want to write about, let alone fill a blog with it.
маленькие титьки
порно бесплатно женщины
порно жён
порно видео бесплатно садо
скачать жесткое порно картинки
видео порно фото ролики
фото титек сисек
фото порно показуха
dead porn
частные порно фото женщин
Post a Comment