Back from London and Working on Video

So, it's been several months since my last post and much has happened since then. First, the trip to London was amazing, if not taxing. I met with Deborah Maggoch -- who is delightful -- and met her mother Charlotte and visited the house where the murders were committed.

I retraced Mary's steps and video taped the entire journey, which I'm currently ripping into a DVD that will be edited and uploaded this weekend, I hope. After spending 15 days in the cold, wet snow I was hoping the ghost of Mrs. Pearcey would reward my research with a late-night visit but no luck. I could not conjure the late Mrs. Pearcey and though the research went well, it is never ending, and, frankly, I don't feel any closer to solving this mystery.

My latest delimma is trying to find out more information about her solicitor Freke Palmer. I need a good-natured researcher who understands how to get information from the inns of court in London. Anyone, anyone?

I did, however, stumble upon a most interesting fact. There was an entry in a passport catalogue of a Frank Hogg from Camden who applied for passports for -- get this -- 2 people in October 1890. Was that for he and Mary, or he and Phoebe or was it just a ruse? Despite my best efforts, I couldn't find Frank Hogg in any of the censues after the death of his wife and child. Did he abscond to Spain? Fascinating, but the trail runs cold there.

I learned a bit more about Mary's life, and got a personal tour of the bowels of Newgate Prison thanks to a very friendly and interested historian who also worked as a gaurd. I saw where Mary was kept in her last days (her actual cell) and I saw where her bones are burried. I actually walked the Green Mile (very terrifying). I shot video and still photos of the door that she walked through on her way up to Courtroom No. 1. I also collected several more newspaper clippings from the local papers, some of which have photos of she, Frank, and Phoebe's family.

That was remarkable and I can't wait to share it with you.

Finally, and perhaps most noteably, the entire trial transcripts have, at last, been published into the public domain. I have downloaded them, compared them to my notes, and found several discrepancies and interesting ommissions from Mr. Hogg and others.

So, sit tight for the video (complete with sound effects and the latest research).

Still working away on the book (up to 160 pages), and I meet with an editor/agent on my birthday (Sept. 20) and will get initial feedback then.

I'm thinking about asking for help from you, my readers, with the plot as a way to stir interest in the book and since it looks like there won't be resolution to this mystery after all, why not have fun creating a compelling drama based on the facts as we know them. Thoughts?

Happy Thursday - SBH

Mary Pearcey and the Occult?

So, the trip to London has been planed with the help of my childhood friend Ashlee and her generous law partner Ian. I will be staying at Ian's house in Surrey, just outside London, from March 21 through the 1st of April, and will visit the city and Hampstead daily in order to recreate Mary's final days.

It is true that Mary had many lovers in her life and so it should be no surprise to find she has many suitors in the afterlife. I am referring, of course, to the various writers and researchers who have worked or are working to recreate her story.

On my way home from Tampa today, I received a delightful email from Patricia Heard and Andrew Ramirez of Prince of Wales Road, London, England. The street is the same street Frank Hogg and the Hogg family lived on. Pat and Andrews are two film script writers also working on a story about Mary's life. I am eager to meet them, share information, and explore their work and theories.

My Canadian friend Chuck continues to send me information about Mary. In one of the articles he sent recently, the author mentioned a theory I'd not heard before: that Mary was somehow tied to the Occult and/or a secret society which Phoebe Hogg threatened to denounce.

The theory sounds far fetched to me, but interesting none-the-less. I would like to learn more about secret societies in Victorian London and so, should you have information about such societies, I encourage you to post to this blog or email me at: sb@studioninetwenty.com

Many thanks for reading. Stay tuned.

Finding Mary Pearcey's House

Nine months ago I went to see Sister Faye, a renowned spiritual adviser. She told me I would write a book this year and that it would be a love story. I balked. I am the most unromantic woman I know. My mother has been married five times. My younger sister just divorced. What would I have to contribute to discussion of love? Then, she told me not to worry about writing the book because God would write the first several chapters for me.

So, after all the research finally arrived and after weeks of culling through it, organizing it, and cataloging the catalogs, I could no longer avoid writing. So, I sat down to my computer and waited for God.

That's funny, given that if I'm anything, I'm Buddhist, and a Buddhist waiting for God is like a fish waiting for the ocean. They are made of each other, even though they have independent qualities. (I promise, this post isn't about the esoteric nature of eastern philosophy).

I now have the first 40 pages of a novel fleshed out. Happy Days! But God didn't write them. Something mystical has manifest in my life, however.

People have shown up exactly when I needed them and key facts have appeared just as I was getting sucked into the quicksand that is historical research.

An example:

Yesterday, I was sitting on my black futon staring at the computer like the enemy it was. I did not want to write. I was N-O-T G-O-I-N-G to write. But, I knew I had to write.

I was tackling a section of the story of which I had little knowledge - Mary's house and Hampstead generally. I write linearly and not having information or not having access to information about a section can halt my writing indefinitely.

Then, from no where, inspiration struck. I received an email from Deborah Moggach (Yes, for the studied the Deborah Moggach). Visit her here: www.deborahmoggach.com

She told me her mother owned the house at No. 2 Priory street and have lived there for 20 years. She also told me her mother had no knowledge of the house's history but found the flat to be haunted by the sound of a child screaming and red splotches mysteriously appearing on the wall. Her mother was so concerned by the splotches and screams, she called the local vicar to have the house exorcized. Consequently, the hauntings stopped.

How interesting. Mary too suffered from frightening hauntings. Were Phoebe and Tiggie reaching out from the dead?

Later, Deborah's mother was visited by a reporter working on a feature spot about famous British crimes. Then, she learned of the terrible deeds committed in the kitchen.

Deborah has invited me to tour No. 2 Priory Street (now Ivor Street) when I visit England this spring. I've posted a photo the bridge she must have passed under on her way to dispose of the bodies.

I'm eager to visit the lovely, little house at No. 2 Priory Street, and see if Mary or Phoebe will speak to me.

Extraordinary People who love Extraordinary Crimes

I continue to be amazed by the outpouring of help from people interested in the life of Mary Eleanor. It seems in even death she has many suitors.

I recently received this email:

I have noticed on the Web that you have an interest in M.E.W.Pearcey
and her 1890 trial. I was going to go carefully in believing the
father-daughter murderers story, but I see you already know about that.

I am going to Mexico tomorrow until Jan. 16th, otherwise I would send
you some photocopies of the birth certificate and her real father's
death cert. If you send me a mailing address I will do it when I get
back. I can also send a reproduction of the famous insertion in the
Madrid newspaper.

In the meantime you might try to get a hold of the following books,
all of which have reasonably accurate accounts of the events.

"Thou Shalt Do No Murder" by Arthur Lambton,
"Murders of the Black Museum" by Gordon Honeycombe, 1982
"Murder and its Motives" by F. Tennyson Jesse, 1924
"Lady Killers" by J.H.H. Gaute and Robin Odell, 1980
"Rope, Knife and Chair" by Guy B. H. Logan, 1930?
"Extraordinary Crimes" by J. Laurence, 1931
"Should Women Hang?" by Bernard O'Donnell

The Lambton has a photograph of the newspaper insertion in the Madrid
paper. The case is an interesting one. I wish you good luck in your project
to fictionalize it.

If you have trouble obtaining the books I could photocopy the
"Pearcey" sections and send them to you, after my return from Mexico.

The note is from Chuck Forbes. Thanks Chuck.

I researched the books and found that FSU carries Thou Shalt Do No Murder and so I'm off this afternoon to dig it out of the archives.

In the meantime, I will likely begin posting the first chapter of the novel soon. I also have some newspaper clippings that have never found the light of day and will post those shortly as well. Thanks again for reading. I hope there are others like Chuck out there willing to fill in more pieces to the puzzle. My wish for 2008 is to find someone who is either related to or can help with the Hogg or Styles family genealogy.

Phoebe Styles married Frank Hogg and together they conceived Tiggie Hogg (also called Phoebe Hanslope Hogg). Of course, the baby died, but I don't know much about the Styles family or the Hogg family. I know the Style family lived in Chorley Wood around the time of Phoebe's death and the Hogg family had owned a grocery store at 83 King Street in London two years before the murders.

Any help is appreciated.