This article is the second of two looking at how the Independent Police News covered serious crime in Forest Gate during its existence (1867 - 1938). The paper was a salacious page turner - almost the classic Victorian 'Penny Dreadful' that entranced its readers with its lurid accounts of crimes and sensationalist illustrations of them,
For a full account of the periodical, see the previous post on the publication, and Forest Gate, including details and illustrations of the first four of 10 cases it covered in illustrative depth, here.
5. Serious attack on a
wife and suicide in Forest Gate - 8 April 1905
This is the full report from the IPN from a story which occupied less than half the space of the
very graphic illustration accompanying it:
On March 28 a man named Lee, a baker of Oakhurst Road,
Forest Gate, attempted to murder his wife and afterwards committed suicide by
hanging himself. Mrs Lee was washing up the dinner things, and suddenly felt
herself struck heavily on the back of the head and rushed out of the scullery,
followed by her husband, who gave her two more blows, before she could get up
into the street.
She ran into a neighbour's house with her head streaming
with blood. She said that her husband had suddenly attacked her with a chopper
and tried to murder her.
 |
Illustration from 8 April 1905
Illustrated Police News |
The police, upon entering the house, found Lee hanging by a
clothes line from the banister of the stair-case. He was promptly cut down ...
Lee, however was past help, and gave his last breath as the doctor raised his
head.
Mr Lee, who was an epileptic, had been in receipt of
poor relief, and there is no doubt that want brought on the attack of frenzy in
which he attacked his wife with his chopper. He was thirty-one years of age and
leaves six children.
The story was accompanied by a grisly and graphic
illustration, see above. As with other cases, the IPN
reported the drama, with no follow up of the inquest or Coroner's Court
proceedings.
6. Ghastly tragedy at
Forest Gate: husband returns home to find his daughter murdered and wife
injured - 4 February 1911
This story and headline was dramatic enough to produce a
centre-fold, double page spread illustration of a story that was only half a
column long. It is reproduced in its entirety.
Returning home late in the evening, a Great Eastern Railway
employee named Charles Thomson Wilkinson, residing in a self-contained flat of
three rooms, at Sherrard Road, Forest Gate, made a tragic discovery.
His suspicion that something untoward had happened were
aroused when he found both front and back doors bolted. When, however, he went
to the front door a second time, he found to his horror that his wife was lying
on a bed in the front room with a wound to her throat.
 |
| Illustration from 4 February 1911 Illustrated Police News |
In the same room, on another bed was his daughter, Dorothy,
who was only sixteen last November. She was the only child, and her mother had
always been passionately fond of her. On the distraught husband speaking to his
wife, Mary Ann Wilkinson, she replied, so it is alleged: 'Oh, I have killed
her.'
Dr Thomson of Romford Road was at once summoned and he found
that the skull of the child had been beaten in by the blows of a mallet. The
girl was bright and intelligent and rather good looking.
The family had only occupied the house for a few weeks and
during part of that time, it is said, Mrs Wilkinson, who was aged fifty-seven,
had been away after having been under medical observation at Whipps Cross
Infirmary. ...
The wound in the woman's throat was not very serious, and
her recovery is probable. She was taken to Whipps Cross Infirmary.
No sounds of blows or any other noise that might have
attracted notice was heard by the people living next door on either side.
Much sympathy has been extended to the father who has been
an employee of the GER company, as a fitter, for thirty-eight years."
Once more, having given salacious details and provided a
gory illustration, the IPN lost
interest in the case and did not follow this report up with details of the
court case, or its outcome.
7. Forest Gate Horror:
man confesses to killing his wife and child - 17 February 1912
Once more, we reproduce the whole of the article that accompanied the illustration.
A double tragedy, the murder by a man of his young wife and
little son, was discovered at Forest Gate early on Sunday morning.
Soon after seven o'clock a newsboy, delivering newspapers in
Stork Road, a little street not far from Romford Road, saw a man, half dressed,
rush from a doorway into the street, screaming for the police and flourishing a
hatchet, smeared with blood. Snatching up his papers, the boy took to his
heels.
The man was James Limpus, a motor mechanic, thirty-three
years old.
Running back to his house in Stork Road, Limpus threw the
hatchet from him, and dashed out again, up the road and into the shop of a Mr
Fred Pretty, a newsagent of Knox Road, nearby. Here he was detained until the
arrival of a constable, who entering the man's house, found lying across the
bed, the bodies of Mrs Limpus and her little son, Stanley, aged two and a half
years.
Mrs Limpus was unconscious; the little boy was dead. Both
were terribly battered about the head, and the woman died before medical help
could be obtained.
 |
Illustration from 17 February 1912
Illustrated Police News |
Mrs Pretty, in whose shop Limpus gave himself up said that
... her husband had opened the shop 'when suddenly I heard him running upstairs
to me saying 'What shall I do?' when the man dressed only in his trousers and
shirt and with blood splashes still on his hands, came into the shop, and said
to my husband 'I have murdered my wife and boy. Will you come with me?'
He was quite calm; and my husband had little difficulty in
coaxing him out of the shop and bolting the door. I tried to blow a police whistle,
but my nerve failed me and I could not; so I sent our news boys off in
different directions to find policemen. Meanwhile, my son kept watch on the man
outside.
Mr Pretty went back into the house with Limpus, and there found
the two poor bodies. Besides the little boy was a bag of sweets. ...
When assistance came he (Limpus) submitted without a
struggle to being taken to Forest Gate Police Station.
Although a skilled mechanic, Limpus had been out of regular
work for some little time. He is believed to have been born in Calcutta, and to
have lived some time in India, where most of his relations are.
To neighbours he had often said that if he could get the
money to pay his passage back to Calcutta he would be certain of regular work;
but his wife had always declined to entertain the idea on account of her
child's delicate health.
The bodies of the woman and her boy were taken to Stratford
mortuary.
The "drama" of the story merited a whole front
page illustration for this relatively brief report. And, once more, there was
no follow up in the IPN of the trial
or fate of Limpus.
8. West Ham murder:
husband's startling confession to a constable - 23 July 1914
Cycling up to West Ham police station, Evan Davies, sixty, a
stonemason of Heyworth Road, Forest Gate said to a constable 'Have you heard
the news? - you will soon; I have shot my wife!' He produced a magazine pistol
and was detailed. Police officers found Mrs Sarah Jane Davies, fifty-eight,
lying in the kitchen at her house with a bullet wound in her neck. She was
removed to West Ham hospital. X-rays were applied and the bullet located. She
died, however, the next day.
When accused came before the magistrates, the evidence
showed that the prisoner had been to Canada for some years, and returned in November
last.
Lily Janet Davies, his daughter said that when she last visited
her parents they were on good terms. Her father had, however, frequently made
allegations about his wife. He was a very excitable man.
 |
Illustration from 23 July 1914
Illustrated Police News |
Mrs Blanche Dare, the occupier of the lower part of the
Davies' house, in evidence, said that after Davies had left his apartment in
the morning that she went upstairs and found Mrs Davies lying on the kitchen
floor moaning and bleeding from her mouth.
The arresting police constable said that when Davies showed
him the pistol, he said 'Be careful, there are some more in there. I meant to
pop off four. This has been premeditated for some time.' Davies then appeared
to be labouring under great mental stress.
Dr J Youle of West Ham hospital said that the women was
admitted in a state of collapse and gradually got worse. At night an operation
was performed but the deceased never rallied. The bullet entered the back of
her head and cause cerebral hemorrhage, which resulted in death.
Verdict: "Wilful murder". The accused was
committed for trial.
Once more, there was no follow up by the IPN, so the outcome of the trial was
unknown to its subscribers.
9. Forest Gate crimes -
soldier's callous confessions of four hideous murders - 8 May 1919
This is their IPN's
account of the Forest Gate murders we have previously covered, here. Their
account of them is much more salacious and descriptive than that given in other
papers we have seen - and as with all IPN
cases, no details were given of the outcome of the trial.
 |
| Illustration form 8 May 1919 Illustrated Police News |
10. Forest Gate tragedy
- domestic quarrel ends in murder and suicide - 18 September 1919
Below we reproduce the entire account from the IPN of this case. It is short, blunt, to
the point and graphic. It has everything
a piece of salacious reporting could require, blood, gore, infidelity and
painful testimony:
The full story of a double tragedy at Forest Gate was told
at West Ham Coroner's Court, when inquests were held on the bodies of William
Davey, aged fifty-six, an ex-munitions worker and Lily Allum, aged forty-four.
The man and woman were found dead with their throats cut, at a house in Upton
Avenue, Forest Gate.
Mr R Davey, brother of the dead man, said that his brother
and Mrs Allum lived in rooms in his house. Mrs Allum was a married woman
separated from her husband. On Wednesday morning (September 10), when he
returned home from work, he, his brother and Mrs Allum and two other lodgers -
Mrs Allum's married daughter and son-in-law - sat down together to breakfast.
 |
Illustration from 18 September 1919
Illustrated Police News |
During the meal a slight quarrel occurred between his
brother and Mrs Allum and the latter said she was going back to her husband.
His brother replied: 'Go, then.' Nothing more was said at the time, but after breakfast,
while he was shaving, he heard his brother call out to Mrs Allum to bring him a
collar.
She replied: 'All right' and went up to him. A few minutes later he
heard a woman cry 'Oh, God'.
'I rushed upstairs' said the witness 'and found my brother
kneeling on Mrs Allum on the bed, and I saw that there was a wound in her
throat. I carried her downstairs into the hall and ran for a doctor, and when I
returned I found my brother lying in the passage with his body towards the door
and his throat cut'.
Dr PJ Dufty said that the wounds on Mrs Allum's throat were
the results of three separate attacks. On making a post-mortem examination, he
found that the covering of the man's brain was adherent, which might indicate
some mental malady.
The jury found that Davey murdered Mrs Allum and afterwards
committed suicide, whilst temporarily insane.
Conclusion
The Independent Police News, as described in
the first part of these two articles, was clearly a publication of its time. It
would have played to the Victorian sense of melodrama and survived by lurid
accounts and sensationalised images of hideous crimes.
But, changes
in technology - newspaper photography and perhaps most of all the movies - whether
newscasts, such as Pathe News, or
fiction and drama would soon be able to out-do the IPN, in terms of sensation and actuality. The surprise is, perhaps,
that the paper managed to last so long - until almost the outbreak of World War
11.
As we have
mentioned throughout the two articles, the IPN
was clearly more interested in the drama than the outcomes of cases, or justice
- so it is very rare that verdicts or sentences are given - just lurid court
reports, or police statements.
It is
impossible to take any sensible conclusions from the outcomes of just 10 cases,
covered in a magazine with its own lurid agenda, but it is clear from the cases
covered in these blogs that the overwhelming number of murders and suicides
were, in modern parlance, "domestics" and most were explained away,
in the IPN reports as being connected
either with mental breakdowns, or poverty.
Footnote
Access to
the entire contents of the Independent
Police News can be gained via the British Newspaper Archive website, see
here
It is a
subscription service, but invaluable to anyone with a serious interest in
researching almost any aspect of modern British history. It is continuously
expanding its coverage, but currently covers over 760 publications and has 20
million accessible pages - which can be searched via a very powerful search
engine.
A special bit of pleading to them , in exchange for this plug: Please
digitise the entire back catalogue of the Stratford Express, ASAP!
