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n At the same time as Bishop, Williams and May werenstanding trial for the murder of Carlo Ferrier in November 1831, another casenof murder was under investigation. The accused were Edward Cook and his commonnlaw wife Elizabeth Ross (sometimes, not unreasonably, known as Mrs Cook), whonwere said to have murdered Caroline Walsh.
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| London Tenement |
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nThe investigation began when thengranddaughter of Mrs Walsh, Ann Buton, went to Lambeth Street police station tonreport her grandmother’s disappearance. Caroline Walsh had been a decrepit oldnlady of eighty-four years, who scraped a scant living selling threads, bobbinsnand stay-laces on the streets of London. She had lived at No 2 Red Lion Squarenwith her granddaughter, where their next-door neighbours had been Cook andnRoss.
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| Goodman’s Yard and Rosemary Lane |
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nThey had moved to nearby Goodman’s Yard (marked in red on the map) andnpressed Mrs Walsh to move there too, but the old lady was not too enthusiasticnabout leaving her current lodgings and Buton actively tried to talk her out ofnit. Ross was persistent and badgered Walsh into submission until, on August 19thn1831, she went to the Cook’s room at No 7 Goodman’s Yard. Ross had a badnreputation as a gin drinker, was a dealer in hare skins and, it was said, catsnhad started to mysteriously disappear from the neighbourhood soon after shenmoved in. Edward Cook had a local reputation as a body snatcher, was also andrinker and was a known bully. They lived in one room with theirntwelve-year-old son, also called Edward (but known as Ned). Mrs Walsh had beennseen going into the building with the Cooks, but had not been seen againnafterwards. Ann Buton became suspicious when she had not seen her grandmothernafter August 19th, so she went to Goodman’s Yard to look for her. She askednRoss where the old woman was, to be told that she had gone out earlier, andnButon’s suspicions began to grow as Ross’s answers to her questions becamenincreasingly evasive.
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| London Gin Shop |
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nRoss asked Buton for money for gin, Buton offered to buynbeer for her but was told she did not drink beer, so the two women went tonnearby Brown’s pub, where they drank gin and two pints of beer. Buton told Rossnthat she thought it was strange that her grandmother should have gone out, asnshe thought she would have been expecting her to visit, to which Ross replied,
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n“You seem to think from what you say, that we havenmurdered the woman.”n
n“I hope not, Mrs. Cook,” said Buton.n
n“From what you seem to say, you think we havendestroyed her at our place,” said Ross.n
n“Mrs.nCook, you put the words into my mouth, but what I think I don’t speak now, butnyou will know of it hereafter,” replied Buton.n
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nRoss then asked Buton for money and was given 3 ½ dnwhich she said she would spend on bread and cheese and went out. Buton waitednfor three quarters of an hour but Ross didn’t return, so Buton walked thenstreets of the area, hoping to find her grandmother. After three or four hours,nButon went back to the Cook’s room, where she found Cook to be red-faced andnbruised – Cook had beaten Ross for ‘getting drunk’ with her. She askednagain where was the old lady, only to be told that she had not yet returned.nOver the next few days Buton called on Ross several times, but Mrs Walsh hadnalways just ‘gone out,’ and she also went to nearby poor houses, hospitals andnprisons looking for her, but no one had seen her. Eventually, she became sonconcerned that she went to Lambeth St Police station, from where officer James Leanbegan his inquiries.
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| Penny Broadsheet |
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nOn October 28th, Lea and Buton went tonGoodman’s Yard, where they found Elizabeth Ross coming out of the close. Leanconfronted her and asked the events of August 19th. Ross said thatnMrs Walsh had been brought to her door by her granddaughter, Mrs Lydia Basey,n(Buton’s sister), who had left her there. The family had had a pleasant eveningntalking, they had had cold meat and coffee for supper and had gone to bed aboutnnine o’clock. The following morning, Edward Cook had got up at about 4 o’clocknand gone to work and Mrs Walsh had risen at seven. Lea and Buton took Ross tonthe docks where Cook was working, and where Lea put the same questions to him.nCook said that after a supper of tea and hot meat, they had gone to bed atnabout a quarter past eleven. That discrepancy was enough to get the pairnarrested. Lea’s next act was to go to the local charity school, where he alsonarrested young Ned Cook.
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| Trial of Ross and Cook – Old Bailey Proceedings 1832 |
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nOn January 6th 1832, Cook and Ross stood innthe dock at the Old Bailey before Mr Justice Park. The principal witness wasntheir own son, twelve-year-old Edward Cook, who told the court that on a Fridaynnight, he didn’t remember the date, an old woman he knew had come to the housenand they had drunk coffee before going to bed. During the night, he heard hisnmother get up and go to the old lady, onto whose face she had put one hand andnthe other on her chest, and held her there for half an hour. His father hadnstood at the window, looking out, with his back to them. After that time, hisnmother had lifted the old lady up like a baby and carried her down to thencellar. Ned went back to bed and got up in the morning to go to school.
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| G Dore – London Slums |
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nAnothernboy called Shields, who lived in the same tenement block, had some ducks thatnhe kept in the cellar and Ned went down to see them. He went into the cellarnand saw the old lady’s body in a sack, so he went straight to school, where hendidn’t speak to anyone. When he came home at the end of the day, he found hisnfather beating his mother for, he thought, going drinking with a young woman,nso he went out to play and did not return until late. At about half past ten,nfrom the window, he saw his mother carrying the sack down in the street. Shentold him later that she had taken the old lady to the hospital. Elizabeth Rossncried out in court,
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n“Good God! How could I have borne a son to hangnme!”n
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nbut Ned burst into tears and said he was onlyntelling the truth.
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| Penny Broadsheet |
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nFurther witnesses, used clothes and rag buyers from the RagnFair on Rosemary Lane (marked in blue on the map), testified that Ross hadnbrought and sold various items of clothing to them in October, and when thesenwere produced in court, Buton and Basey identified them as having belonged tontheir grandmother – indeed, Buton had made some of them with her own hands.
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| The Rag Fair – Rosemary Lane |
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nThendefence lawyers tried to prove that Mrs Walsh had been seen, and had died, innTibble’s Poor House some time later, and although a decrepit old woman had beennidentified as being there, her description in no manner matched that of MrsnWalsh. The jury retired for their deliberations and returned the verdict ofnguilty on Ross and not guilty on Cook. Ross protested her innocence and saidnNed had been schooled in his evidence, implying that she was being made thenscapegoat for some unidentified ‘gentleman’, but on Monday January 9thn1832, she was taken to the gibbet outside the Debtor’s Gate at Newgate prisonnand hanged. Her body was then handed over to the anatomists for dissection.nElizabeth Ross was the only woman convicted and executed for murder byn‘Burking’ her victim.
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| W Clift – Elizabeth Ross – 1832 |
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nA drawing of her, made in death by the anatomist DrnWilliam Clift, shows a woman who looks much older than her thirty-eight years,nalthough gin and an intemperate life in the stews of Regency London hadnundoubtedly played their parts in her apparent decline. In a little over fiftynyears, ‘Burking’ would give way to a different method of murder in that part ofnLondon where Elizabeth Ross had lived – Whitechapel.
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