Ratcliff Highway Murders

The Ratcliff Highway murders (sometimes Ratcliffe Highway murders) were two vicious attacks on two separate families that resulted in multiple fatalities. They occurred during a twelve day interval in December, 1811, in homes half a mile apart near Wapping in London.

Ratcliff Highway Murders

Postmortem sketch of John Williams, supposed murderer
Other names John Murphy
Location Wapping, London, England
Date December 7 and 19, 1811
Deaths Timothy Marr, Celia Marr, Timothy Marr (3 mos.), James Gowan, John Williamson, Elizabeth Williamson, Bridget Anna Harrington
Result Declared guilty after committing suicide in his prison cell, December 28, 1811

Read more about Ratcliff Highway Murders:  First Murders, Significance, The Investigation, The Second Murders, The Survivor's Testimony, The Suspect, A Break in The Case, The Suicide, Some Alternate Suspects, Puzzling Motivation, Media, Police, Television, Novel

Famous quotes containing the words highway and/or murders:

    In one notable instance, where the United States Army and a hundred years of persuasion failed, a highway has succeeded. The Seminole Indians surrendered to the Tamiami Trail. From the Everglades the remnants of this race emerged, soon after the trail was built, to set up their palm-thatched villages along the road and to hoist tribal flags as a lure to passing motorists.
    —For the State of Florida, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)

    Many people I know in Los Angeles believe that the Sixties ended abruptly on August 9, 1969, ended at the exact moment when word of the murders on Cielo Drive traveled like brushfire through the community, and in a sense this is true. The tension broke that day. The paranoia was fulfilled.
    Joan Didion (b. 1935)