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I found this 1745 Old Bailey case of abiding interest, in that it shows a murder everybit as brutal as Mary Kelly's or Catherine Eddowes can be carried out by someone very close to the victim indeed.
Also interesting is that the couple attended a public execution on the very day of the murder, and that this may well have played a role in the subsequent murder.
'John Riggleton, about 30 years of age, a native of the town of Stanmore Magna, born of good honest parents, who put him to school, and had both will and abilities not only to have given him a good education, but also to have brought him up to business; but he was from his childhood, through a natural defect in his understanding, incapable of either; he therefore when of a proper age only followed labouring business , drove cattle to and from London, or otherways as occasion required, and sometimes applied himself to sowing and reaping: after some time spent in this way, he married a wife who had one natural daughter, and with whom he always lived in great discord; he was married to her ten or twelve years, and had by her several children, two whereof are still living, and were in the same room when the murder was committed, as was also her natural daughter. On the 9th of July, the day of the murder, he and his wife came to London together, at the instance of the wife, in order as it seems to see Stephens executed for the murder of his wife; after which execution they went home together very peaceably, but after they were a bed quarrelled, and then this fatal disaster followed. He was a man of very strong passions, and his wife, if report says true, of much the same unhappy turn; the man was really at intervals quite a lunatic, the woman mistress of no degree of prudence, so that their state together was perfectly miserable. He was in one of the worst of his fits on this fatal night, and the fire of his spirits not a little increased by the fuel of his wife's ill tongue, and worse behaviour: she wanted to shove the poor man out of bed, but he not being in a state of mind capable of bearing ill usage, he took out his knife from his coat pocket, and therewith first cut her throat, then drew his knife down her breast, opened her stomach, and ripped up her belly; he cut and mangled her face and body in such a manner as is hardly to be conceived. His wife's natural daughter, who was the eldest, got out of the room and ran away to the neighbours for help, while the poor young children that remained, hid themselves in the room as well as they could. The neighbours met the poor wretch, a little way from the house, with his bloody knife in his hand, and himself all over in goar blood, with a wildness and terror in his looks not to be described. He made no manner of resistance, but in a confused manner owned the
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murder, which indeed was so obvious as not to need any confession. When they asked him why he did it, he only told them an incoherent story about the devil, and such stuff as naturally enough occurs to ordinary minds on the like occasions. His behaviour during his continuance in Newgate was generally wild and inconsistent, and but now and then capable of giving a rational answer. I asked him if he intended to murder his children, or his wife's daughter, he answered plainly, no. At chapel his behaviour was quite extravagant. The first time he was there he sat upon the end of the Communion table with his face towards me as I was praying at the desk, staring for some time very hard at me; at length he rose up on a sudden, and putting his mouth close to my ear, made a most horrible outcry; I threatened to call the keepers, and then he desisted. After service was over I asked him the cause of such irregular behaviour; he said there was a man behind the grates stared him in the face, and he could not bear it. His appearance at chapel was really very frightful, his face had all the dried clotted blood remaining on it, and his breast being open a great quantity of the gore remained between his shirt and his breast. He from being extravagant, grew quite stupid and insensible, and left this world in a very miserable and deplorable way. If he was not mad, I know not how to account for his behaviour, he not seeming to have an understanding capable of acting it to so much perfection; but whether he was so before the murder, his neighbours are best able to determine.'
Also interesting is that the couple attended a public execution on the very day of the murder, and that this may well have played a role in the subsequent murder.
'John Riggleton, about 30 years of age, a native of the town of Stanmore Magna, born of good honest parents, who put him to school, and had both will and abilities not only to have given him a good education, but also to have brought him up to business; but he was from his childhood, through a natural defect in his understanding, incapable of either; he therefore when of a proper age only followed labouring business , drove cattle to and from London, or otherways as occasion required, and sometimes applied himself to sowing and reaping: after some time spent in this way, he married a wife who had one natural daughter, and with whom he always lived in great discord; he was married to her ten or twelve years, and had by her several children, two whereof are still living, and were in the same room when the murder was committed, as was also her natural daughter. On the 9th of July, the day of the murder, he and his wife came to London together, at the instance of the wife, in order as it seems to see Stephens executed for the murder of his wife; after which execution they went home together very peaceably, but after they were a bed quarrelled, and then this fatal disaster followed. He was a man of very strong passions, and his wife, if report says true, of much the same unhappy turn; the man was really at intervals quite a lunatic, the woman mistress of no degree of prudence, so that their state together was perfectly miserable. He was in one of the worst of his fits on this fatal night, and the fire of his spirits not a little increased by the fuel of his wife's ill tongue, and worse behaviour: she wanted to shove the poor man out of bed, but he not being in a state of mind capable of bearing ill usage, he took out his knife from his coat pocket, and therewith first cut her throat, then drew his knife down her breast, opened her stomach, and ripped up her belly; he cut and mangled her face and body in such a manner as is hardly to be conceived. His wife's natural daughter, who was the eldest, got out of the room and ran away to the neighbours for help, while the poor young children that remained, hid themselves in the room as well as they could. The neighbours met the poor wretch, a little way from the house, with his bloody knife in his hand, and himself all over in goar blood, with a wildness and terror in his looks not to be described. He made no manner of resistance, but in a confused manner owned the
See original
murder, which indeed was so obvious as not to need any confession. When they asked him why he did it, he only told them an incoherent story about the devil, and such stuff as naturally enough occurs to ordinary minds on the like occasions. His behaviour during his continuance in Newgate was generally wild and inconsistent, and but now and then capable of giving a rational answer. I asked him if he intended to murder his children, or his wife's daughter, he answered plainly, no. At chapel his behaviour was quite extravagant. The first time he was there he sat upon the end of the Communion table with his face towards me as I was praying at the desk, staring for some time very hard at me; at length he rose up on a sudden, and putting his mouth close to my ear, made a most horrible outcry; I threatened to call the keepers, and then he desisted. After service was over I asked him the cause of such irregular behaviour; he said there was a man behind the grates stared him in the face, and he could not bear it. His appearance at chapel was really very frightful, his face had all the dried clotted blood remaining on it, and his breast being open a great quantity of the gore remained between his shirt and his breast. He from being extravagant, grew quite stupid and insensible, and left this world in a very miserable and deplorable way. If he was not mad, I know not how to account for his behaviour, he not seeming to have an understanding capable of acting it to so much perfection; but whether he was so before the murder, his neighbours are best able to determine.'