Eliza Grimwood

[Sam Flynn]

I read in today's Guardian an interesting article telling of one author's claim that Dickens may have based the "Death of Nancy", in Oliver Twist, on a celebrated murder of one Eliza Grimwood. I must admit that I'd never heard of this case - even though the Telegraph once drew parallels between it and the Whitechapel Murders:

"Those with retentive memories may be comparing notes regarding the strange similarity existing between the Whitechapel case and that of Eliza Grimwood, who about half a century ago was found in a house in the Waterloo-road under circumstances of closely analogous horror, her murderer never having been discovered. No class in the community is free from this morbid curiosity." (Daily Telegraph, 6th September 1888.)

The Guardian article may be found here. Any more info would be appreciated.

[DVV]

Hi Sam,
no wonder horrendous things do happen in Waterloo-Road.

Amitiés,
David

[Jon Guy]

Hi Sam

Oliver Twist was first published as installments in 1837, and Eliza died in 1838.

[Sam Flynn]

Oliver Twist was first published as installments in 1837, and Eliza died in 1838.

Close, but no cigar, Jon

You're right that the serialisation of Oliver Twist began in 1837, but the final installment wasn't published until April 1839. Dickens was, I believe, still working on Pickwick Papers in parallel. In any event, he only began writing the final chapters, including the death of Nancy (Book Three, Chapter 9), in October 1838. The Grimwood murder happened on the 26th of June that year.

[Jon Guy]

In any event, he only began writing the final chapters, including the death of Nancy (Book Three, Chapter 9), in October 1838. .

I just noticed that the story was already appearing in ten theatres before the final installments were published ? I`ll see if I can see when these productions appeared.

[Jon Guy]

Hi Sam

From today`s Herald :


AT AN unknown hour of the night on the May 26 1838 in a room in a slum house by the Thames, the brutal murder took place of a young prostitute, Eliza Grimwood. She was found the next morning by her pimp, who had slept in the attic. Her corpse had been left on the floor, half dressed, fallen over awkwardly backwards from a kneeling position, and with the bed clothes flung across it. He set up a frantic alarm, and the police soon arrived to find Eliza had died from a deep cut to the throat causing catastrophic blood loss. But it didn't end there. Her killer had also stabbed her after death several times in the stomach and breast, as well as making an almost successful attempt to behead her.

There were two obvious suspects: the unidentified gentleman she had picked up at the Strand Theatre the evening before; and the man who had discovered her body, her pimp and lover, William Hubbard.

In favour of its being Hubbard, she had a defence wound to one hand, but hadn't cried out for help, suggesting to those who analysed the scene that she had known, and had perhaps wished to protect, her attacker. Against its being Hubbard was the fact that all his clothes were clean, none of the water kept in the house was tainted with blood, and he owned no blade that could have inflicted the injuries. And even if he had somehow come by such a knife, there was no good theory as to how he could have disposed of it. If, on the other hand, her final client had been responsible, the difficult question became how he could possibly have fled into the night unnoticed when Eliza's killer had to have been drenched in blood.

[Sam Flynn]

Thanks for the info, Jon.

[DVV]

Hi Sam,
out of curiosity, why do papers are currently writing on this old case ?

Amitiés,
David

[ElizaGrimwood]

Hello.

Brand new forum member here though I have often visited the main site itself

I am simply looking for more information on Eliza Grimwood and all I really have found so far is a great deal of literature on how Charles Dickens came to use her case as inspiration. Could anyone possibly point me in the direction of something a little bit more specific? Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

RJ

[mklhawley]

Greetings,

I found more on Eliza Grimwood, which has new an different information:

The Sun (New York), November 25, 1888.

ASTOUNDING MURDERS., “Jack the Ripper” Not Alone in History., Many Other Unpunished Murders of Streetwalkers.

...OTHER MURDERS OF LONDON OUTCASTS.

...But the mysterious murder of a prostitute in the paris of London where they swarm was not an unknown crime before that. In the 'Dublin University Magazine' for March, 1873, in a collection of reports of murders that have never been explained or avenged by the law, this case is reported:
“The murder of Eliza Grimwood excited a most painful interest in the public mind. She was singularly beautiful, of the class termed ‘unfortunate,’ but loathing her way of life, which she was in a manner coerced into following by her cousin, who at the time of the murder occupied a house in the Waterloo road, twelve doors from the bridge, where he offered a mercenary shelter to vice. Eliza Grimwood occupied and received her friends in the first floor of that house. One of the most frequent of her visitors was a foreign gentleman, called by the neighbors, whose notice he came under, Don Whiskerandoes, from the luxuriance of his whiskers and beard. This person, it was observed, invariably wore lavender-colored gloves. The same peculiarities – a hairy face and lavender gloves – distinguished a dethroned potentate then residing in exile in England, for which and no other tangible reason his Serene Highness fell under the ban of suspicion. A few days previous to the catastrophe Eliza Grimwood had a clear prospect of escaping from the loathed life to which circumstances had condemned her. A commercial traveler had fallen deeply in love with the beautiful unfortunate and proposed marriage. His offer was accepted, greatly to the cousin’s rage, and there was reason to believe, in opposition to the jealous will of Don Whiskerandoes.
A day was fixed for the ceremony, late in the evening previous to which Whiskerandoes was seen to enter the house. He was admitted by the cousin. A room on the second floor, directly over Eliza Grimwood’s sleeping apartment was occupied by another courtesan who, as well as her companion, heard at about the dead waste and middle of the night, a noise as of quarrelling below. The chamber door was presently opened, shut again, and the listeners heard the creaking of a man’s step as he descended the stairs and passed out at the street door. So common an incident in that house could excite no surprise. It was afterward remembered that Eliza Grimwood’s little dog, though a fierce animal, except in the presence of any one he knew well, did not bark! In the morning Eliza Grimwood was found fully dressed, lying on the floor (the bed had not been occupied) quite dead. A sharp instrument, a thin poniard it is believed, was driven into her heart. By the black-bearded foreigner nicknamed Whiskerandoes? Few doubted that he was the murderer. The cousin did not. Certainly no one dared to (aver?) that the foreign potentate was Whiskerandoes. The cousin himself was apprehended on suspicion of being the murderer, no reason being adduced except that one of his shirts was missing. He was liberated, and all trace of Eliza Grimwood’s destroyer vanished.”

Sincerely,

Mike