GEORGE HUTCHINSON

An Ungoverned Passion
Journalistic Constructions of Mary Pearcey
and the Hampstead Tragedy
By DR SARAH BETH HOPTON
I see when men love women they give them but a little of their lives.
But women when they love give everything.
Oscar Wilde
* * * * *
The Crime
Friday, 24 October 1890. A few minutes past 7.00pm, a clerk named Somerled McDonald was walking home toward
Belsize Park Road when he stumbled upon a woman lying in the road, a jacket thrown across her torso. At first he thought
she was drunk, homeless, or sick - the jacket obscuring his view - and moved to the far edge of the pavement to avoid
her. Something tickled his curiosity though, and he turned back. He bent down and shook her, but her body replied stiffly,
and he was unnerved and ran toward the Swiss Cottage Railway Station to fetch a constable. 1
McDonald led PC Arthur Gardiner back to
the spot where he’d left the woman. When
Gardiner arrived, he removed the jacket.
Underneath was a barely recognisable
woman’s face bespattered with blood and
dirt; her neck cut so severely her vertebral
column and ligaments were exposed.
The post where the body was found. From Famous Crimes
Sgt Brown and Inspector Wright of S
Division (Hampstead) were soon on the
scene, as was Dr Arthur Wells, fetched to
assess time of death. Wells determined
that the woman had not been dead long,
since her legs were still warm and her arms
not quite cold. Brown and Wright collected
evidence including a brass nut dappled with
blood. 2
An ambulance conveyed the body to the Hampstead Mortuary, while Inspector Wright canvassed the neighborhood.
Early information suggested the woman was in the “habit of walking up and down Eton-avenue,” which is to say they
suggested she was a prostitute, but the constables who walked that beat were later paraded before the body to confirm
this theory, and none recognised her. 3 Though it had been two years since the last Ripper victim, Mary Jane Kelly, was
found butchered at 13 Millers Court, the nature of this murder stirred immediate public angst and speculation. 4
1 “Shocking Tragedy at Hampstead.” Herts Advertiser, 1 November 1890. p7.
2 “Trial of Mary Eleanor Wheeler Pearcey.” Old Bailey Proceedings Online. December 1890, www.oldbaileyonline.org.
3 “Woman Brutally Murdered at Hampstead.” Pall Mall Gazette, 25 October 1890. pp4-5.
4 “Terrible Murder at Hampstead.” Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper, 26 October 1890. p1.
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