GEORGE HUTCHINSON

* * * * *
In an uncustomary interview granted after Pearcey’s execution, Freke Palmer told the reporter it seemed that
Pearcey’s lot in life “had been a very hard one, that she had been badly treated by many people. In fact, the whole world
appeared to be against her and none for her. She was a woman of some character and of great intelligence. She was
not a common low character, as people make out.” Then he added, “[but] her character will not bear investigation”. 95
In a final mystery that solidifies Pearcey’s connection with the press and her construction as one of the most baffling
murderesses of her day, Pearcey further titillated the public when she asked Palmer to place an advert in the Madrid
newspapers following her execution:
M.E.C.P. - Last wish of M.E.W.; Have not betrayed.
CODA
Gothic until the last moments of its mysterious end, Pearcey herself played a significant role in ensuring that her story
remained unfinished. She withheld key details and names, and told stories so fantastic they suggested a mind incapable
of separating fact from fiction. One hundred and twenty five years later we still, to paraphrase one Australian reporter
covering her case, “don’t know all yet.” 96
That is not to suggest Pearcey didn’t do it, or that the sentence was unjust. It is quite possible - probable even - that
Pearcey withheld the name of her secret accomplice because there was none; denied Palmer the satisfaction of pleading
insanity because she was quite sane; and absolved Frank Hogg of guilt because he was innocent.
It is easy to reread history and her antagonists more sympathetically than a contemporary could have, yet Pearcey’s
story contained all the elements of the tragic, marked as it was by pity and fear. The political, legal, and scientific
affordances that developed over time provoke our pity. Undoubtedly Pearcey would have benefited from medication to
control her seizures and any one of several mental illnesses from which she likely suffered. Modern forensics would have
exonerated or definitively settled Pearcey’s involvement in the butchering of Phoebe Hogg’s body. And, Pearcey would
not have taken so many secrets to the grave - at least not an early grave - since capital punishment was abolished in
the United Kingdom in 1965.
But what is it about Pearcey’s case that still provokes our fear? Why do we turn our attention to her again and again
over a century later? Perhaps it is the uncomfortable recognition that love can serve as the wellspring of both charity
and inhumanity. Who among us has not loved something or someone so completely, that it stripped us bare of reason,
even if only for a moment? As we turn our gaze to Pearcey again, perhaps we fear looking too closely at her, and those
like her in our own time, for fear we might catch a glimpse of ourselves in the reflection.
Acknowledgements
Deep appreciation to Mark Ripper and Justin Weltz for their help in vetting facts, formatting, and editing this article.
95 Lloyds of London, 28 December 1890.
96 “The Kentish Town Murders.” Auckland Paper, 5 December 1890.

DR. SARAH BETH HOPTON is an Assistant Professor of Professional and Technical Communication at Appalachian
State University. A former reporter, Dr. Hopton covered crime and politics for a Florida newspaper, and later
worked as a Legislative Aide and Communication Director for multiple elected officials. She holds an M.A.
with distinction in Creative Writing from Lancaster University in the United Kingdom, and a Ph.D. from the
University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida. Dr. Hopton lives in Boone, North Carolina.
Her book Woman at the Devil’s Door: The Extraordinary True Story of Mary Pearcey and the Hampstead
Murders, the first full-length examination of the case, is due to be published by Mango Books later this year.
Ripperologist 146 October 2015 29