The Ripper of Waterloo Road (The Murder of Eliza Grimwood in 1838)

When Jack the Ripper first terrorized the streets of London, the Daily Telegraph reported that his crimes were as ghastly as those committed by Eliza Grimwood’s murderer. Grimwood was a high-class prostitute, and on May 26, 1838 she brought a client home with her. The next morning she was found with her throat cut and her abdomen viciously "ripped." The client was nowhere to be seen. The convoluted investigation, with suspects ranging from an alcoholic bricklayer to a royal duke, was followed by Londoners with great interest, including Charles Dickens, who based Nancy’s death in Oliver Twist on Grimwood’s. There was much dismay when the murder remained unsolved. Jan Bondeson links this murder with a series of other opportunist early Victorian slayings, and, in putting forward a credible new suspect, concludes that the Ripper of Waterloo Road was, in fact, a serial killer.