Today's Tom is a little different, but I couldn't help writing about him. Unfortunately, since he's been dead for over 100 years, there is little chance I'm going to be able to make friends with him on facebook. But even if he was alive I'm not entirely sure I'd want to be friends with him, for this Tom Sadler was a murder suspect during the famous 'Jack The Ripper' killings in Whitechapel in the late 1900's. And I can't tell you how pleased I am to have discovered this!
Tom Sadler was born in around 1838, and was actually named 'James' Sadler, but for some reason took on the noble name of 'Tom' to, luckily, make himself eligible to be written about by his namesake in a self-obsessed blog 170 years later in a town near Brighton. He probably didn't change his name because of this, but it would show remarkable foresight if he did.
Tom grew up in and around the Norfolk area and eventually became a sailor, taking on various jobs on land when not at sea. He married Sarah Chapman in 1851, and afterwards moved to London. So far so good, then. This is probably what he looked like, not sure there's much resemblance to me. Then again, I've never grown a massive beard and killed a prostitute, so who knows. But with any luck, we're not related;
Sadler and Chapman had three children, and seemed to endure a turbulent marriage together in London. While he went form job to job in the East end of London, holding all manner of roles from that of a greengrocer to a tram driver, and spending occasional times at sea, the couple split several times. Largely, it seems on account of Tom being a violent drunk, once described by his lodger as 'a treacherous and cowardly man', who on several occasions threatened to take his wife's life. It seems that for a time around 1888 to 1891, Tom was living alone in the Whitechapel area of London, and was regularly spending time with Francis Coles, a local prostitute. Some sources claim they were actually an item, but it seems more likely that he was just a very regular and eager customer.
'Jack The Ripper' was the name given to the unidentified serial killer that was active in the impoverished East End of London in 1888-1889, possibly later. He is thought to have murdered at least 5 young women, all prostitutes, during this time. He is likely two have killed 2 more and possibly up to 15 or 16. The likelihood is that many of the others were copycat murders, driven on by the intrigue and media hype, but only 5 of them are thought to have been committed for sure by the same person, typified by the similar method of asphyxiation, followed by throat-slitting and the removal of bodily organs. Francis Coles was one of the more unlikely to have been a victim of The Ripper.
Below is a link to a website which is very detailed and interesting account of the case, and worth a good look if you're interested in the case at all. Although I've got to say, I didn't enjoy looking at the photographs very much. They're pretty gruesome, and unbelievably creepy. Before stumbling across this Tom Sadler on google, I knew very little about 'Jack The Ripper', other than the famous name and place.
http://www.casebook.org/intro.html
Francis Coles was killed a time after the bulk, for want of a better word, of the murders were committed, in 1891 - the majority of killings occurred between 1888 and 1890. On the lead up to her murder, Francis had been out with Tom for effectively 48 hours on a massive pub crawl. Which for starters is wonderful, because I didn't think I'd find that much in common with him until I read this bit! But it seems he did like a drink. After spend a night in what are referred to as 'chambers', they carried on drinking the next day until they appeared to have a massive argument in the street, our man thinking it was Coles' fault that he'd been mugged while they were out - although it strikes me that if he'd been drinking for that long, he's probably just left his wallet in a pub somewhere without realising. The couple parted company but only a couple of hours later, Francis Coles was dead. Her throat cut, and body left in an alley.
Strikes me it would have surely been simpler if he'd just phoned up and cancelled his credit card and chalked the loss of a couple of notes up to bad luck, rather than lose his rag and violently murder his Mrs, but there you go. This is a picture of them on a night out. Looks like they're having an amazing time;
Looks like he's bored her into some kind of coma. Probably going on and on about folk music and cricket all night, not letting her get a bloody word in.
Sadler was arrested two days later in, surprisingly, a pub. Upon the arrival of the police he is alleged to have said to them, "Well, it took you long enough didn't it?", which can't have helped his case very much. He was detained, charged, and sentenced for her murder, and put under suspicion for the other murders committed a couple of years previously by 'Saucy Jack'.
He was, however, a few weeks later acquitted of the crime due to a lack of evidence and some new evidence provided by his Union, apparently providing witnesses to prove that Sadler was elsewhere when Coles was murdered. The story was that at this time he was at least a mile away being beaten up by some men on the docks.
Despite his freedom, the police always suspected him of the murder of Francis Coles - although it seems there is very little chance that he was the culprit of the other unsolved murders. He eventually left London, under much pressure from the police who wanted him out of town. No-one knows exactly when he died, but there are registered deaths of a 'James Sadler' in Wandsworth in 1910, and a 'Thomas Sadler' in Camberwell in 1906.
I wonder what happened to his three children? Maybe one of them moved down the road to Brighton at some point........
As much as I have immensely enjoyed researching this 'Tom Sadler', and do share his affinity for pubs, I must say I feel more akin to the Tom Sadler in Virginia I spoke about a few days ago. He seems like an all round much nicer bloke!
No comments:
Post a Comment