The Maul and the Pear Tree

During the dark nights of December 1811 near Wapping in London's East End, two households, including a young mother and her baby, were brutally clubbed to death. These vicious crimes provoked nationwide panic and the Government offered an unprecedented reward for the conviction of the murderer. Inexperienced magistrates grappled with the mystery, against a background of mounting hysteria. Eventually a seaman named John Williams was arrested for the murders, and later found buried with a stake through his heart. But was he really the notorious East End killer, or just another victim? Drawing on public records, newspaper clippings and previously unpublished sources, James and Critchley expertly sift the evidence to shed new light on this infamous mystery.