Waltham Forest – Death On My Doorstep

1/ Leabridge Road, Leyton, August 1898 (Father Slaughters Four Children)

William Viney, a labourer, had gone to each of his children while they slept on the floor and stabbed them in the neck. He had taken them for a rest and himself too. Another child who was fourteen, saw the father commit the gruesome deed and ran to his mother, from whom Viney had separated a week ago and in turn, she sent for the police. It all happened at between nine and ten at night, with the victims, Mary aged eleven; Bertie aged five; Fred aged eight and little Annie only two, stood no chance. Rather calmly Viney had gone out to a group of locals who had assembled and gave himself up and told them where the bodies lay. Viney and his wife lived from hand to mouth and despite his seventy-five years, he still did odd jobs for people but it wasn’t enough to survive on. They had eleven kids together and Viney’s wife was only fifty. (But considering they had a two-year-old as well !). He did it because of the desperate situation they found themselves in, all with a common pen-knife. (Did this bastard hang?)

2/ Walthamstow, (Singular Death) July 1858

William Simpson, a pupil of Dr Greig at Walthamstow died under the strangest of circumstances. Simpson was walking around the garden with Mrs Greig, when she mentioned the cherry tree and how fruitful they were, so he climbed up the tree to get some down. He leaned forward on one of the boughs when he fell off and fractured his skull, with death being instant. The poor lad was an orphan and only fourteen years of age.

3/ Temple Mills, Leyton, October 1904 (Five Skulls Found)

A rather grisly discovery was made at Temple Mills, Leyton, by a group of schoolboys. They were messing about on a refuse heap near to the Great Eastern Wagon Works when they came across five human skulls. They took a specimen to their schoolmaster, who immediately contacted police. The police began searching and throughout the day they found several more human bones and other remains.

4/ Chingford Suicide, December 1885

5/ Leytonstone, September 1892 (Dead Husband Turns Up)

Walter Edwin Westcott, a schoolmaster from Glencoe Terrace, Worsley Park in Leytonstone and Ada Agnes Emma Roe of Burdett Road in Mile End were in Thames police-court trying to explain their side of the story. They met several years ago, then got married. Westcott then got word that his wife’s first husband was still alive. He took her into custody and she was committed for trial. Westcott was under the impression that her husband was dead when he married her and indeed there was a section in the papers about a suicide with the same name as her ex. Her story was that she wed George Roe in 1880, then in 1881, he left her. Then in 1887, she married Westcott thinking he was now dead. Then in 1888, a baby girl was born and he gave her £8 a month allowance. Then in January, her old hubby turns up out of nowhere. It turns out that the kid was his and Westcott said he knew nothing of the illegitimate child when he married her. Another thing that he mentioned was another child that she said was her cousin, but in fact was her first child, was living at her mother’s. So the poor bloke had been deceived on all fronts.

6/ Leytonstone/Stoke Newington Infanticide, March 1885

7/ Walthamstow (Rats Eat Body) March 1887

This one is a bit gruesome. The body of the wife of George Rason of Maria Terrace, Carisbrook Road in Walthamstow, was found under a brick archway under Ferry Lane which crosses a water-flow known locally as “Puddle Dyke”. A horrific sight met the police, as her head and neck were completely devoid of any flesh, as it had been eaten away by the rats. They had left the right earlobe, which had an earring in it. Her hands were bones, but the wedding band remained on her finger and her knees were in a similar condition. His wife left nearly a month ago and left this short note to explain her situation:-

My dear husband and baby. God bless you. My poor head is so bad. Goodbye.”

It is believed that she drowned herself in the ditch which is near the East London Water Works Company’s reservoirs and the current brought her down to the archway when she became lodged in there and was for the next three weeks a ready meal for the local rat population.

8/ Leyton Triple Murder, January 3rd, 1903. ( Sorry about the condition of the clipping, but it is 95% readable)

9/ Leyton Triple Murder, January 1903.

10/ Leyton Triple Murder, (Funeral of the Victims) January 10th, 1903

11/ Fatally Attacked by Hooligans, Walthamstow. April 1904.

12/ Owner Squashed by an Elephant, Hoe St Goods Yard, Walthamstow. January 1904

13/ Suicide of a West Ham Guardian, James Street, Walthamstow. November 1906

14/ Murder/Suicide at Leyton. December 22nd 1906

Early yesterday morning, at Leyton, two revolver shots were heard in Moyer’s Road, and in the doorway of No.5, a man and woman were discovered in a dying state. The man had a revolver in his hand, and both were shot through the head. Death occurred in each case before a doctor arrived. The bodies have been identified as those of Walter Suttle, aged twenty-seven, of Waltham Cross, a mechanic at a Small Arms Factory, and Henrietta Howard, aged twenty-four, of Moyer’s Road, Leyton, one of the manageresses at the Great Eastern Railway restaurants, Liverpool Street.