Criminal - The Hammersmith Ghost

Episode Date: October 7, 2022

In the winter of 1803, residents outside of London reported strange encounters with a ghost. Some said it looked like Napoleon Bonaparte, or a horse without a head. Others said the ghost breathed fire and smoke. By Christmas, there was a “full-scale phantom panic.” Shortly after the New Year, one man decided he’d stop the ghost once and for all. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: iTunes.com/CriminalShow. We also make This is Love and Phoebe Reads a Mystery. Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop.  Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for Criminal comes from Apple Podcasts. Each month, Apple Podcasts highlights one series worth your attention, and they call these series essentials. This month, they recommend Wondery's Ghost Story, a seven-part series that follows journalist Tristan Redman as he tries to get to the bottom of a ghostly presence in his childhood home. His investigation takes him on a journey involving homicide detectives, ghost hunters, and even psychic mediums,

and leads him to a dark secret about his own family. Check out Ghost Story, a series essential pick, completely ad-free on Apple Podcasts. Botox Cosmetic, Adabotulinum Toxin A, FDA approved for over 20 years. So, talk to your specialist to see if Botox Cosmetic is right for you. For full prescribing information, including boxed warning, visit BotoxCosmetic.com or call 877-351-0300. Remember to ask for Botox Cosmetic by name. To see for yourself and learn more, visit BotoxCosmetic.com.

That's BotoxCosmetic.com. That's BotoxCosmetic.com. It was the talk of the taverns over the Christmas season, 1803-1804. Christmas is, of course, a great time for ghost stories and ghost storytelling. and it started to seem in Hammersmith as though the stories were rather coming to life. In the winter of 1803, there were persistent stories of a strange robed figure perambulating around Hammersmith Churchyard and in neighboring lanes. People who claimed to have seen the ghost described it in different ways. Some said it looked like Napoleon Bonaparte, and others said it looked like a horse without a head. Some said the ghost breathed fire and smoke and had eyes that glowed.

A newspaper described the account of a stagecoach driver who said that he heard an uncommon rustling noise while passing through Hammersmith one night. And then, he said, by a faint light from the moon, he saw a strange creature dressed in, gliding over a meadow. We're hearing about the Hammersmith ghost from Alan Murdy. And this wasn't any sort of ordinary ghost, because it was reported to begin attacking people. On one occasion, it was claimed that the ghost had leapt out on a whole wagon full of

people that were passing through Hammersmith, terrified the horses, and had succeeded in overturning the wagon. Also, lone individuals walking about claimed they'd been set upon by the ghost and beaten or struck by this phantom. The London Morning Post reported that one night, a group of servants from a local brewery were returning from the outskirts of town around 10 o'clock. They were met by the ghost, dressed in what they described to resemble the hide of a calf with a pair of enormously large horns and cloven feet. The ghost reportedly chased the group and grabbed one man by the throat, nearly choking him.

The man was scared so badly, he developed a fever and didn't recover for weeks. And by Christmas, it had turned into a full-scale phantom panic with people afraid to go out at night and people banding together in groups, all afraid of the assaults of this strange white-robed figure.

One paper reported that many people tried to catch the ghost, but, quote, there was not a pair of heels in the parish swift enough to overtake it. We've got to remember this was a time where we only had the most rudimentary of police forces in England. There was an antique system of what were known as parish constables, but there wasn't really anyone much to enforce law and order. So it was open to any subject of the king, any citizen to go out and enforce the law and apprehend offenders themselves. And so shortly after the new year, a man named Francis Smith decided he would catch the ghost

himself. He decided to turn himself into something of an anti-ghost vigilante. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is criminal. Francis Smith was a 29-year-old customs official. On the evening of January 3rd, he set out on his patrol for the Hammersmith Ghost. He brought a musket with him. And this was a time before there were any firearms controls or legislation in Great Britain. So you could more or less walk around freely with any kind of weapon you wanted.

And he, of course, had a kind of semi-official capacity as a customs official. he decided to stand guard in Black Lion Lane with the intention of apprehending the ghost, should it manifest. And about 10 o'clock, or approaching 11 o'clock, his vigil was rewarded by a figure in white walking up the lane. Which he immediately thought thought this must be the ghost so he immediately stepped forward with his gun and challenged it and demanded to know the identity of the figure no reply came back so he

challenged this figure again and when the ghost kept coming towards him at that point having received no answer he uh he fired his gun at it and at that point he saw the ghost collapse in a heap uh on the ground and then he realized he'd made a terrible mistake. We'll be right back. Support for Criminal comes from Apple Podcasts. Each month, Apple Podcasts highlights one series worth your attention, and they call these series essentials. This month, they recommend Wondery's Ghost Story,

a seven-part series that follows journalist Tristan Redman as he tries to get to the bottom of a ghostly presence in his childhood home. His investigation takes him on a journey involving homicide detectives, ghost hunters, and even psychic mediums, and leads him to a dark secret about his own family. Check out Ghost Story, a series essential pick, completely ad-free on Apple Podcasts. Hey, it's Scott Galloway, and on our podcast, Pivot, we are bringing you a special series about the basics of artificial intelligence.

We're answering all your questions. What should you use it for? What tools are right for you? And what privacy issues should you ultimately watch out for? And to help us out, we are joined by Kylie Robeson, the senior AI reporter for The Verge, to give you a primer on how to integrate AI into your life. So, tune into AI Basics, How and When to Use AI, a special series from Pivot sponsored by AWS, wherever you get your podcasts. When Francis Smith shot at a figure on Black Lion Lane,

he thought he was finally catching the Hammersmith ghost. But when he stepped closer, he realized he hadn't caught a ghost after all. He had, in fact, shot dead a 23-year-old bricklayer and plasterer who was called James Millwood, or in some reports, Mill Ward, who'd been dressed in white overalls, in a white apron and flannel clothing, which explained why he was dressed in white walking up Black Lion Lane. But he was certainly no ghost. He was a physical human up to that point, living human, until Smith had shot him.

And this would have been the uniform that a bricklayer maybe would have worn, this type of white overalls? Well, they still wear white overalls for certain building and plastering jobs to this day. It would have been part of the standard sort of protective clothing of its time. So once Francis Smith realizes that he shot an actual man, what happened next? Did the police arrive? Well, he raised the alarm and other people rushed to the scene having heard the shot. And it seems that he was taken into custody of the

parish constable and then would have been committed to prison. The body of Millwood was taken off actually to the Black Lion Inn where they, two days later, they held an inquest. The coroner came and convened a jury to inquire as to how Millward had come by his death, and the jury found that Smith was guilty of having shot him, so it became a case of unlawful homicide. And it's the only case in English legal history where somebody has been shot dead, mistaken as a ghost. Francis Smith's trial started a little more than a week after the shooting. The night watchman, a man named William Girdler, testified. He said he'd seen Francis Smith around

10.30 on the night of the shooting, and that Francis Smith told him he was going to search for the ghost. A little while later, he heard a gunshot. Francis Smith ran for help and brought the watchman to Black Lion Lane. He said he'd hurt someone. The watchman testified, I said, I hope you have not hurt him much, and that Francis Smith replied, I have, and I fear very bad. A local wine merchant testified that Francis Smith approached him for help.

Along with the watchman, they examined James Millwood's body and discovered a gunshot wound on the left side of his jaw. The merchant testified that Francis Smith was very agitated. The merchant also said that the night of the third had been extremely dark. James Millwood's sister, Anne Millwood, testified that she and her brother had been at their father's house that night. She said James left the house around 11 o'clock.

Shortly after, she heard someone yell, Who are you? And then, What are you? I'll shoot you. Immediately followed by a gunshot. She went outside and discovered her brother, dead. It was not a classic whodunit case.

In this case, the evidence all pointed to Francis Smith having pulled the trigger, which had led to the shooting of James Millwood. And the argument was really, became an argument of law as to whether he should be found guilty of murder or of manslaughter for what he'd done. Manslaughter because he wasn't trying to actually kill an individual. He thought he was killing a ghost. Indeed, he thought he was shooting at a spectre. That was his defence at the time. He fired, he thought he was shooting something supernatural, which is not against the law to hunt ghosts or attempt to kill them. For example, it is not against the law in Britain to kill vampires.

That presumes, of course, vampires might exist. But I'm afraid that argument didn't really help him as the law stood at the time, because the attitude of very much of the law in the 18th century was that where there was death there was someone to blame now smith might have had a defense if he had thought millwood was committing what was known as a felony at the time a very serious criminal offense but whatever the ghost was doing was was not a felony so there was no defense there of justifiable homicide uh it seems that sir francis smith's lawyers tried to argue one of mistake that it was careless it was reckless it was negligent um to go out firing guns at what you thought was to be a ghost, but it wasn't malice of forethought necessary for murder.

The defense called a relative of James Millwood's, Mrs. Phoebe Fulbrook. She testified that a few days before his death, James told her he'd frightened a group of travelers in his white clothes when they'd mistaken him for the ghost. Mrs. Fulbrook testified that she'd begged him to wear darker clothes or to wear an overcoat. James Millwood had ignored her warnings. Francis Smith gave an unsworn statement to the court.

He said his intentions were good. He said he had tried speaking to the victim twice. He said, I did not know what I did. I solemnly declare my innocence and that I had no intention to take away the life of the unfortunate deceased or any other man. But as the law stood at the time,

if you were going to stand the slightest chance of having a murder conviction reduced down to manslaughter, you had to be able to demonstrate that your mistake was a reasonable one. And the view of the judges of the court at the time was that believing in ghosts was unreasonable it was an inherently unreasonable thing for any anyone to believe in and the court directed the jury to convict smith of murder which well they duly followed the direction of the judge. And as a result, Smith was sentenced to hang. I imagine that there were many people in the courtroom who had been testifying on behalf of Francis Smith

that were probably hearing this and thinking to themselves, well, wait a second, it wasn't just him who believed in this ghost. I believed in this ghost, and there were many people in the town who believed in this ghost, and Francis Smith was trying to take care of a ghost that was tormenting us. Well, under English law, I'm afraid, ignorance of the law is no defense. The Bath Chronicle reported that Lord Chief Barron, one of the judges hearing the case, said it was still murder. The judge said Francis Smith thought he had a right to go and kill any person he saw in a light-colored coat, and that he went out with a loaded gun, intending to kill,

contrary to law, and killed a man who was innocent. So, effectively, it was a decision to stop vigilantes and vigilantism. So, Francis Smith was sentenced to death, But then what happened? Well, it seems that somebody had the idea of petitioning the king, King George III. He had what was known as the prerogative power of mercy, and apparently it got the interest of the king very quickly and i i think perhaps they felt that um this whole business of the ghost in hammersmith had got well and truly out of hand and that one death was one too many so it wouldn't make the world a better place to to execute somebody such as smith and make it two deaths it might just sensationalize it and inflame the matters further. So, Smith's death sentence was commuted to one year's hard labor, which would

have been a pretty tough sentence, it must be said, given the penal conditions of the early 19th century. But effectively, he was spared execution by the intervention of the king. Did anyone try to figure out what actually had been going on in Hammersmith? What these people were seeing, these phantomantom these sightings well from from what we know we don't have like a full history or records of of the period but it seems that a couple of days after the shooting somebody went to the magistrates for the area and reported a shoemaker called james graham who was arrested on a charge of committing a public nuisance that was going out at night with a blanket or a sheet to impersonate a ghost and he was taken to the magistrate's court and they asked him for the reasons for his behavior and this james graham said he his aim had actually been to cause fear

and terror of some local apprentice lads who had apparently been bullying and terrorizing his children. And so his idea was to dress up as a ghost and basically terrorize these wayward teenagers and teach them a lesson. And it seems he was bound over to keep the peace. Basically, he was basically ordered to keep out of trouble and not do it again otherwise he'd be back in court and face a hefty fine or even imprisonment and he was thereafter apparently he was being called his ghost ship uh and he seems to have carried the can, so to speak, for the activities of the Hammersmith ghost. But whether that was anything to do with whoever or whatever was causing the nuisance and attacking people in Hammersmith over that winter, we don't know, but it seems that after Smith's arrest and trial, it seems that the Hammersmith ghost proper ceased its activities

and nothing much about its activities were claimed for a very long time afterwards. But it wasn't the last people would hear of the ghost. We'll be right back. Are you looking to eat healthier, but you still find yourself occasionally rebounding with junk food and empty calories? You don't need to wait for the new year to start fresh. New year, new me. How about same year, new me? You just need a different approach.

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When did the idea start to change? Well, I think it was really after the Second World War that people started to look at homicide homicide again and after 1945 there was a slow progression in the law very much pioneered by a great English legal scholar and academic a man called Glanville Williams who argued from the late 1940s that basically the law of murder and the felt that with modern advances in psychology and psychiatry and medicine and social understanding that these old ideas from the 14th and 15th century were in need of revision. Basically, medieval and common law didn't really think very much weren't really interested very much in the state of mind or the motive uh for somebody killing another person basically the crime was that if you uh if you killed somebody you must have intended it and if you intended it it was likely to be it would be murder unless you could

show that you were insane and it was felt by with advances of psychology and psychiatry and understanding of the mind that this was a very outdated approach to the minds of offenders. So in 1957, the law was reformed with what was called the Homicide Act 1957, which introduced a plea of what's known as diminished responsibility. But the problem did remain that there was still this test when it came to mistake of reasonable and unreasonable belief. And that more or less carried on until, really, the 1980s. In the 1980s, 180 years after the Hammersmith ghost murder case, the England and Wales Court of Appeal issued an opinion that broke away from the precedent. That's the result of a case called Williams,

which arose, the facts of Williams were, a man called Mr Mason thought he saw a mugging, and a street crime. He'd seen a man snatch a lady's handbag, so he stepped in and seized hold of this man, and Mr Williams was walking along and he saw this. He didn't know the full facts. And he thought that Mr. Mason was actually the criminal, was the aggressor.

He thought that Mason was attacking this man in the street. So he stepped in and he started hitting Mr. Mason. Well, Williams ended up being put on trial for assaulting Mr. Mason. And that's where the Court of Appeal basically looked at this whole question of objective belief and subjective belief and reasonableness and unreasonableness and said that really Mr. Williams, although he perhaps might have given some thought to what he did before he started hitting Mr. Mason, he said, well, as long as Mr. Williams honestly believed he was witnessing a crime, a fight in the street, then he deserved to be acquitted.

In the court's decision, one judge wrote that what mattered was whether or not the belief was an honest one. Quote, if the belief was in fact held, its unreasonableness is neither here nor there. It is irrelevant. It was around this same time in the 1980s when Alan Murdy was studying to become a lawyer. Today, his day job is representing clients in civil liberties, tax, debt, and housing cases.

But he's also the chairman of what's called the Ghost Club. Which is based here in Britain, originally founded in 1862. You can say that we celebrate our cultural traditions of ghosts and hauntings in the United Kingdom, but we're also interested in ghostly phenomena across the world. Charles Dickens was said to have been a member. Its roots go back to the mid-Victorian period, and there was a great deal of interest in the mid-19th century about the supernatural, as they called it, particularly driven by the rise of spiritualism, which of course started

in the United States. And it was imported into Great Britain in the 1850s, and it proved as enormously popular in Great Britain as it had done in the United States. And at the time, there was also a growing materialist philosophy, which was epitomized by the publication of Charles Darwin's The Origins of Species in 1859. And so there was a great sort of crisis of belief in mid-Victorian England amongst philosophers and intellectuals and religious people. And people decided to look more closely into claims of the supernatural, what we today call typically the paranormal. And originally it was some fellows of Trinity College in Cambridge decided to form a ghost club for people interested in ghosts and hauntings.

How did you get involved with the ghost club? Well, I've always been interested ever since childhood in stories of ghosts and the supernatural eye i was lucky enough to grow up in a village in the 1960s and 1970s it was quite a rural part of england uh and still is in many ways uh area called suffolk in the east of great britain and there were still elderly people who talked about stories of of ghosts even of a village witch from years before so I I was kind of raised with it and then by the time I was about 12 I was getting seriously interested in science as well and I realized that the two could actually come together. So I got very interested in psychical research, and that interest has more or less stayed with me ever since, right up to today.

Alan Murdy says there's a rumor that the Hammersmith ghost returns every 50 years. Around the 150th anniversary of the shooting, people gathered in the St. Paul's churchyard in Hammersmith. And close to midnight, a number of people in the crowd said that they saw a strange light flickering across the side of the church. But this was, if whatever that was, and one has to be a little careful, I think, with excitable crowd testimony, whatever it was, it was a very weak,

rather pathetic manifestation of the Hammersmith ghost, if that's what it was, compared with its antics and exploits of 150 years earlier. They gathered again, 50 years after that. This time round, there were only a handful of people who gathered, perhaps just honouring a spin-off tradition more than anything at St Paul's Churchyard. And it may surprise you that the people who gathered didn't report anything unusual whatsoever. Were you there? I went along. I was requested to go along by a couple of

interested newspapers and it was interesting just as a piece of social science investigation and reporting to see here and look into it and and visit the scene of the alleged manifestation but i'm afraid there was no ghost i think overall um i mean i think psychic or paranormal phenomena um exist. I think they can be established more or less beyond reasonable doubt in some cases. And the sheer consistency of the testimony over the years shows, at least as far as I'm concerned, that there are some real phenomena going on of course we don't really understand ordinary consciousness or or dreaming or many everyday experiences and sensations that we have we don't know really how the brain works and the mind works before we even get onto the subject of ghosts or psychic powers or anything else so So there's many day-to-day

phenomena and experiences which still science doesn't have an adequate model or explanation for. Well, I'm keeping my eyes out for a ghost. As long as they're nice to me. I have no problem if they'd like to come around. Well, let me say, overall, I think most ghostly manifestations are quite harmless and nothing to worry about. Overall, I think there's far more danger from the living than from anybody who's passed on. Well, I want to thank you very much for taking on. I'm really happy that we got to talk to you, and this has been great. Well, it's been a pleasure for me as well. Thank you very much.

I've enjoyed talking with you, and please, for everyone listening, please don't have nightmares. Only your usual sweet, innocent dreams. Okay. Thank you very much. Bye-bye. All your usual sweet, innocent dreams. Okay. Thank you very much. Bye-bye. All the best.

Bye-bye. Criminal is created by Lauren Spohr and me. Nadia Wilson is our senior producer. Katie Bishop is our supervising producer. Our producers are Susanna Robertson, Jackie Sajico, Libby Foster, and Samantha Brown. Our technical director is Rob Byers. Engineering by Russ Henry. Julian Alexander makes original illustrations for each episode of Criminal.

You can see them at thisiscriminal.com. We're on Facebook and Twitter at Criminal Show and Instagram at criminal underscore podcast. We're on TikTok at criminal underscore podcast, where we're posting some behind-the-scenes content. Criminal is recorded in the studios of North Carolina Public Radio, WUNC. We're a part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Discover more great shows at podcast.voxmedia.com. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal. The number one selling product of its kind with over 20 years of research and innovation, Botox Cosmetic Adabotulinum toxin A, is a prescription medicine used to temporarily make moderate to severe frown

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