Prime Crime: Solved Murders - The London Body Snatchers Pt. 2

Episode Date: September 7, 2022

Four men received a guilty verdict for the murder of a person whose identity was unknown. Charges against one of the men would eventually be dropped, but the remaining three men were sentenced to die the next day. Then one of them made a startling confession. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Due to the graphic nature of this murder case, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes dramatizations and discussions of murder, violence against children, death, and gore. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. On the night of November 4, 1831, two men entered a darkened washroom. The room was located off the side of a small cottage where the other members of the household slept soundly, unaware of what was occurring under their roof. Quietly, the two men dragged a large, heavy sack to the center of the room. Their damp footprints slicken the tiled floor.

Water seeped through the sack, adding more difficulty to this strenuous task. Once in position, they hoisted the sack into a box and secured the box shut with a cord. The hard part was now done. They expected to have fuller pockets by the next day when they could deliver the package they'd just tied up. All the men had to do now was get a good night's sleep after a quick nightcap. The men grinned. It was the perfect crime.

And they'd done it again. Welcome to Solved Murders, True Crime Mysteries, a Spotify original from Parcast. I'm your host, Carter Roy. And I'm your host, Wendy McKenzie. Every Wednesday, we step into the world of true crimes most fascinating murder cases and tell the tale of how real-life detects. Close the case. You can find episodes of Solve Murders and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free exclusively on Spotify.

This is our final episode on the London Body Snatchers. Last week, we covered how a group of grave robbers were accused of murder. This week, we'll follow the group's high-profile trial and uncover a deadly conspiracy. We have all that and more coming up. Stay with us. Own it all. home, travel for life, drive a Ferrari. In celebration of the world premiere of the Monopoly Big Board Buckslot machine by Aristocrat Gaming,

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On November 10th, 1831, John Bishop, Thomas Williams, James May, and Michael Shields received a guilty verdict for the murder of a person whose identity was unknown. The coroner's jury believed that the four men, who claimed to have stolen the body from a fresh grave, had instead murdered a teenage boy in order to sell his body to medical researchers. Their hearing was set to begin on November 18th. that gave London Police Superintendent Joseph Sadler Thomas eight days to conduct an investigation into the four men. The superintendent believed they were guilty. He just didn't know exactly how. In the meantime, on November 11th,

the boy's body was buried in the graveyard of the St. Pancras's workhouse in London, a burial ground for the people that didn't get a space or couldn't afford one at St. Paul's Convent Garden Church. The workhouse was a place. for the poor and forgotten to rest. Though the question of the boy's identity was still up in the air, he was likely buried out of respect. Once the boy was properly laid to rest, Superintendent Thomas wasted no time. He and a team of officers scoured John's lodgings for clues, as well as James Mays.

John lived in a neighborhood known as the Nova Scotia Gardens, and in fact, Thomas was his roommate. At some point during the investigation, the police learned that the two men's families lived in the same cottage together. This likely painted John and Thomas as longtime co-conspirators. To make matters worse for them, when officers searched James May's home, they found a blood-soaked sack and a pair of trousers, a waistcoat streaked with clay and dirt, and a few metal implements. And around this time, Superintendent Thomas received an... interesting letter in the mail.

The letter was anonymous, but it stated that the dissecting room Porter at Granger's Medical School told a postman that the corpse brought by John and James on Friday, November 4th, was still warm. This was a strong piece of witness testimony, but the superintendent still wanted to cover all his bases. Even though John claimed he had dug up the body, he'd also alluded that the boy may have died at Guy's hospital. Superintendent Thomas contacted the hospital staff

and asked if any boy had died in their care recently. The staff wrote back stating that just three people had died there, as of late, a woman and two men in their mid-30s. The superintendent knew he should have trusted his instinct. John Bishop was a liar and very likely a murderer. This only made Superintendent Thomas more eager for the hearing. He felt like he had his argument locked in. On the 18th, the four accused murderers, John Bishop, Thomas Williams, James May, and Michael Shields were summoned to the Bow Street magistrates' office for their first hearing.

A prosecutor named James Corder presented the evidence on behalf of the superintendent. Corder described the items found at James May's cottage, which made the men look very suspicious. The prosecution felt confident about their case. until their star witness was called to testify. The superintendent brought in the porter from Granger's Medical who had allegedly seen the boy's warm body. But as soon as the porter spoke, the magistrates wondered what the superintendent had been thinking.

I didn't write any such letter. I've never even seen the body you speak of. Superintendent Thomas felt humiliated, not to mention concerned for his case. Once he had a chance to speak, he revealed another incriminating piece of information about the body snatchers. While the men were gathered in a pub prior to their arrest, a plain-clothes officer overheard a suspicious conversation between John and James. It was the boy's forehead injury that got us caught, James. You think so?

Didn't you see all that blood? I did, but we'll be fine, right? I'm sure of it. This is nothing new for us. The court found this compelling, but looking into the men themselves didn't feel like enough. There was a piece of the puzzle missing, and the magistrates believed there was only one way to find it. On November 19th, the boy's body was exhumed. At the same time, Superintendent Thomas, a team of officers, and a gardener researched John and Thomas' cottage.

First, they took note of the back garden. It was long with a pathway that ran the entire length of the house. But it was uneven and the soil was loose. Like it was dug up to hide something, or someone. Upon closer inspection, Superintendent Thomas noticed a thin layer of ash on the soil. He knew something wasn't right. So he instructed one officer and the gardener to dig.

Soon they hit a sponge. dingy spot. The gardener knelt down and uncovered a child's jacket, trousers, and shirt. The buttonholes on the trousers were torn. But they didn't stop there, because just then, the other men dug up more clothes about a yard away. Another coat, the kind worn by beggar boys, another pair of trousers with patches on the knees, an old ripped shirt, and a waistcoat with a bloodstain on it, likely the victim's clothes, and as they continued searching, they stumbled upon something they had never expected to find. In the privy at the very back of the garden, the men found a human scalp.

It had long brown hair attached to it, matted and nodded from the dirt. This scalp certainly didn't belong to Carlo, so the fact that a second person's body parts had been hidden on their property looked awful. By this point, the team was determined, and to unearth whatever they could. They returned two days later to search the interior of the cottage. There they found a dark brown fox fur hat that Joseph Paragali, a local street musician, said belonging to the dead boy.

He claimed the boy had worn a hat like that when he first came to London. Paragali insisted he could help uncover the boy's identity. Even though he didn't know his name, he'd seen him around town plenty. He even claimed to know who he'd. took him in when he first came to London. Paragali said that a man named Augustine Brun had been the boy's master. The police contacted Augustine,

who apparently no longer lived in London. They brought him in to the city to testify. On November 21st, Augustine went on to tell a convincing story of the boys' past. Through Paragali's translation, Augustine explained that he had brought the boy whose name he said was Carlo Ferrari, to England from northern Italy in the autumn of 1829.

The boy's father had leased him out to Augustine as an indentured servant. Augustine boss Carlo around for nine months, but the boy lived with another man named Elliot on Charles Street. In the summer of 1830, Augustine had signed Carlo over to a new master, an Italian man named Charles Anoje. Augustine was under the impression that he had taken the boy to Bristol. When the coffin lid went up and Augustine finally saw the boy's body, he reportedly burst into tears, wailing about his poor Carlo.

But when it came time for Superintendent Thomas to question him, Augustine said he had trouble identifying the body. Did you recognize the boy to be Carlo, Mr. Brune? I cannot tell if he is my Carlo. The boy is green and his face is decomposing. The boy is not who I remember. Did anything about the body seem familiar to you? Yes. His hair color and height remind me of my Carlo.

The boy's corpse had warts sprouting on his left hand. Did Carlo have warts? The body was too green. I couldn't tell if he had warts or not. Not exactly what I asked. Do you remember if Carlo had warts on his hand? I couldn't tell. While Superintendent Thomas had a few more questions, James Corder felt satisfied. with Augustine's answers.

He declared the boy was officially identified as Carlo Ferrari. Coming up, witness testimonies create confusion. Hi listeners, it's Vanessa from the Spotify original from Parcast, cults. Next on our series, a four-part deep dive into the religious movement known as the Mooney's. Sushi, mass weddings, political coups, discover the many business ventures, beliefs and scandals of this headline-making sect. This is one special you do not want to miss. You can also catch up on hundreds of classic episodes and new ones each week

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slash switch. Up front payment of $45 for three-month plan equivalent to $15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra, feeful terms at mintmobile.com. Now back to the story. A few days after the start of the hearing of the London body snatchers, the prosecutor announced that the dead boy had been identified as Carlo Ferrari. Superintendent Thomas likely didn't agree with this hasty declaration, but it didn't stop him from pursuing justice. He wanted to continue searching John Bishop's property for more evidence of additional killings. The search of John's property continued until November 22, 1831, as Superintendent Thomas was determined to seek out every shred of evidence that he could

find. Soon, searchers came across a woman's black cloak, a plaid dress, trousers, stockings, and an old petticoat, all at the bottom of another nearby privy. Many of the items were ripped, blood-stained, and cut up. In addition, the police pulled a shawl up from John's well. It seemed like Carlo, as he was now referred to, wasn't the grave robber's first kill. As the searchers were apparently standing on a graveyard of sorts, Superintendent Thomas knew it now.

He had a group of serial murderers on his hands. As the hearing moved into its final day, the body snatchers appeared to have lost the confidence that they had once been so quick to show off. Finally, the court announced that the prisoners would be taken to trial at the old Bailey on December 1st for the willful murder of Carlo Ferrari. A silence came over the court and then applause. At 8 o'clock on the morning of Friday, December 2nd, people from all over London squeezed themselves into the public gallery of the Sessions House

in the old Bailey for the trial. At the start, the vestry clerk announced that proceedings against Michael Shields had been dropped, but he still had to serve as a witness. The three remaining prisoners pleaded not guilty, and one by one, the prosecution called witnesses to chip away at the men's presumption of innocence. William Hill, the dissecting room porter of the King's College, revealed that the boy's body was indeed offered to the school by James for nine guineas. Richard Partridge, the anatomy professor at King's College, claimed that the body was far too fresh.

It made him uneasy. so he reported the men to the police. George Beeman, the autopsy surgeon, was questioned by the coroner. He confirmed William and Richard's stories and the boy's mysterious cause of death. Mr. Beeman, do you believe that the boy's death was solely because of his temple wound? No, I do not. The boy's wound itself could not have led to death.

And how do you think the boy procured this injury? He was probably beaten with a blunt stick or some other heavy instrument. The fatal injury is at the neck. Blood has pooled in the spine. Otherwise, the body is perfectly healthy. Is there anything else you discovered during your inspection of the body? Yes. It was clear to me that the body was never buried.

And upon dissection, the boy's stomach smelled of rum for some reason. Next, a barman testified that he had seen the prisoners at the Fortune of War public house on the 4th of November. He saw them arrive and leave together, countering John and James. James' claim that they had only happened to run into each other at the pub. Then some of the drivers that the men approached to transport them in the dead body testified about what they had seen. Several of the grave robber's neighbors claimed to have noticed the Italian boy wandering around the gardens too, but they hadn't seen him for a few weeks.

Similarly, three different children had seen the boy at the gardens. They took note of his fur cap, shabby clothing, and some white, mice. A six-year-old boy stated that he had been playing with John's kids just before November 5th. The kids had shown him a cage of white mice, just like one that the Italian boy was said to have worn around his neck when he begged for money. One of the children also noticed the bright canary yellow chariot car that John and James stepped out of in early November. The child found it odd that the men were in smock frocks and had returned with a sack of something heavy. At this point, the prisoners were allowed to address anything that the witnesses had said in written defenses.

Thomas briefly stated that he had only recently become a procurer of dead bodies and followed John's lead in trying to sell this particular one. He knew nothing about how the boy's body was obtained. James admitted that he was a body snatcher, but that he had accidentally gotten involved with John for this particular sale after running into him at the pub. He also claimed that he was in the dark about how John had found the corpse.

In John's statement, he admitted that he'd worked in the field of procuring bodies for surgical and anatomical purposes for the past 12 years, but swore that he only sold bodies that had died naturally. Superintendent Thomas

detailed the evidence that he found at John and Thomas's cottage to the court. When he explained that he came across multiple articles of clothing that all seemed to belong to different people, John retaliated. Listen, I supply surgeons with bodies. I'm a carrier, but not a murderer. Well, then how do you explain all the clothing we found on your property? I don't know anything about that, but my garden and premises are open to all my neighbors and theirs are to me. Perhaps people just forget to take their things sometimes. I see. About the cap, though. That's.

That was bought by my wife from a shop owner named Mary Dodswell. It was purchased for one of my sons. Superintendent Thomas was probably hoping John would say this, because next, he called Mary Dodswell to the stand. Mrs. Dodswell, what do you do for a living? I sell secondhand clothes. I see. Is it true that you sold Mr. Bishop's wife a cap?

Yes, sir, I did. Can you describe this cap? Well, it was about two years ago, but I do recall that the cap was cloth, and it had a black leather front. The hat that was found at John's house was dark brown fur and had a green visor. The superintendent claimed it looked like one of Carlos. John interrupted the questioning. Mrs. Doddwell, if my memory serves me right, you sold my wife two hats that day, correct? No, sir.

I only sold one. But some testimony did help John's case. His landlord's wife, for instance, claimed to have never seen white mice running around the prisoner's cottage, contrary to the six-year-old boy's claims. The help this testimony provided was minuscule, and when the defense concluded their arguments around 8 p.m., the jury was sent to deliberate.

They returned to the court a half an hour later and declared their verdict. all three men, John, James, and Thomas, were found guilty of murder. The judge sentenced them to die only days later on Monday morning. The men were brought to Newgate Prison to await their execution. While John and Thomas seemed resigned to their fate, James continued to protest his innocence. Sensing an opportunity, Superintendent Thomas appeared at James' cell with a slip of paper. The paper contained a list of 50 names, all of the grave robbers the police had encountered throughout London.

James was told to circle the ones that he thought were capable of killing. He marked six. While James spoke with Superintendent Thomas, John wrestled with his own emotions. He felt overwhelmed with guilt and decided to ease his conscience by summoning a reverend to his jail cell. Reverend, I need to tell you something. Thomas and I are both guilty. We killed the boy, but James is innocent. He had nothing to do with it. The Reverend was blown away by John's statements. Authorities asked Thomas if John was telling the truth, and he repeated John's confession. James was an innocent man condemned to die for their actions.

Thanks to these confessions, the authorities re-examined his case. On Sunday, December 4th, 1831, James was released from prison. As for John and Thomas, their confessions sealed their fate and revealed dark secrets few could have predicted. Coming up, the Body Snatcher's confessions reveal more than anyone had thought possible. All right, class settled down. Today's lesson is on the Argo Rewards app. Try to stay with me.

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By December 4, 1831, John Bishop and Thomas Williams felt they were left with no choice but to confess to the murder of Carlo Ferrari. Or at least the boy the courts called Carlo Ferrari. In fact, both John and Thomas claimed the boy was not Italian at all, but instead was simply a kid who had grown up on the streets of London. They did not know the boy's name. They claimed he never told them his name, so the courts could never actually verify this claim. However, as they were headed for the noose, they had little reason to lie. For this reason, to this day, many people are unsure if the boy they killed was actually Carlo Ferrari. For the purposes of our story, we'll keep calling him Carlo.

But while John and Thomas admitted that they killed him, they confessed to even more than that. In his confession, John said that he had obtained and sold the corpses of 500 to 1,000 people over his 12-year-long time as a body snatcher. He and Thomas also confessed to the murder of two other people. A 35-year-old widow named Fannie Pigburn, who they had found on the street after she had been evicted, and an 11-year-old runaway boy named Cunningham. Both Fanny and Cunningham had been killed in the exact same way they killed Carlo, and they had been killed for the exact same reason.

John and Thomas saw their victims as easy prey for easy money. fresh bodies that could get them some fresh pay. And their moral degeneracy all culminated in the murder of Carlo Ferrari. But the story of Carlo's death began long before the boy was even born. To understand Carlo's short life, we have to go all the way back to the beginning of John's. John was born in Highgate in 1797 to a locally respected businessman, also named John. He ran a successful carting business from their family. home as transporting goods was one of the area's biggest trades.

When his dad passed unexpectedly, John's stepmother became his wife. Later on in the early 1810s, John took over his father's carting business as the second of five children, but it wasn't enough money. So he did other money-making activities on the side. John was an informant about local criminals for reward money. He hired himself out as an alibi man in court cases, showing he was willing to lie under oath, and he ferried bodies in his cart for a resurrection gang, another term for a group of grave robbers and body snatchers. The old Bailey was both the center of London's carting trade and a gathering place for resurrectionists. Many resurrectionists started as carters and porters, legal carriers.

But because of places like the Bailey, the line got blurry and many crossed over into resurrection. like John did. Soon after his stint in the legitimate carting business, he teamed up with a well-known resurrectionist. Together, they were rumored to have emptied the churchyard of a nearby village. Excited by this new criminal yet lucrative venture, John sold his father's business sometime before 1820. The residents of Highgate disapproved of John's relationship with his stepmother wife.

So the couple eventually fled Highgate for a town, east of London in the mid-1820s. By July 1830, John and his family moved to a rented cottage in Nova Scotia Gardens, a semi-rural part of Bethnal Green. It was an impoverished neighborhood, which suggests that John's family had fallen on hard times. Either way, John was looking to make some more money. In July 1831, just one year after the bishops had arrived, the house next door was leased to Thomas. He had just gotten an early release from Millbank Penitentiary, where he had served

time for theft. He liked the cottage's big fireplace, as he could turn it into a furnace to manufacture glass, one of his trades. However, he never registered his trade with customs and excise, and his home was raided August 6, 1831. All his equipment and glass were confiscated as part of a larger effort to stop unlicensed traders from practicing. Thomas had worked several different jobs. He had apprenticed to a bricklayer, took up carpentry, and worked as a porter for local glass manufacturers. He had started to drink heavily and steal in his adolescence.

Thomas just wanted to make some more money. He was willing to do just about anything. He had a sense that John was too. Listen, John, I don't have an income anymore. and I know that you've done good for yourself and your family. Is there any way I can join your trade? You want to be a body snatcher? I do. I don't really know what other choices I have.

Fine by me. The new term is about to start at all these private anatomy schools. We can get some fresh ones and sell them at a higher price than usual. Thomas eagerly nodded. And soon, the two men started grave robbing together, supplying bodies to medical schools for money. They did well for themselves at first, but after a certain point in the fall of 1831,

the money they were making from grave robbing wasn't enough. The men wanted more. So they leaned into the other sinister side of body snatching. It was a well-known secret that there was only one way to supply the freshest bodies and make the most money, murder. And that's exactly what John and Thomas did. They killed both Fanny Pigburn and Cunningham two weeks apart. They sold both bodies for a hefty chunk of change,

and when the cash ran out, they set their eyes on their next victim. It was nighttime on Thursday, November 3, 1831. John and Thomas had run into the supposed Italian boy and walked to John's house with him, as they both promised the child some work. They stopped at a bar, and she said, shared some drinks, only giving the boy a little bit. They started walking back to John's house.

His children and both of the men's wives were still awake, so John and Thomas asked the boy to wait for them in the privy. Thomas asked both of their families to go to bed, while John waited for him in the garden. When Thomas returned, they both went to the privy to meet the boy. After the two men made sure that everyone was asleep, they invited the boy inside. They lit a candle and gave him some bread and cheese.

They also poured him a cup of rum with a bit of laudanum in it. The boy drank the rum and had a bit of beer as well. In about ten minutes he was asleep. The men left him to share a drink themselves. When they returned, he was still asleep. Now was their chance. They carried his body out to the garden and laid it onto the grass. They tied a cord around his feet

so that his body was easier to handle. Thomas held the boy's feet while John took him into his arms and dangled him in the well, head first. Thomas tied the other end of the cord to the paling. The boy was completely submerged in the water. He struggled with his arms and legs. The water bubbled.

So the man went back inside the cottage and waited. After about an hour, the two returned and took the boy's body out of the well. They undressed him in the yard, rolled his clothes up, and buried them. Then they carried the boy's lifeless body onto the washroom floor and covered him with a bag. They left him to have a cup of coffee at a place on Old Street Road. They later returned, put the boy's body into a box, corded it up, and went to bed. The body was ready to be sold.

On December 5th, 1831, the day after writing their confessions, John Bishop and Thomas Williams were hanged. Around 30,000 people pushed themselves into the streets around the Newgate prison to watch the executions. John died instantly, while Thomas seemed to struggle a bit. Ironically, John and Thomas's bodies were given to a medical college for dissection. In fact, all his years of grave digging in body, moving made John quite muscular as he had developed a stunning and healthy physique. His musculature made him one of the best specimens that King's College had come across. And for a small fee, the anatomists even let people come to the dissecting room to see the body.

After all, the fresher the body, the higher the price. Thanks again for tuning into solved murders. We'll be back next Wednesday with a new episode. For more information on the murder of The Italian Boy, amongst the many sources we used, we found Sarah Wise's book, The Italian Boy, The Tale of Murder and Body Snatching in 1830s, London, extremely helpful to our research. You can find all episodes of Solved Murders and all other Spotify originals from Parcast

for free on Spotify. We'll see you next time. Solve Murders is a Spotify original from Parcast. It is executive produced by Max Cutler. Sound design by Michael Langsner, with production assistance by Ron Shapiro, Nick Johnson, Trent Williamson, and Carly Madden. This episode of Saw of Murders was written by Arohi Sheff,

edited by Sarah Batchelor and Giles Hofseth, fact-checked by Claire Cronin, researched by Mickey Taylor, and produced by Freddie Beckley. The amazing cast of voice actors includes Tom Bauer, Drew Lawn, Joe Hernandez, Sammy Amounts, and Cameron Nekad. Solve Murder stars Wendy McKenzie and Carter Roy. Starting a business can seem like a daunting task,

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