Comments on: Epilogue To The Ratcliffe Highway Murders

By: JK

JK — Fri, 04 Jul 2025 13:23:38 +0000

Since first learning of the Ratcliff(e) Highway murders, I have wondered what became of the two transparently obvious killers, Cornelius Hart (whom I believe to have been the criminal planner) and William Ablass (probably the main executioner of the plans – and of the victims). Criminals who engage in such serial violence are unlikely to stop until stopped forcefully. They would probably just move somewhere where the atmosphere was less “hot” for them, and perhaps they would change their modus operandi there.

Where did they go upon being freed? How many additional victims did they have afterwards?

Perhaps the Ratcliffe murders were not their first “adventure”, either. It was suggested that at least Ablass, during his sailing, had spent time in Poland and Germany. I wonder if there are any macabre unsolved murders – particularly home invasions – in those countries that would coincide with Ablass’s visits and stayings there…

By: JK

JK — Thu, 13 Apr 2023 22:14:49 +0000

One does wonder what happened to Hart and Ablass, who were – so infuriatingly obviously – the true killers…

By: PaulineSparks

PaulineSparks — Sun, 09 Jan 2022 09:32:09 +0000

Dear Gentle Author
I was enthralled by your writing of this account and, as usual, sorry when it came to an end (but usually replaced by something equally interesting.)
I thought you might like to glance at the case of Nicholas Steinberg , another unbelievable and gruesome murder. You can find most details on a site http://www.geriwalton.com. This murder took place in a home in Southampton Row but I will leave you to investigate.
Nothing to do with it whatsoever but Grimaldi lived just around the corner at the time.
My very best wishes to you for a happy New Year and perhaps this year I will be able to visit Spitalfields once more, regards Pauline Sparks

By: Ben Cater

Ben Cater — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 15:11:30 +0000

Thanks for telling this interesting story and thanks also for the epilogue which casts some light on what may have happened

By: paul loften

paul loften — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 15:07:21 +0000

Alas we will never be certain that John Williams was guilty of the crime . It’s very strange that the items of clothing and knife associated with the crimes should turn up in a privy in The Pear Tree so long afterwards. Surely a privy is a well frequented place and the perpetrator would have had to been carrying a change of clothes at the time and walked in there covered in blood. It looks as though they were disposed of later on .

By: Max Reeves

Max Reeves — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 13:40:03 +0000

In Ed Glinnert’s East End Chronicles page 70 he writes “In 1911, a hundred years after the murders, workmen laying a mains …accidentally dug up his corpse. One criminologist took Williams’s arm while the owner of the nearby Crown and Dolphin Public House kept the skull as a souvenir. When the skull was exhibited at the Three Bells pub it was stolen by the French Ocultist Mina Bergson, who was trying to create a golum…”

Hope that helps

Max

By: Mathilde Grange

Mathilde Grange — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 10:08:28 +0000

It’s been ages since I’ve read anything of P.D. James, but I shall follow your recommendation and order the book today. Thank you for such an interesting (albeit gruesome) account. It seems impossible that the bloodied jacket, the knife in thej mouse hole were not found right away… But what seems obvious today may not have been so obvious then. Thank you again, and regards to Schrödinger.