UNIDENTIFIED: October 4, 1698 London, England Jane Doe

 On October 4, 1698, the body of a girl was laid inside a church in London, England. The child was buried at the Bedlam Burial Ground. It's not stated how old the girl was or how she died. There is little information in this case. 

SOURCES:

Find a Grave

Murder of Martha Clark

Alice Bishop was born in 1616 not much was known about her. There are a couple of theories about her beginnings. One is that she may have come over on the Mayflower. Her parents may have been Christopher Martin and Marie Prower. Those two did not survive long enough to see the settlement of Plymouth. They died in January of 1621 which would mean she was orphaned in a new land. Another theory is that she was an indentured servant brought over in 1632. However, it's never going to be positive where her start was.

Alice was married twice. Her first marriage was to George Clark in January of 1639. She would have two daughters with him, Abagail (1641) and Martha (1644). George would also die in 1644. On December 5th Alice would marry 24-year-old Richard Bishop. The two would have a daughter, Damaris (1645). They would live in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

On July 22, 1648, Richard was away from home. Family friend 23-year-old Rachel Ramsden would drop by their home to spend time with 32-year-old Alice. At the time 4-year-old Martha was sleeping in a bed in the loft. It was a place only accessible by a ladder. Alice did not seem any different.

Alice would ask Rachel to go get some buttermilk for her from a neighbor's house. Rachel would agree to do so. Alice would give her a kettle and Rachel would leave to go get some for her. When Rachel came back to the home she saw something very alarming.

There was a puddle of blood under the loft ladder. Rachel would describe Alice as sad and dumpish. She would ask her why there was blood. Alice would only point up the ladder. Rachel climbed up the ladder and saw a horrifying sight. There was blood everywhere and even the mattress was soaked in it. It was all Martha's as she had been killed.

Rachel would flee the home and run to her parents. She would tell them of Alice's deed. Her father would then find the colonial governor and they would gather 12 men to go to the Bishop's home. Alice was in hysterics when they arrived.

The men would ascend into the loft to find Martha's body with the murder weapon next to her. She was lying on her left side. There were numerous cuts in her throat and she was stabbed in the windpipe. She was gone and there was no way to help her. It was a brutal and violent murder.

When they asked Alice why she murdered her daughter she had no idea. She stated that she did not remember doing that she had no answer for them. That she was sorry for killing her daughter.

On October 4th the trial for the murder would begin. Bradford was in attendance along with all General Assistant and a jury of twelve colony men. Alice would be found guilty of the murder and would be set to hang.

She was the fifth person hanged in the Plymouth Colony and the first woman.

We will never know why Alice Bishop killed her daughter Martha, and why she did it in such a ferocious manner. It's never stated where the other children were, but why did she only kill Martha.

SOURCES:
Murderpedia

Alice Martin Bishop

UNIDENTIFIED: March 1672 Retford, England Stranger

 In March 1672, a stranger was found dead in the street in or near Retford, England. On March 11th they would be buried at the St. Swithun Churchyard in Retford. Gender was never stated.

SOURCES:

Find a Grave 

Charlie of Aberystwyth Castle

  

Mosaic at the Castle about the discovery of the skeleton

Aberystwyth Castle was built between 1277 to 1289 in Aberystwyth, Wales. The castle that is now in ruins is the third built of it before it was destroyed in 1649 during the English Civil Wars. It was slighted by Oliver Cromwell making it into ruins. This was to prevent it from being a fortress again. The locals likely took advantage and pilfered the castle walls. 

Over 200 years later in 1988, an excavation was done at the castle. Surprisingly enough the body of a man. The soil in the area was acidic enough that typically destructive to organic matter. Because the castle was destroyed though it added lime to the soil helping keep the skeleton from being destroyed. It was hard to place when the man had died, but it was believed that he died during the Parliamentarian siege of Aberystwyth Castle. 

The skeleton was given the name Charlie and he can be found at the Ceredigion Museum

SOURCES:
Wikipedia
Geni
Crazy About Castles
Way Marking

The Booted Man

 

Mola Headland Archaeology

In 2018 a skeleton was lying face down deep in the Thames Mud in Lond England. His body was at a bend in the river downstream from the Tower of London at Chambers Wharf close to the medieval Bermondsey Wall used to stand. 

The man lived and died in the late 1600s to early 1700s as his boots were dated for that time. The boots are a find their own as Medieval footwear is mostly found individually. The only other surviving pair found in London are lower ankle boots that were a more common style at the time. Making the boots a highly-prized item.

There was an indication that he may have been making his living from the river. Maybe he had been a fisherman, a mudlark, or a sailor it's unknown. His death is even unknown. The river was a hazardous place and it could have caused his death. His body was found face-down, with one arm above his head with the other bent back on itself onto the side. He may have fallen or drowned and was quickly covered by the ground when it moved with the tide.

SOURCES:

Ancient Pages

Museum of London

Phys.org

Atlas Obscura

The Taree Man

In November 2011 a skull was found at Manning Point, near Taree, in New South Wales, Australia. It was initially believed that it was the skull of a missing local teen. It was found that it was not true. It was found that 80% that the skull dated from 1650-1700 and 20% from 1780-1810. Even though it was initially believed that the skull belonged to a woman DNA found that they were a ma. It's believed that he was between 28 to 65-years-old white male.

It is believed that Captain James Cook was the first European to reach Australia in 1770. If the skull was from an earlier time period it could rewrite history.The remains could have been from anywhere as there were heavy rains meaning the skull could have been washed out of a private or unknown cemetary. 

Some theorize that since the skull was in good condition and found alone with no other remains that it may have been part of a private collection that was popular in the 19th century. 

SOURCES:

Wikipedia

The Daily Telegraph July 1, 2013

Strange Remains

UNIDENTIFIED: 1660 Unknown Male Child London, England

In 1660 a child sewed up in cloth was found at the Parish of St. James Clerkenwell in London, England. He was laid near the New Churchyard and after the coroner viewed the child he was buried on November 8, 1660, in the New Churchyard. 

SOURCES:

Find a Grave 

GHOSTS: Kuchisake-onna

 

A Kuchisake-onna in a scene from Ehon Sayoshigure by Hayami Shungyōsai, 1801

If you're wandering down the streets of Japan and meet a woman with a surgical mask on asking "Am I pretty?" think twice about your answers to her questions. It might be Kuchisake Onna or the Slit Mouthed Woman and she might not have good plans for you.

The legend starts with a beautiful woman who had a jealous husband. He was convinced that his beautiful wife must be cheating on him. So he did the unspeakable so that she wouldn't be attractive to anyone else. In a fit of rage he slit her mouth ear to ear it resulted in her death and she came back as a vengeful spirit.

She would wear a surgical mask, which is not uncommon in Japan. She will stop a lone child and ask them a simple question.

"Am I pretty?"

There are two ways the child could answer. A no will result in her cutting them in half with her large scissors. 

A yes will result in Kushisake Onna taking off her mask revealing her large torn smile and asking another simple question. 

"How about Now?"

A No will once again result in death. She will cut off your head with the scissors. 

A yes will result in a smile of your own that she will create with her large scissors. 

If you run there is no way you'd survive as she will chase you down. Every time you turn around she will be behind you. Then she will reappear in front of you and cut you in half.  There is almost no way to escape from the slit-mouthed woman.

There is one way however you can survive without injury. When she asks her first question, "Am I pretty?" You answer with a neutral answer for example "You're so and so." or distract her with candy or money she will become confused and you will be able to escape. 

It's believed that the legend of Kuchisake-onna started during Japan's Edo Period (1603-1867). She is described as a malevolent spirit. She is typically seen partially covering her face, particularly her mouth or another item. She is usually carrying sharp items like scissors. She has long straight black hair, pale skin, and is beautiful except for her slit mouth. 

SOURCES:

Wikipedia

Paranorms

Scary For Kids

Urban Legends Wiki

UNIDENTIFIED: 1608 Chislet, England John Doe

 In 1608 a traveler whose name was unknown died in the County of Kent, England. He would be buried in the St. Mary the Virgin Churchyard in Chislet.

He was around 30-years-old

SOURCES:

Find a Grave

Murder of Robert Williams

 In 1675 Robert Driver, and Nicholas Feavour (both around 20) were servants of Robert Williams in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The two did not like their assignments and were described as lazy or sloth-like workers. Their master would reprimand them and neither man liked that and decided to free themselves. 

On February 10, 1675, Mr. Williams was relaxing in the parlor sitting in a chair and smoking a pipe. Robert Driver and Nicholas Feavour would sneak up behind their master with axes. They would then murder him and flee. 

The two would be soon caught after a short manhunt. They would be taken to Boston and tried at a special session of the Court of Assistants. They would be convicted and set for execution for their crime. On March 18, 1675, the two were hanged in Boston.

SOURCES: 

Legal Executions in New England Comprehensive Reference Pg 48 

UNIDENTIFIED: 1639 Catcott, England A Poor Walking Woman

 On November 8, 1639, a woman was buried at Saint Peter Churchyard in Catcott, England. From the Bishop's Transcripts, the woman was unknown and was buried as "A Poor Walking Woman." Her identity will remain unknown.

SOURCES:

Find a Grave

FOLK TALES: Blue Beard

In the 1600's Blue Beard is a wealthy and powerful nobleman and a well-desired groom in idea, but his unusual blue beard made him unattractive. Though many women and girls found him repulsively ugly he was able to marry several beauties. The problem with that is that each one would mysteriously disappear.

One of his neighbors, a noble lady, had two beautiful daughters. Bluebeard asked the woman to allow him to wed one of the daughters of her choice. The girls were, of course, repulsed by him and his blue beard. They also didn't want to become another wife that would mysteriously disappear.

Blue Beard had a plan to win their affection. He would take them, their mother, and several of their friends to one of his country houses. They would spend a whole week of parties, hunting, fishing, dancing, mirth, and feasting. Everyone would spend the nights joking and enjoying each other.

The younger of the two sisters began to fall in love with him and was starting to think he was a mighty civil gentleman. The two would soon wed. A month after Blue Beard would tell his young bride that he was obliged to take a country journey of about 6 weeks. It was about affairs of great consequences. He told her she should invite her friends to their home if she pleased.

He would give her keys to his treasures and she was allowed to each one except for a certain closet. He told her she could not go to the closet at the end of the great hall on the ground floor. He warned her if she did she would receive his anger and resentment. She would promise to do that, and her friends would come.

Her friends would tell her that they would not come while her husband was there because they feared him. They would see and look at all the riches of the home and be impressed and happy for their friend's newfound life.

At the party, the door haunts her, and her desire to open it increases. The treasures she had access to were so grand and she wondered what was so magnificent that was hidden behind the door. Her impatience allowed her to slip from the party and to the forbidden door. She would take the key out and opened the door with trembling hands.

What lied behind it was horrible. The floors were covered in clotted blood, and along the walls were the missing wives. Each one had been brutally murdered. She thought she would die from the shock it scared her so much. She would drop the key in the blood. She would go back to her senses and lock the door and went to her room to think.

This is when she noticed the key was stained with blood. She tried to clean it off, but would not as the key was magical and evidence of her betrayal was stained upon it. To her surprise, Blue Beard would return home that night. He stated that while he was on the road letters came telling him the affair he was going to deal with was concluded. She pretended to be excited and not show she was terrified that she was the next wife to disappear.

The next morning Blue Beard asked for his keys back. He asked her what had happened to the forbidden room's key. She had hoped he wouldn't notice. She would tell him it was upstairs on the table, and he requested her to bring her the key.

She was terrified as she brought down the blood-stained key. He automatically knew of her betrayal of his trust.

"Why is there blood on the key"

"I do not know." She cried.

"You do know!" Blue Beard was angry, "I very well know. You went into the closet, did you not? Very well, madam; you shall go back, and take your place among the ladies you saw there."

She would throw herself down on her feet and begged for forgiveness. He had a heart of stone and her pleads did not change his mind. He's heard this all before.

"You are to die Madam."

"Since I am to die give me time to pray alone." She cried. He would answer her wish.

"I give you a quarter of an hour nothing more." He demanded.

When she was alone she called out to her sister Anne. She asked her to go to the top of the tower to look for their brothers and to give them a sign of haste. Anne would go up the tower and be on the lookout for their brothers.

She could feel her time ticking and would call up to Anne occasionally. But there were no signs of their brothers when the impatient Blue Beard called up to her demanding her to come down with a sword in hand. His threats kept coming and she kept telling him one moment more. That was when Anne spotted their brothers coming. His anger seemed to shake the home and the young wife came down the stair unwillingly.

She would throw herself on his feet again begging for forgiveness and keep her life. It still did not work on his stone-cold heart. He would grab her hair with one hand and raise his sword with the other. She asked to collect herself. He was about to refuse and was about to strike her when a knock on the gates stopped him.

Two horsemen were her brothers and would enter with their swords drawn. With one brother was a dragoon the other a musketeer and Blue Beard knew he had no chance. He would flee without killing his young bride and the brothers would pursue him. They would overtake him on the porch and ran their swords through him. The girl had no strength to greet her brothers. Blue Beards' crimes would be known and she'd be known as the one who survived.

The young bride was now a widow and her husband's estate was hers. She was able to allow Anne to marry the man she loved, She married a man she loved, and she bought Captains' commissions for her brothers. She would eventually forget her nightmare with Blue Beard.

SOURCES:

Wikipedia

Blue Beard by Charles Perrault

GHOSTS: White Lady of Kinsale

 

Photo by Phakphoom Srinorajan

Charles Fort is a bastion fort with one section of outer wall built in a star fashion finished in 1682. It's located on the water's edge at the of the village of Summer Come on Kinsale harbor in Ireland. It is now a National Monument of Ireland. 

At the Charles Fort in the 1600's, there was an officer named Sir Trevor Ashurst. He would meet Wilful Warrender who's father was Govoner Warrender, the commander of Charles Fort. The two would have a whirlwind romance and would soon fall in love and wed. The Governor was actually happy for the young couple. The two would soon marry and on the wedding day would end in tragedy.

On the night that the two had married, they went to take a walk on the grounds of the fort. The two were to spend their wedding night at the fort. Wilful would see some flowers at the base of the battlement. Trevor was going to go get them, but an on-duty sentry offered to get them instead. Trevor would ask Wilful to wait for him in their room, and he would take the sentry's post so the flowers could be retrieved. 

The sentry would not return quickly and because the groom was tired from the day's festivities he fell asleep at the post. Wilful's father went on his nightly inspections. He was known as strict and had a reputation for enforcing strict military codes. When he would stumble across a sentry, who he didn't know at the time was his son-in-law, leaning against the wall seemingly asleep. He called out to the sentry several times and when he got no answer he shot him through the heart.

This was when he realized that it was not any sentry, but his son-in-law. He would be filled with sorrow and regret. Wilful would soon after find out what her father did to her groom. She would be grief-stricken and would take her own life that night. She would jump from one of the ramparts into the icy waters below.  Her father knew that he killed his son-in-law leading to his daughter's suicide. After his daughter's suicide, he would take his own life by shooting himself. 

Other versions state after realizing he killed Trevor that he threw jumped the ramparts right after killing him. That Wilful found them both dead and jumped into the icy waters after losing two very important people in her life.

What is known in the tale is that three lives would tragically end on what was supposed to be a joyous day. 

It is said that Wilful who is known as The White Lady of Kinsale haunts the area. She is typically seen in her wedding dress. She usually is a kind but sorrowful spirit people in and around Charles Fort are said to have seen her. In particular, she is seen by or near children as if she's keeping an eye on them. Now she did have a mean streak and was known to push soldiers mostly captains down the stairs. 

SOURCES:

Wikipedia

Irish Central

Authentic Vacations

Stories First

My Real Ireland

Ancient Origins

Crazy Crimes: Whipping Tom

This one isn't a murder, but a strange crime that was happening in London, England in 1681. 

In 1681 lone women were afraid to walk around central London due to a criminal known as Whipping Tom. Whipping Tom was a man who would wait in alleys for a lone woman. When he found a victim he would quickly come up behind her lift up her dress, bend her over his knee, and spank her with a rod or his hand. Sometimes he would even scream "Spanko!" and then run off and disappear quickly. 

He was so quick in disappearing some believed that he may have been supernatural. He was termed Whipping Tom and given a little moniker of "The enemy of milkmaid bums everywhere."  His attacks went no further than a quick spanking. 

Locals began questioning whether or not the policing in the area was doing their job. Women started carrying weapons like pen knives in order to protect themselves. There were many men who became vigilantes and dressed in women's clothing and try to catch him.

There may have been another serial spanker in 1672 as one article mentions that another serial whipster was operating in London. It's unknown if this serial spanker was caught or if they thought it was the same man. In 1712 copycat had operated in the Hackney area. He was caught though and had done it because he was hurt by a woman.


SOURCES:
http://theunexplainedmysteries.com/2017/06/11/whipping-tom/
http://www.bpi1700.org.uk/research/printOfTheMonth/mayjune2009.html
https://funfactz.com/law-and-crime-facts/whipping-tom/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whipping_Tom

Murder of Unnamed Woman by Busheage

In May of 1644, a Native American man named Busheage went into the home in Stamford, Connecticut. The home was a poor family in the area. At the time the husband was out of the home and the wife and their baby were home. Busheage would take a lathing hammer and severely beat her. When he thought she was dead he robbed the place of clothing and fled. The woman was not dead and was able to tell authorities that it was an Indian who attacked her. She would soon die after revealing this.

Several weeks later other Native American's caught the killer and turned him over to the English in New Haven. He was found guilty of the crime. He would be executed in August or September of 1644 by beheading. He would be tied to a chair and in no less than 8 chops were done.

SOURCES:
Legal Executions on New England
Persons Executed in Connecticut
Registry of Known American Indian Executions 

Interesting Deaths: Execution of George Spencer

A man named George Spencer was not the most attractive man. He had one fake eye and was called ugly and bald and would be accused of bestiality and homosexuality. This would lead him into not being able to keep a job for long. In 1641 he would be working for Henry Browning.

In the winter Henry would sell a pregnant sow to Jake Wakeman. In February the sow would give birth, but one of her little ones would come out deformed. The little piglet would be born with one eye and several other deformities. Because the piglet had these specific deformities George was accused of bestiality with the sow causing her to give birth to his offspring

Now today we know better.  Humans can have sex with animals, but it would never result in any children. Biologically it would be impossible, but in history this fact was unknown.

George would be tricked into making a confession. He was told that if he was to confess he would be given mercy. George believed that they mean that he would be given mercy by God. There was no evidence of George having sex with the sow, and this lead to the sow and him to be executed. George maintained he was innocent.

On April 8, 1642, George and the sow were brought to the Gallows in New Haven. George would watch as they killed the sow with a sword. Then they would hang George next.

SOURCES:
Legal Executions in New England
The Oak Daily

Murder of Nathaniel Sewell

12/13-year-old Nathaniel Sewell was sent over from England to Roxbury, Massachusetts in 1643. He was to be an apprentice to William Franklin. William Franklin was cruel to the young boy. He would beat, starve, and torture the young boy. He would be left outside wet during the winter and hanging him in the chimney.

When Nathaniel was dying William strapped him across a horse and would have him ride like that through five miles of winter weather. He would go in front of Magistrate saying the boy was a useless servant. It wouldn't state when, but Nathaniel would die in 1644.

He did not feel guilty about the boy's death and on the contrary, he felt enraged he was getting charged with it. His attitude towards the whole ordeal caused him to excommunicated from his church. He would go to trial in April of 1644. He would be convicted of wilful murder and sentenced to hang in June of 1644.


SOURCES;
Historic Ipswich 
The Daily News
Legal Execution in New England