After nearly 140 years of mystery, the identity of a Victorian serial killer who preyed on London before Jack the Ripper has reportedly been unmasked. According to prominent TV historian Lucy Worsley, new and compelling evidence points to a violent bargeman as the perpetrator behind the gruesome Thames Torso Murders.
A Grisly Predecessor to Jack the Ripper
Lucy Worsley, who reinvestigated the cold case for the BBC series Lucy Worsley: Victorian Murder Club, stated, 'I think there's a very compelling case that we've got the guy.' The murders began in 1887, a full year before the Ripper's reign of terror in Whitechapel. However, the modus operandi was starkly different.
While Jack the Ripper carried out frenzied knife attacks in dark alleys, the Thames Torso Murderer displayed a chilling, methodical precision. He dismembered his victims, often with signs of anatomical knowledge, and scattered their remains across London's rivers, canals, and building sites. The killer operated with impunity, never being caught by the baffled police of the era.
The Victims and the Crucial Breakthrough
The grim series started on 11 May 1887, when a lighterman found a woman's lower torso in the Thames at Rainham. More body parts surfaced over subsequent months. In September 1888, as the Ripper killings began, another torso was discovered on the site destined to become Scotland Yard. A third victim, identified as Elizabeth Jackson by a distinctive wrist scar, was found in June 1889. She was a workhouse inmate and heavily pregnant.
Worsley worked alongside historian Sarah Bax Horton, whose research in her book Arm of Eve proved pivotal. The team re-examined police records and newspaper archives, dismissing long-standing suspects like poisoner George Chapman. The breakthrough came from searching for reports of violence against women near the Thames.
James Crick: The Man of the River
One name emerged repeatedly: James Crick, a bargeman with a known history of violence and unrestricted access to the waterways. Bargemen of the time often had skills in butchery from sheep rustling, aligning with the dismemberments. Crucially, in 1889, Crick was convicted of a violent assault on a woman named Sarah Warburton.
After offering her a lift, Crick threatened Warburton on the Thames, telling her he would 'settle you as I have done other women that have been found in the Thames.' She fought back, raised the alarm, and Crick was arrested following the intervention of a police boat. He was sentenced to 15 years on the testimony of Warburton and Inspector Charles Ford, serving eight and a half. Significantly, the torso murders ceased during his imprisonment.
Disturbingly, Worsley found evidence Crick could have been stopped earlier. In early 1889, another woman, Jessie Miller, accused him of an attack, but her account was dismissed. Miller later died tragically at age 43.
A Legacy of Violence and Overlooked Victims
Forensic pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy, featured in the documentary, is convinced London was stalked by two distinct serial killers simultaneously. For Lucy Worsley, the case underscores a grim continuity: the importance of believing women. 'It's Inspector Charles Ford's backing up of Sarah Warburton in court which really puts the murderer away. Jessie wasn't believed,' she noted.
If Worsley and Bax Horton are correct, the Thames Torso Murderer was hiding in plain sight—a violent man of the river whose calculated crimes were overshadowed by the notoriety of Jack the Ripper, yet whose legacy presents a uniquely disturbing chapter in Victorian criminal history.
