Kingswood, a small village near Reigate in Surrey, England, was a far cry from the bustling streets of London. In 1835, landowner Thomas Alcock had become Lord of the Manor, commissioning the construction of St. Andrew’s Church and the adjacent rectory in 1852 to serve the growing community. The rectory, a modest yet elegant building, … More Martha Halliday

Twenty-eight-year-old Emma Jackson lived with her family in a modest home behind a butcher shop at 10 Berwick Street, Soho, owned by a Mr. Andrew Osborn. By all accounts, Emma was a quiet and peaceable woman, working as a shirtmaker to earn a living. However, those who knew her described occasional periods of excess when … More Emma Jackson: The St. Giles Murder

Fifty-one-year-old Sarah Millson was described as a reserved woman who kept to herself, rarely receiving visitors and sharing little about her personal life. Employed as a housekeeper at the Bevington Brothers’ warehouse, she lived a quiet existence in the heart of London’s commercial district. The warehouse, located at 2 Cannon Street, was a hub for … More Sarah Millson: The Cannon Street Murder

Janet Rogers, née Henderson, was born around 1811 in Airntully, a small village in Perth, Scotland known for its cottage weaving industry. She married James Rogers, a laborer, in the 1830s, and together they raised five daughters in a modest home. By 1866, Janet was a grandmother, with her eldest daughter married and starting her … More Janet Rogers: The Mount Stewart Murder

Konitz (now Chojnice, Poland) was a modest town in West Prussia with a population of around 10,000 at the turn of the century, including a small but established Jewish minority. By 1856, the Jewish population numbered 429, but it had declined to about 300 by 1900 due to economic shifts and emigration. Jews in Konitz … More Ernst Winter: The Konitz Affair

Arthur W. St. Clair was born into slavery on the May plantation in Dade City, Florida, during the antebellum era. Despite the oppressive conditions of bondage, he pursued education in secret, preparing himself for a future beyond servitude. The end of the Civil War in 1865 brought emancipation, and St. Clair quickly emerged as a … More Arthur St. Clair

Forty-nine-year-old Henry Weston Smith was born in Ellington, Tolland County, Connecticut. His early years were marked by personal tragedy and spiritual awakening. In 1847, at age twenty, he married Ruth Yeomans, but both his wife and their infant child died the following year. This loss may have deepened his faith; by age twenty-three, Smith had … More Henry Weston Smith

Martin DeFoor, born on September 17th, 1805, and Susan Tabor, born on December 2nd, 1798, were early settlers in Atlanta. Originally from Franklin County, Georgia, they moved to the Bolton neighborhood in 1853, where Martin took over the operation of Montgomery’s Ferry, renaming it DeFoor’s Ferry. The couple resided in the Montgomery family’s home, one … More Martin and Susan DeFoor

No. 4 Euston Square was a well-appointed boarding house in the elegant Bloomsbury terrace, leased by Severin Bastendorff, a bamboo furniture maker. The house, standing four stories tall, was home to a mix of lodgers and servants, projecting an air of respectability typical of Victorian London. Among its residents in 1877 or 1878 was Matilda … More Matilda Hacker: The Euston Square Murder

On the cold morning of March 26th, 1887 in Rahway, New Jersey, four brothers—Alfred, Frank, Thomas, and Irving Worth—made a gruesome discovery while walking to work at the felt mills near Bloodgood’s Pond in Clark. Just off Central Avenue, near Jefferson Avenue and several hundred feet from the Central Avenue Bridge over the Rahway River, … More The Rahway Murder