Further gruesome discoveries

The arrest of Bishop and Williams raised suspicion of other bodies they had sold.

Mr Grainger from the Anatomical Theatre in Webb-Street, Borough, remarked that he ‘was prepared to swear that the body was that of a female about thirty-five years of age, of slender frame, and light weight; and that when he saw it, he observed that it was remarkably fresh.’ It was reported that he ‘remarked this to the men who brought it and they said they had got it from a house, and that it never had been buried.’ It was not unusual the article reported for resurrection men as they were known to ascertain the location of where a person had died. ‘This was a practice so common, that the circumstance of a body being brought to dissecting rooms or to hospitals, which did not appear to have been interred, gave rise to no particular observation, unless there were marks of violence or other tokens to denote that the deceased had been unfairly deprived of life.’[1]

Mr Appleton the porter who had bought the body from Bishop believed that there was nothing to question or wrong in the transaction. There were no suspicions from Mr Pileher and others who examined and dissected the body, that was until Bishop, Williams and May were convicted of the murder of the Italian Boy.

Police Officer, Mr Thomas remarked:

‘it was utterly out of the question that the body could have been obtained from a bone house, for he had obtained additional evidence, which in his mind left no doubt that the woman had been murdered. She was proved to have left the house of a Mr Campion in Church-Street Bethnal Green at half-past nine o’clock on the night of Saturday the eighth of October, and at half-past eleven o’clock on the same night, he had ascertained that Bishop and Williams were seen dragging a woman, who appeared to be intoxicated in the direction of their own house. In about an hour after cries of murder were heard proceeding from Nova Scotia gardens. At seven o’clock on the following morning (Sunday). Shields was hired by Bishop and Williams to carry the body of a woman to St Thomas’ Hospital in the Borough, where it was conveyed at eleven o’clock on that day but refused to be purchased and between twelve and one o’clock it was ultimately disposed of at the establishment in Webb-street. He had reason to believe that the death of the woman was effected by drowning and the gentlemen present would correct him if he was wrong in stating that he judged so from the growing of the vessels of the heart - an appearance which he understood was generally the result of drowning.’[2]

The woman in question was Fanny Pigburn who had been reported missing for five weeks. Fanny had been employed as a washer, residing in Charles Street, and whilst she was unmarried, she had a young son of ten years old.

In the aftermath of the arrest of Bishop, whilst police officers were engaged in a search of his home at NSG, Bishop’s eldest son of twelve told an officer ‘to be cautious how he dug there as the cess-pool was under that part of the ground and if he attempted to move the earth he would be sure to fall into it.’ This was the location of Fanny’s clothes – amongst the articles, that would later be identified by two women, included a blue cloth of a very peculiar make and having a small secret pocket within it. It was this feature that enabled her niece Mayhew, and her friend Anne Hitchcock, to identify it as belonging to Fanny, given it had only recently been given to her upon the death of her friend Mrs Bell. The police concluded that ‘This fact which the constable stated on Monday would lead to the belief that the child was aware of the clothes having been buried where they were subsequently found. It is not improbable that the concealment of the articles took place immediately after Bishop and his associated were taken into custody.’[3]

In a further revelation from Bishop’s children, it was reported that ‘One of them, a little boy, having told another boy, before the murder was discovered, that he had some little white mice at home and that his father had broken up the cage to light the fire.’[4]

A newspaper extract reveals the fateful events of Fanny’s last moments:

‘As regard to the destruction of Fanny Pigburn, Bishop stated that they met her at a public house in Bethnal Green and at their solicitation she drank some liquor till she became rather intoxicated - that they met her again by appointment, on the following night, and they again piled her with drink, but she was not then in a sufficient state of stupor for them to effect their purpose. Another appointment took place, the third night (8 Oct) and then they gave her so much liquor that they succeeded. This unfortunate women they had decoyed to their house in Nova Scotia Gardens and having everything prepared they pushed her head-foremost into the water barrel sunk in the ground in the garden.’[5]

Bishop went onto state that he had furnished between 500 and 1000 subjects to hospitals – closer to the latter number. Bishop was known ‘by the police officers to be one of the most experienced body stealers in London. On one occasion after having been liberated from Bow-Street office on a charge of that description he passed the office the next day and pulled out a handful of sovereigns out of his pocket, saying at the same time to one of the officers “You see you cannot keep me from it; I got another ‘stiff-un’ last night, and had nine guineas for it.’[6]

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