Tomb of Jane Maria Clouson

One of the most notorious Victorian murder cases, found via a search of Historic England's own listings for the word 'murdered'. Jane Maria Clouson, a maid, was found bludgeoned with a hammer in Kidbrooke Lane, Eltham, in the early hours of 26 April 1871, and died at Guy's Hospital four days later; before dying she reportedly named Edmund Walter Pook, the 20-year-old son of her employer, as her attacker. It was alleged the two had been having an affair, that she had become pregnant, and that she'd been dismissed from the household as a result; his family denied this and said she'd been let go for slovenly work. A bloodstained hammer found at the scene had reportedly been sold to Pook days earlier, and witnesses claimed to have seen the pair together and Pook fleeing the lane, with blood on his clothes. A coroner's inquest found Pook guilty of wilful murder, but at the full trial at the Old Bailey the judge ruled Clouson's dying words inadmissible as hearsay, and the jury acquitted him after just twenty minutes - to an angry crowd outside. It was widely suspected he escaped justice through class and family connections (his father had worked for The Times); the case prompted a Times editorial and a question in Parliament. Pook's family later fled London and changed their identity to escape press hounding, and Pook successfully sued at least two publishers for libel over pamphlets that called him a murderer, despite his acquittal. For years afterwards, Clouson's ghost was reportedly seen in Kidbrooke Lane, including by patrolling policemen, until the lane was built over. This grand public-subscription monument - a praying child atop a pillar - stands in Brockley Cemetery.