The Jack the Ripper Experience

From the grim pages of the The Newgate Calendar comes the dreadful account of William York, a boy of only ten years of age, charged with the murder of young Susan Matthew on the 13th day of May, 1748. The crime, shocking both for its cruelty and for the tender years of the accused, stirred horror and fascination throughout the public alike.

William York was soon apprehended and brought before the court, where the evidence laid against him was judged sufficient for conviction. The jury returned a verdict of guilty, and the child was sentenced to suffer Death, a punishment all too common in that severe age, even upon the very young. Yet the sentence was not immediately carried into ex*****on. From time to time he was granted respite, his fate suspended between the gallows and mercy, while debate continued over whether one so young could fully comprehend the wickedness of his deed.

At length, clemency prevailed. After repeated delays and much public attention, the Crown extended a pardon, sparing the boy from the scaffold. Thus William York escaped the terrible end that had awaited so many condemned souls recorded within the bloody annals of Newgate…

There are two paths to foolishness, believing what is false, and denying what is real.

1888. There is no terror more profound than the whisper of one’s own mind in the dead silence of midnight…