PAST CRIMESmine swindle, and then may have gone to Birkenhead. In later 1889 he was
in Beverley, living under an assumed name. He married the young daughter
of his landlady in 1890, despite being already married. A month later, he
disappeared again. Later it was discovered he had visited his four children
and first wife in Birkenhead, announcing that he was off to South America.
He swindled a local jeweller and, as soon as he arrived in South America
was arrested and extradited back to England. He spent nine months in gaol.
On his release he went to Rainhill, near Liverpool, where he took a house
under another assumed name and was visited by a woman thought to have
been his first wife, with her children, telling neighbours she was his sister.
Shortly afterwards, he found it necessary to have the kitchen floor lifted
because of problems with the drains.
He then married a third woman, Emily Mather, in September 1891 and took
her with him to Australia. On Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, he murdered
Emily and buried her under cement in one of the bedrooms of the house he
had rented. He left the property and the owner tried to let it to a new tenant,
who complained of a terrible smell. Emily’s body was found; her head had
been severely battered, and her throat had been cut.
Deeming, under yet another alias, had sold off his wedding presents, gone
to a marriage bureau seeking another wife, and swindled another jeweller. He
moved through a number of new names and young ladies, but was arrested in
March 1892. At about the same time, police in England had found the
decomposing bodies of a woman and four children at the house in Rainhill.
One child had been strangled–the other victims had suffered cut throats.
They were identified as Deeming’s first wife and children.
Deeming tried to plead insanity at his trial, to be suffering from syphilis,
and to have visions from his mother’s ghost which had urged him to commit
the crimes. Nevertheless, he was found guilty and hanged in May 1892.
Even before his hanging, speculation was rife about his movements in late
- It is possible that he was in England at this time–one source claims he
was in Hull prison, but another source claims he was in South Africa. A fellow
prisoner in Melbourne Gaol recounted that Deeming made a confession to him
during their incarceration together. Even today, some are still willing to
entertain the notion that Deeming was the man he claimed to be in prison–
Jack the Ripper.
From Victorian to Edwardian
The police forces facing the new challenges of the nineteenth century were
themselves developing and changing. The 1842 Parish Constables Act was