Читать книгу Murder Maps - Drew Gray - Страница 34

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ENGLAND — LONDON.

Unfortunately for Joseph Rumbold (1865–88), he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and it cost him his life. He was walking out with his sweetheart Elizabeth ‘Lizzie’ Lee (dates unknown) in Regent’s Park in May 1888. The couple were ‘double dating’ with her sister Emily (dates unknown) and her young man, Alonzo Byrnes (dates unknown). The four were loosely connected to a local youth gang, the ‘Lisson Grove Lads’. Like several other big cities in the 1880s, London had a well-publicized ‘gang’ problem. These gangs (usually termed ‘roughs’ in the media, then later ‘hooligans’) laid claims to territory, dressed in a distinctive group style and sometimes armed themselves with weapons and studded leather belts. Anti-social behaviour, petty crime and violence were commonplace, but deaths were rare.

The previous evening two members of a rival gang (known as the ‘Tottenham Court Road Lads’) were attacked near Madame Tussauds. Beaten and bloodied, but mostly affronted, they demanded immediate revenge. In the late evening of 24 May,

several lads chased Rumbold out of the park to York Gate, where he was stabbed to death.

The Old Bailey dock was packed as ten young men faced trial for the killing. They were a mixture of working-class youths, but none fitted the media depiction of them as unemployed wastrels. In the end, only one was convicted: George ‘Garry’ Galletly (1871–unknown). Galletly had publicly boasted that he would ‘do for them’, borrowing a knife from another boy as they gathered to settle their score with their rivals. As the youngest member of the gang, he may have felt obliged to prove his mettle. His death sentence was eventually commuted to life imprisonment on account of his age. •

Below. the penny illustrated paper, 2 june 1888. george galletly in the dock at the old bailey with

his fellow gang members.

regent’s park, marylebone.

 May .

englandlondon.

GEORGE GALLETLY.× Joseph Rumbold.

weapon.knife.

typology.gang.

policing.n/a.

BRIDPORT STREET.

the street where

joseph rumbold lived.

MARYLEBONE LANE.

the lane where joseph rumbold and alonzo

byrnes worked.

BARRETT’S COURT.

the court where lizzie

and emily lee lived.

CORNWALL TERRACE.

the road where the gang attacked

joseph rumbold.

YORK GATE.

the place where joseph rumbold

collapsed.