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Thomas Neil Cream was hanged at Newgate Prison on 15th November, 1892. Elizabeth Masters, a witness at his victim Matilda Clover's inquest, told how she and a friend had had a drink with Cream at the King Lud pub in Ludgate Circus. She described him as having 'strange-looking eyes.' 'My attention was attracted to them', she said. At Cream's Old Bailey trial she elaborated on her description, saying he had 'a peculiar look in his eyes and he had a squint'. Other witnesses in the case also remarked on the strangeness of his eyes, one in particular described him as 'cross-eyed'.
General descriptions of Cream describe him as about 5' 9", having black hair with a reddish coloured moustache and sporting a hard felt hat. Having been born in Scotland, and having spent much of his life in Canada, he no doubt had a discernible accent.
Two days after Cream's execution an 'unfortunate girl' named Emily Edith Smith went to the police and reported that on the 5th November she had been lured into an alley in Shadwell and attacked by a man she describe thus:
"He was tall and thin, looking like a consumptive, with high cheek bones, his face being pale. He stood over 5ft 9in, wore a hard bowler hat, had very dark hair, though his moustache, which was curled at either end, was of a sandy tint. He had very peculiar eyebrows, meeting over the nose and the ends turning up towards the temples. She would seem to have taken particular notice of his eyes. These she described as odd and light, almost to squinting, one being a lightish brown and the other a bluey grey. He had a strange habit of blinking them, but they sparkled and were piercing. His face, excepting the upper lip, was closely shaven. Both the "dog" teeth showed decay cavities, but only when he laughed. His forehead seemed rather square, and, though speaking English well, he struck her as being a foreigner."
A week or so after reporting the incident to the police, she claimed to have seen the man again:
"Now touching my last Sunday night experience referred to in one of the evening papers, I wish to state that on the evening mentioned I was in the King Lud public house, Ludgate Circus, at about ten o'clock, and whilst having a sandwich and something to drink, two gentlemen were there seen by me, and one of them had a most wonderful resemblance to my would be murderer. I was immediately struck by the likeness, but whilst he had the odd eyes I have described, I could not see the decayed cavities in his 'dog' teeth mentioned in my statement in Scotland Yard. I asked the barmaid, did she notice anything peculiar about his eyes. She said, 'Yes, they are odd, and I have seen him stare very hard at you.'"
The police do not seem to have been convinced by Emily's account and they issued a statement saying as much. In response, the 18-year-old unfortunate went to the trouble and expense of issuing a sworn declaration through a firm of Holborn solicitors to defend her reputation.
Thomas Neil Cream was hanged at Newgate Prison on 15th November, 1892. Elizabeth Masters, a witness at his victim Matilda Clover's inquest, told how she and a friend had had a drink with Cream at the King Lud pub in Ludgate Circus. She described him as having 'strange-looking eyes.' 'My attention was attracted to them', she said. At Cream's Old Bailey trial she elaborated on her description, saying he had 'a peculiar look in his eyes and he had a squint'. Other witnesses in the case also remarked on the strangeness of his eyes, one in particular described him as 'cross-eyed'.
General descriptions of Cream describe him as about 5' 9", having black hair with a reddish coloured moustache and sporting a hard felt hat. Having been born in Scotland, and having spent much of his life in Canada, he no doubt had a discernible accent.
Two days after Cream's execution an 'unfortunate girl' named Emily Edith Smith went to the police and reported that on the 5th November she had been lured into an alley in Shadwell and attacked by a man she describe thus:
"He was tall and thin, looking like a consumptive, with high cheek bones, his face being pale. He stood over 5ft 9in, wore a hard bowler hat, had very dark hair, though his moustache, which was curled at either end, was of a sandy tint. He had very peculiar eyebrows, meeting over the nose and the ends turning up towards the temples. She would seem to have taken particular notice of his eyes. These she described as odd and light, almost to squinting, one being a lightish brown and the other a bluey grey. He had a strange habit of blinking them, but they sparkled and were piercing. His face, excepting the upper lip, was closely shaven. Both the "dog" teeth showed decay cavities, but only when he laughed. His forehead seemed rather square, and, though speaking English well, he struck her as being a foreigner."
A week or so after reporting the incident to the police, she claimed to have seen the man again:
"Now touching my last Sunday night experience referred to in one of the evening papers, I wish to state that on the evening mentioned I was in the King Lud public house, Ludgate Circus, at about ten o'clock, and whilst having a sandwich and something to drink, two gentlemen were there seen by me, and one of them had a most wonderful resemblance to my would be murderer. I was immediately struck by the likeness, but whilst he had the odd eyes I have described, I could not see the decayed cavities in his 'dog' teeth mentioned in my statement in Scotland Yard. I asked the barmaid, did she notice anything peculiar about his eyes. She said, 'Yes, they are odd, and I have seen him stare very hard at you.'"
The police do not seem to have been convinced by Emily's account and they issued a statement saying as much. In response, the 18-year-old unfortunate went to the trouble and expense of issuing a sworn declaration through a firm of Holborn solicitors to defend her reputation.
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