CHAPTER 16

The Seafarer and the Bookseller

1895

The man standing over him cracked his head with a poker …

n the early hours of the morning of 19 February 1895, a teenager staggered into the street outside his home in Redcross Street, his head oozing blood. People walking to work were amazed at the sight, and some stopped to help the boy. This was John Needham, lodger and assistant to a bookseller called Edward Moyse. The poor boy had experienced a night of hell, with a killer loose.