User:Jameswcooper1990/Bermondsey Horror

Bermondsey Horror

The Bermondsey Horror refers to the murder of Patrick O'Connor in 1849 at 3 Miniver Place, Bermondsey, London. This incident was one of the first high profile cases managed by the Metropolitan Police's Detective Department (later reformed to become the Criminal Investigation Department (CID)).

The case involved Marie Manning and her husband, Frederick George Manning, who were both convicted, and later hanged, for the murder of Patrick O'Connor.

O'Connor had been an assosciate of the Mannings and was the lover of Marie. He worked as a gauger at the London Docks, but acquired wealth through acting as a money lender. On 9 August 1849, O'COnnor dined with the Mannings at their London home of 3 Miniver Place, Bermondsey. He was incapacitated, presumably by laudanum-laced tobacco. The Mannings then murdered him by beating his head with a blunt instrument, presumably a hammer, then issuing a close-range shot to the back of his head. He was buried him under the flagstones of their kitchen. O'Connors body was found 1 week later on 17 August 1849, when a police officer noticed a damp corner stone on the floor of the address. A post mortem examination was conducted. .

The motivation for the murder of O'Connor was money. However, the incident was underpinned an the unusual love triangle formed between Patrick, Marie and Frederick. Marie Manning (née de Roux) was originally from Lausanne, Sweden. She lost her parents at an early age and inherited a small amount of money from them. She undertook training and service as a maid, working in the household of Sir Lawrence Palk (1st Baron Haldon) and the Lady Palk at Haldon House, Devonshire. Here she served for 6 years and it is supposed that in her travels with the Palk household, she met Frederick Manning, who was a railway guard for the Great Western Railway. When the Lady Palk died in 1846, Marie came into the service of Lady Blantyre, the second daugther of the Duchess of Sutherland. During a brief continental tour with Lady Blantyre, Marie De Roux met Patrick O'Connor. On a ferry to Boulogne the two spent some time together in the ship saloon, during which an intimacy arose between them. At this point, Marie De Roux was intimately linked to both Frederick Manning and Patrick O'Connor. She received both of them as visitors at Stafford House while in the service of Lady Blantyre. It is believed that Marie De Roux, while attracted to the wealth of Patrick O'Connor, was better satisfied with Frederick Manning, who was younger in age and apparently weaker in demeanour. Ultimately, Marie De Roux would marry Frederick Manning on 27 May 1847. It should be noted that part of Marie's attraction to Frederick may have been the promise of her being the sole inheritor of his mother's estate, amounting to some £600 - £700. However, no such estate existed and it appears that Frederick Manning went to great lengths to convince Marie of what she stood to inherit, to the point of creating a fictitious will. The other person mentioned in this will is Henry Poole, who was conivcted of a series of railway robberies on the Great Western Railway - The Great Western Mail Robbery - 1849. Frederick Manning was implicitly linked to these robberies.

Despite her marriage to Frederick Manning, O'Connor remained a frequent visitor to the house and often dined with Marie and Frederick.

That same day Mrs Manning visited O'Connor's lodgings at Greenwood Street, Mile End Road, stealing the dead man's railway shares and money. She returned the next day to complete the robbery. However, it is apparent that the couple had planned to double-cross each other; Marie fled with most of the loot, Frederick fled with the smaller portion. James Coleman, the landlord who resided at 1 Miniver Place, later gave evidence at the trial.