The Unsolved Murder of Harriet Buswell in Great Coram Street

It was Christmas Day, 1872. As families celebrated with loved ones and children sang carols beneath the glow of Victorian streetlamps, a scene of horrific contrast was unfolding inside a rented room at 12 Great Coram Street in Bloomsbury. When the landlady, Mrs Wright, forced open the door, she discovered a murder scene that would later draw comparisons to the Jack the Ripper killings, committed 16 years later. Yet somehow, nobody in the house had heard a thing.

Harriet Buswell

Harriet Buswell was born in 1841 in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. She had three sisters, and a brother named Henry, who worked at the Antiquarian Society at Somerset House. Harriet was unmarried but had a daughter with a man named Burton, and she sometimes went by the alias Clara Burton. She lived on the margins of society in Victorian London, dreaming of becoming a dancer or appearing on stage, and was a regular at the Alhambra music hall in Leicester Square. Barmaids there remembered her drinking whisky several times a week, though she was rarely seen intoxicated. Behind the glamour she hoped for, Harriet was struggling financially. She had been pawning her belongings to keep up with debts owed to tradesmen, a laundress, and the woman who cared for her eight-year-old daughter. The strain had become so great that Harriet had turned to prostitution to supplement her income. She had lodged in King’s Cross for two years but moved out following an argument with her landlady and at the time of her death, had been lodging at 12 Great Coram Street, near Russell Square, for four weeks.

Body Discovery

Harriet’s daughter was due to visit on Christmas Day, so when Harriet failed to come downstairs before noon, her landlady, Mrs Wright, became concerned. She went up to the room and knocked repeatedly, but there was no answer. She fetched her son and they forced the door open, revealing a scene of shocking violence. Blood was splashed across the walls, and Harriet was sprawled across the end of the bed, her throat cut and her body twisted. As Harriet’s parents were no longer living, it was her brother, Henry, who was called to identify the body.

Crime Scene

Inspector James Thomson, an experienced detective and superintendent of the local police division, was placed in charge of the investigation. He observed that Harriet’s body was drawn up as though she had died in convulsions of agony. The fatal wound ran from beneath the left ear along the side of the neck and was described in one report as large enough to put a man’s fist into. There was a bloody thumbprint on Harriet’s forehead and a palm mark lower down, suggesting that she had been held down after the first injury while a second cut was inflicted. The pillows were saturated with blood, with several drops on the floor near the washstand.

In one corner of the room was a large bucket filled with blood-tinged water, apparently left behind after the killer attempted to wash himself clean. A towel hanging by the washstand bore marks consistent with a knife having been wiped on it. On a small table was an apple with a single bite taken from it. This was a minor but intriguing detail, as the post-mortem found that Harriet’s stomach contained food from the final meal she had eaten, but no trace of apple, raising the possibility that it was the killer who had taken the bite. Most puzzling of all, the killer had locked the bedroom door behind him and taken the key, yet no trace of blood could be found on the handle or the frame. Even if he had washed his hands, police thought it was strange there were no visible marks, given the level of bloodshed within the room.

The Investigation

The murder weapon appeared to have been removed by the killer. Police later recovered a knife that was considered a possible candidate, but they were unable to prove a connection, and it remains unknown whether it was linked to the crime at all. Some reports claimed that Harriet’s jewellery and purse had also been taken, though this was never officially confirmed. The ten other occupants of the lodging house were interviewed, but nobody had heard a shout, a struggle, or anything else unusual during the night.

Detectives also began examining Harriet’s wider circle of acquaintances and former companions. Among them were George Studdert, a veterinary student who happened to be in Ireland at the time of the murder, and William Kirby, a former lover with whom Harriet had been in contact until a few months before her death. Officers made enquiries into both men, but neither could be linked to the crime as Kirby was in China at the time and Studdert was in Ireland.

With very little evidence to work with, police began reconstructing Harriet Buswell’s final movements. At around 10 p.m. on Christmas Eve, Harriet borrowed a shilling from a friend named Alice Nelson and left Great Coram Street for the Alhambra music hall in Leicester Square. The Alhambra was one of the most fashionable entertainment venues in London; a place where people gathered for music, drinking, and late-night company – as well as a spot where prostitutes could meet potential clients. Several witnesses had seen Harriet there, and one barmaid remembered her calling for whiskies and brandies during the evening, while others claimed to have seen her dining in the restaurant with an unidentified man.

The German Suspect

A waiter named William Stalker described the man as dark-haired and unshaven, with red spots or blotches on his face, while another witness believed he had spoken with a German accent. A local greengrocer later recalled Harriet entering his shop with a man matching the same description. According to the shopkeeper, she turned to him and said, ‘My dear, will you buy me some grapes? I should like some.’ The man bought an orange, an apple and nuts instead, which were later found in Harriet’s room. Witness statements indicated that Harriet returned to her lodgings at Great Coram Street with the man sometime after midnight.

Mrs Wright remembered seeing the man hurrying upstairs to Harriet’s room on the second floor at the back of the house, while Harriet remained downstairs talking briefly with Mrs Wright and her friend Alice Nelson. During the conversation, Harriet described him as a ‘very handsome German gentleman’ and remarked that his accent was so strong, she could barely understand him. She also mentioned that he had bought her fruit and nuts and given her half a sovereign, some of which she handed over towards the rent she owed. A short time later, Harriet went upstairs to join him. It was the last time she was seen alive.

The following morning, sometime between 6 and 7 a.m., Mrs Wright noticed the man leaving the house. Another resident had also seen him walking calmly down the stairs with no obvious sign of panic. Yet despite seeing him at close quarters, neither witness was able to describe him clearly. Investigators offered a reward of £100 and circulated notices in English, French, and German, though in the press, Harriet Buswell was inaccurately reported as being 25 years old when she was actually 31. Harriet was buried in Brompton Cemetery on 31 December 1872, but the questions surrounding her murder could not yet be put to rest.

The case soon became tangled with conflicting witness statements, uncertain timings, and contradictory sightings of both Harriet and the man she had been with. Descriptions of the suspect varied, though most witnesses agreed he appeared to be in his mid-twenties, of medium height, with several days’ worth of stubble, a blotchy complexion, heavy boots, and dark, shabby clothing. More than one witness believed he spoke with a German accent.

The timeline was far less clear. Harriet had mentioned to her landlady and Alice Nelson that she met the man after leaving the Alhambra and walking back through Russell Square while listening to Christmas carollers in the street. But other witnesses were certain they had already seen the pair together earlier that evening inside the Alhambra itself.

Some claimed they saw Harriet and the man boarding an omnibus at Piccadilly Circus before travelling north and getting off near Hunter Street, which would have taken them back towards Great Coram Street via an entirely different route. Geographically, this version appeared to make more sense, as a journey through Russell Square would not have taken them past the greengrocer’s shop where Harriet had supposedly asked for grapes. Yet the timings given by Mrs Wright did not fully align with the omnibus account.

Carl Wohlebbe Comes Under Suspicion

Despite the contradictions, one detail stuck – the suspect’s supposedly foreign appearance and German accent. Newspapers repeated the description so often and with such certainty that it was quickly accepted as fact and soon dominated the investigation. Police therefore became interested when they learned that a German ship called the Wangerland had recently run aground on the Goodwin Sands and been brought into Ramsgate in Kent for repairs. Several passengers and crew had travelled on to London during the delay and were staying at the German-run Kroll’s Hotel in America Square in the Minories. Among them were a pastor named Dr Gottfried Hessel, his wife, and a shipbroker named Carl Wohlebbe.

Investigators became convinced that Wohlebbe resembled the man seen with Harriet Buswell before her death. He was arrested on 18 January 1873 and placed in an identification parade. Witnesses, including the greengrocer and a waiter from the Alhambra, were brought in to identify him. But instead of pointing to Wohlebbe, several witnesses identified Dr Hessel, who had volunteered to stand in the line-up. One witness declared in court, ‘If it is not he, it is his twin brother.’ Another asked Hessel to speak, then interrupted him almost immediately, saying, ‘That’s enough for me. He is the man who sat with the woman at supper.’

Dr Hessel Arrested

Following the identification, Wohlebbe, was released and Dr Hessel was taken into custody. He was held in a detention centre in Clerkenwell under harsh conditions, surviving largely on bread and gruel. Officials removed anything that might be used to commit suicide, and he was reportedly not even permitted a handkerchief to blow his nose. Hessel was allowed 45 minutes of exercise each day in the prison yard and received a 10-minute daily visit from his wife. She brought him money so he could supplement his meagre diet with eggs and steak, though the food had to be cut into small pieces beforehand so he could eat using only a spoon or his hands. The prison chaplain visited regularly to offer spiritual solace, but physical comfort was in short supply. Temperatures inside the prison were bitterly cold, and Hessel’s friends and family were outraged by his treatment.

Hessel later appeared before the magistrates at Bow Street Police Court, charged with the murder of Harriet Buswell. Harry Poland appeared for the prosecution, and Douglas Straight for the defence. Witnesses from the hotel where Hessel had stayed after the Wangerland ran aground testified that he had been ill over Christmas and spent much of the night coughing in his room. Staff had answered his bell, seen his boots outside the door, and recalled him requesting tea and rum shortly before midnight. The hotel doors were locked overnight, and nobody could enter or leave without the porter’s knowledge. Other evidence further strengthened his alibi. Another barmaid from the Alhambra insisted Hessel was not the man she had seen with Harriet. One witness also recalled Hessel purchasing turpentine to remove some stains, briefly raising suspicions, until it emerged that his wife had stained her dress with paint in Ramsgate and had been advised to clean it using turpentine.

Case Dismissed and Press Reaction

Under closer questioning, the confidence of the witnesses began to falter. A barmaid who had previously identified Hessel later admitted she didn’t think it was the same man after all. With the evidence against him rapidly unravelling, the magistrate dismissed the case.

The press mocked the police investigation, with one commentator remarking that if the same process were repeated with every grown man in London, the real killer might eventually be found by chance alone. The £100 reward, worth around £10,000 today, would have represented years of wages for some of the city’s poorest workers, which may have encouraged people to come forward with overconfident memories shaped by repetition, suggestion, or public speculation.

Possible Jack the Ripper Connections

There were further false leads before the case went cold. Two men separately confessed to the murder, but both were found to be drunk and were released without charge. Neither matched the witness descriptions, no clear motive was ever established, and the murder weapon was never recovered.

Looking back, the case bears some interesting similarities to aspects of the Jack the Ripper murders that took place 16 years later. The deep wounds to the throat, the bloodstained room, the bucket of blood-tinged water, and the apparent absence of any reported struggle all suggest a killer who was methodical, fast, and disturbingly calm. Although Harriet Buswell did not live in the East End, she occupied a similarly vulnerable position in society, lived in a lodging house, moved within transient social circles, and had turned to prostitution to manage her mounting debts. The investigation’s focus on a foreign suspect is also reminiscent of later suspicions directed at immigrants during the Whitechapel murders of 1888.

There were even some details in the Buswell case that would later be echoed in the murder of Mary Jane Kelly in Miller’s Court. Like Buswell, Kelly was attacked inside her room, and when her body was discovered the door was locked. One witness in the Whitechapel investigation also described a man seen walking along the road with Kelly and then entering her lodgings. He was said to have a blotchy face and dark, shabby clothing, which sounds eerily similar to descriptions of the man seen with Buswell. The ‘blotchy faced man’ of the Whitechapel murders was said to be in his mid-thirties, and the man seen with Buswell was reportedly in his mid-twenties. Allowing for the possibility that witnesses misjudged his age by a few years, could there be a remote chance that it was the same man?

Of course, there is no evidence linking the two cases, and whether these parallels are meaningful or simply coincidence is impossible to know. But at the centre of the mystery remains Harriet Buswell herself – a 31-year-old woman about whom tragically little is known, who never got to see her eight-year-old daughter that Christmas Day, and whose killer was never brought to justice.

Researched and written by Prash Ganendran. Published 22 July 2026.
© 2026 Prash Ganendran. All Rights Reserved.

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Sources

National Archives, Murder of Harriet Buswell at Great Coram Street MEPO 3/111 and 3/114
Birmingham Mail – Saturday 28 December 1872
Manchester Evening News – Wednesday 29 January 1873
Tromp, Marlene. “A Priori: Harriet Buswell and Unsolved Murder Before Jack the Ripper, 24-25 December 1872.” BRANCH: Britain, Representation and Nineteenth-Century History. Ed. Dino Franco Felluga. Extension of Romanticism and Victorianism on the Net. Web.