The Haunting Murder Case Of The Hammersmith Ghost

**"The Haunting Murder Case Of The Hammersmith Ghost"** is a video made by Ryan Bergara and Shane Madej, uploaded onto YouTube on November 20, 2020. It was the sixth episode of the seventh season of *BuzzFeed Unsolved: True Crime*, and the one hundredth and tenth episode overall. You can find it here.

## Description

The terrorizing hauntings of a ghost lead a man to murder. Was there truly a ghost or was a man murdered in vain?

## Background

On the north bank of a winding section of the River Thames in London sits the village of Hammersmith. While less than five miles west of Buckingham Palace, in the early 19th century, Hammersmith represented the border between the countryside and the city. And in late 1803, this village of freshly built homes had a ghost problem. Late at night, a tall specter covered in a white shroud would emerge to roam the areas around Black Lion Lane. Thought to be the spirit of a villager who had slit his own throat the year prior, the ghost would accost, harass, and sometimes even attack travelers out late.

In one incident, the driver of an eight-horse wagon carrying 16 passengers became so frightened by the ghost that he fled on foot abandoning his passengers and horses. One man, Thomas Groom, described walking through a church yard with his hands in his pockets and a jacket under his arm went from behind a tombstone. Someone grabbed him by the neck with two hands, the hands spun groom around but there was no one to be seen. When he pushed out with his fist it felt as though he were punching a large coat, but he didn't contact anything solid well. In another incident, a pregnant woman was walking near the churchyard around 10 p.m., suddenly a white specter materialized from the tombstones and came after the woman. She tried to run away, but was caught. The ghost began to press her into his arms and the woman fainted. A few hours later, some neighbors found the woman, woke her, and took her home. There, she reportedly went to bed and never awoke.

The citizens of Hammersmith began to stay inside after dark unless absolutely necessary, and made a point of avoiding the areas with reported sightings. Some villagers, however, became convinced that what was haunting their town was no ghost at all, but simply a person wearing a sheet and they were tired of living in fear. Determined to catch this public nuisance, some men in Hammersmith set up armed patrols to survey the streets at night in hopes of catching the culprit. Unfortunately, it proved impossible to monitor the countless routes in and out of Hammersmith, and the spirit continued to terrorize residents. One night, a patrolman spotted the specter and gave chase. He later reported seeing the spirit rip off a large white cloth before escaping pursuit.

By January 3, 1804, 29 year old Francis Smith had had quite enough of the hauntings. The fact that someone was scaring his fellow villagers, and the fact that this person had thus far eluded capture infuriated him. Smith resolved to bring the ghost down once and for all. According to some reports, Smith prepped for his patrol by drinking in a pub.

It was certainly a time of heightened nerves in Hammersmith, and few were as well acquainted with that fact as Thomas Millwood. Millwood worked as a bricklayer, and as such wore a uniform of white linen trouser, a white flannel waistcoat, and a white apron. Millwood had twice been mistaken for the Hammersmith ghost while walking at night in his all-white get-up. One time, a man and two women riding in a carriage spotted Millwood and shouted "there goes the ghost." Millwood said he was no more the ghost than the man in the carriage, then asked the man if he'd like a punch in the head. In an effort to stop folks from suspecting her husband of being a ghost, Millwood's wife asked him to cover his work clothes while in public. Millwood refused.

On the evening of January 3, the night Francis Smith resolved to stop the Hammersmith Ghost's reign of terror, Millwood stopped by his parents home to chat with his mother and sister Anne. Meanwhile, Frances Smith was on patrol. Around 10:30 p.m., Smith encountered watchman William Girdler in Beaver Lane. When Smith told Girdler he'd planned to hunt the ghost that night, Girdler said he'd join the man after he finished calling the hour and surveying the lanes. It was a particularly dark night, reportedly impossible to see objects even on the other side of the road. So, Smith and Girdler arranged a secret greeting so they'd know it was the other, "friend advance friend."

Late into the night, back at Thomas Millwood's parents home, the bricklayer finally got up to return home to his wife. He said his goodbyes left and closed the door behind him. As his sister Anne got up and moved towards the door, she heard a voice outside call "damn you! who are you and what are you? Damn you! I will shoot you." Millwood's sister Anne saw a flash of light as the sound of a gunshot tore through the night. She called out to her brother from the window, but got no reply. She ran out of the house and down the lane, where she found her brother lying in the street. By the time she was halfway to him, she knew he was dead. There was no one else around. Francis Smith retreated to the White Heart Pub where he met up with the watchmen Girdler.

Smith, Girdler, and two more men made their way back to whoever the heck it was Smith had shot. Smith confessed to Girdler that he feared he had hurt the man badly. For his part, Girdler noted he had heard Smith's gunshot, but didn't think much about it. Apparently, gunshots happened very frequently in the area, "every quarter of an hour, almost all night."

When the men got to the body, they found Smith's shot had struck Millwood in his jaw. Girdler carried Millwood's lifeless body to the Black Lion Pub. A surgeon summoned by the coroner reported that Smith's shot had penetrated the lower left jaw, vertebrae in the neck, and the spinal marrow. The coroner deemed the matter "willful murder" and a remorseful Smith surrendered to authorities. who took him to jail to await trial at the Old Bailey.

On January 13, the trial that ensued became a pretty important one in english legal history. While Smith admitted to killing Millwood, he was adamant that it was by mistake and entered a plea of not guilty. Throughout the trial, Smith showed a great deal of shame and remorse. He was physically unable to stand without the aid of someone else and he had difficulty even getting words out in his own defense. According to one report, "the pallid hue of his continents during the whole trial, together with the signs of contrition which he exhibited, commanded the sympathy of every spectator."

Smith testified that upon calling out twice to the white figure nearing him and receiving no response, he became so much agitated by what he presumed was now an actual ghost, that he fired his gun out of panicked fear. After all witnesses were heard, the judge presiding over the case lord Chief Baron MacDonald addressed the jury, explaining that nothing in the case could make the offense anything but murder. He gave the example of a man setting out with the intent to shoot not a ghost, but a highway robber. If that man shot someone he thought was a highway robber, but who turned out not to be that was still murder. He also reminded the jury that as disgusted as Smith may have been at the fact someone was terrorizing the village dressed as a ghost, that did not entitle him to go out with a loaded gun and shoot the person.

Nevertheless, after an hour of deliberation, the jury came back with a verdict. Smith was guilty of manslaughter, a charge that had not been brought against him. The judge reminded the jury this was not an option available to them. They were either to convict or acquit Smith of murder and murder alone. The judge further emphasized his point by reminding the jurors that even if Millwood had been someone posing as a ghost, Smith would still be on trial for murder. The justices on the cases noted that even if a police officer killed someone he was entitled to apprehend, that was also still murder.

The jury apparently believed that some consideration should be made for the fact that at the time, Smith truly believed he was firing a bullet at a ghost. Since there was no room in the law for this interpretation, however, the jury reconvened and came to the decision that yes, Smith certainly had murdered Millwood. Smith was sentenced to be hanged the following Monday. Because of the great deal of interest the case had garnered however, Lord Chief Baron MacDonald immediately referred the case to the crown, who swiftly ordered a "respite during pleasure." By January 25, King George III had pardoned Smith, requiring him to serve a one-year sentence of hard labor instead of hanging.

While Smith escaped the gallows for shooting the unfortunately dressed Millwood, there's still an unsettled matter at the heart of this story who was the ghost of Hammersmith?

## Theories

* **The ghost was nothing more than a shoemaker by the last name of Graham**, trying to spook some employees.
	+ Graham was arrested in January of 1804, charged with being a nuisance, as he would reportedly go out at night dressed in a blanket. Graham claimed he only donned the costume in an attempt to scare some apprentices who had frightened his children with ghost stories. Though, he was spotted by more than just the apprentices, even the watchmen Girdler reportedly saw Graham. Grimly, Graham was a singer at the church, and even sang at Millwood's funeral, a funeral that was the direct result of the hysteria over the Hammersmith ghost.
	+ After Graham's confession, the Hammersmith ghost seemingly did stop making appearances. According to one source, however, Graham was only responsible for one appearance of the ghost.
* **Multiple people were responsible for dressing up as the ghost.** It's unclear whether it would have been a coordinated group, or rather individuals taking advantage of a legend to have some fun at the expense of their neighbors.
	+ Indeed, while sightings of the ghost stopped after Graham admitted to trying to scare his apprentices, the ghost resurfaced in 1824, this time with hooks and reportedly, even the ability to breathe fire. This iteration turned out to be a young farmer who was caught and sent to the House of Corrections. Despite this, in 1932, Hammersmith was yet again troubled by reports of a ghostly being, one dressed in white that could climb walls and bushes using long claws.
* **An actual ghost haunted and continues to hunt Hammersmith.** Some locals claim that every 50 years at midnight on a full moon, the Hammersmith Churchyard is visited by a white specter floating through the graves.
	+ Of course, it's possible all three theories are responsible. Perhaps, some townspeople saw an actual ghost in Hammersmith, word spread and some folks with an extra sheet lying around decided to dress up as it, including the shoemaker Graham.