Author: Sarah Beth Hopton
Genre: True Crime
Format: Audiobook
Hours: 7 hours and 43 minutes
This was one of those impulse listens. The audiobook I'd planned on listening to was still on hold, but I needed something to listen to at work in the early mornings. So I quickly flipped the the library's true crime option and this cover was the first to catch my attention. Then add on the fact that I'd never heard of the case before, and I was sold. Plus, at only seven hours long, I'd have finished before the end of my work week. What I didn't expect was how batty this case was becoming and how invested I was going to get.
Or, how passionate. Because I co-worker popped up toward the end and asked me about it, and I got riled up telling her about it. This case is seriously nutsy. Like something you'd binge-watch on TV because it's so bad you can't stop watching the next episode. Only this is a real case in the real world, with real people.
I'm still sitting on this one.
This wasn't a story that slowly rolls you into the crime, where there is a desperate hunt for the killer. Right from the first chapter, I knew who my money was on, and quickly, with every passing second, I was proven correct. Early on, it feels like a pretty open and shut case, all the evidence stacked up against Mary Eleanor Pearcy. The physical evidence in her home matches the evidence they found on the body, to the way Mary was acting when she went to help identify the body. It's all very suspicious.
But, as the book points out, several times, it's all circumstantial because despite all the evidence, there is no real proof that the blood is the victim's (Phoebe Hogg). Of the two medical doctors who looked over the body, neither could state exactly what struck Pheobe, killing her, and the knife used to nearly sever her head was never found. Still, Mrs. Pearcy had to know something. There were too many coincidences that led to her door.
In 1890, there was little in the way of forensic science as we think of it now, and the other Ripper case was still fresh in everyone's mind. So I understand the haste and the pressure to solve and convict this case. While there is no doubt in my mind that Mary was involved in this murder. As for a motive, well, Phoebe wanted her husband to move them away, and Mary has already stated once in a letter that she couldn't live without him. So maybe Mrs. Hogg's push to leave was enough to drive Mary to do what she did.
I don't think it was a thought plan, I think it was a heat-of-the-moment kind of thing. Where one thing led to another, and then someone got hurt. I also don't believe that Mrs Pearcy acted alone. The point is brought only once, but how could a woman of Mrs. Pearcy's size get the dead weight of Mrs. Hogg's in a pram and then push her away? There isn't a doubt in my mind that she had helped at the very least disposing of the body, and part of me still thinks it was the husband, Frank.
Lots of things in this case don't add up. Some of it has to do with Mrs. Pearcy's mental health. Others just come from the fact that I don't think Frank or his family seemed to care that Phoebe was dead. In fact, I think he tried to poison her at one point, and Mrs. Pearcy accidentally, or maybe that was the point for Mary, to nurse Mrs. Hoggs back to health. To ensure that his wife and his girlfriend somehow became close.
Another part of my thinks Frank's mother was involved. The interview with her was weird and still sits funny with me.
Either way, this was a hell of a ride for only seven hours and has had me spinning theories even days later. It's an interesting and the book was detailed not just on the case, but on some of the history of London's court. It was really good and a great way to pass the early morning. I'm glad I picked this one up.
HAPPY READING!!
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