The Waterloo Bridge Tragedy. or the London mysterious Murder

Broadside ballad with a woodcut border entitled 'The Waterloo Bridge Tragedy' or 'The London Mysterious Murder'' recounting in verse the true story of the robbery and murder of a male victim in a London brothel. The ballad notes that the unknown victim's was dissected, placed in a carpet bag and thrown into the River Thames over Waterloo bridge. The bag was found on an ‘abutment’ of Waterloo Bridge by two young men in a rowing along the Thames early one morning in October 1857. Once opened, it revealed 23 bones and a few scraps of flesh. The head, hands, feet and internal organs were missing.

The gruesome murder absorbed the public imagination for several weeks and the story was widely reported by broadside and newspaper reporters with any new details being put to print as they unfolded. With no obvious evidence or suspects and the victim remaining unknown the murder was described by the Times as ‘one of the most horrible murders that has ever stained our criminal annals.’

Such broadsides recounting gruesome crimes were particularly popular. Printed by small back street printers primarily based in the Seven Dials area of London they were sold for a halfpenny or penny by ballad hawkers trading on London's streets. The ballad writers would receive little reward from the printers for their efforts, reportedly sometimes only a few pints of ale. The publisher of this ballad is unknown but the ballad is referred to in The Night Side of London by J Ewing Ritchie in 1858.