The Last Thing Sarah Jane Roberts Saw
SEASON 3 : EPISODE 46
JANUARY 15, 2025
The bonus content on Patreon for this episode is more cases where forensic retinal optography was deployed, and if it ever actually worked.
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INTRO
Hello everyone, welcome to A Good Night for a Murder, a Victorian true crime podcast.
My name is Kim, and towards the end of 2024, I released a lot of fun bonus content, a compilation episode covering multiple stories, and even strayed in to the Edwardian era a little bit. But tonight,
But first, a Victorian society tip.
TIP
A lot has changed since the Victorian era…
One thing that seems to have stayed the same though, is that after the holidays, despite the piles of new toys and books and projects they’ve received, our kids will complain that they’re bored
And we, as parents, as much as we love our kids, get sick and tired of hearing about it
Turns out, parents 150 years ago had this problem too
However, as we know, Victorians had rules on how to handle any situation,
And bored kids were no different
In 1882, Daniel Carter Beard, who would go on to found the Boy Scouts of America, published The American Boy's Handy Book: What to Do and How to Do It
The book is divided in to activities by season and includes instructions for:
16 kinds of kites,
how to make fishing tackle,
how to make and stock both fresh and salt water aquariums,
how to camp out without a tent - everything from provisions to shelter to choosing your companions!
how to build 10 kinds of boats
make bird calls
train a dog
Novelties in soap bubbles - Every boy his own soap bubble pipe
How to rear wild birds
make blow guns…
Practical taxidermy for boys
Mind-reading…
Snowball warfare
And more!
Since it’s winter let’s dive a little bit more in to the rules for snowball warfare
Rules of the game!
Honestly these are all very reasonable rules…
The Winter chapter goes on to cover “Snow houses and statuary,” by which they mean… building snowmen!
For some reason though they specifically recommend building a herd of snow pigs in ones yard - which has certainly never occurred to me before! So, I think I’m going to need to try it out!
Additional sections include instructions for various styles of sleds, snowshoes and a variety of ice wings… which are like hand held kites meant to pull one across a frozen lake on skates
This chapter also covers ice fishing and spearing, and building a shanty for said fishing and spearing,
Indoor amusements for boys include, as mentioned earlier, mind reading… Which in this case is more of a magic show
A detailed outline for forming a literary sketch club - where members all perform sketches on a similar theme or topic
A script for putting on a play of Puss in Boots
How to make a kaleidoscope, and more
I know what you’ve been thinking since I started talking about the American Boy’s Handy Book though…
Was there an American Girl’s Handy Book?
Great news - there was - it came along in 1892 and was titled the American Girls Handy Book: How to Amuse Yourself and Others
Because in 1892 what else were girls good for besides the amusement of others…
Written by sisters Lina and Adelia Beard who were active women’s right advocates and founders of the girl’s scouting movement the foreword to the book states:
Healthy and spirited, the American Girl thinks nothing of taking a ten-mile ‘romp’ through woods and fields with a group of friends, and collects flowers and leaves for preservation or presentation to friends and relations…
Like the American Boy’s Handy Book, the Girl’s Handy Book is organized in to sections by season and covers - quote - “projects, devices, toys, gifts, dolls, recipes, decorations, perfumes, wax and clay modeling, oil and water-color painting and games, all with clear and practical directions for how to make and play them.”
One difference I noted between the two books is that the girl’s book is further organized by holiday, which is no surprise given the expectations placed on women and girls to fill domestic roles during the Victorian era
Once we get through that, further sections are titled Home Gymnasium, A Few Items on Old Fashioned Needlework - with some new and original patterns, scrap book and home made book covers, Window decoration, how to make attractive booths at a fair, home-made candy, and more
Let’s skip to a section that caught my attention called “A heap of rubbish and what to do with it”
This section starts out:
They’re talking about upcycling here…
Instructions follow for reframing an old mirror or making a tiered table out of old trays, and more
I am sure that some of the things Victorians had in their attics, are what we have in our thrift and antique stores today,
In fact, a lot of the ideas put forth in these books for both boys and girls still hold up
and it just reminds me that no matter how far we’ve come, in some respects we’re not really all that different either
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Before we dive in, I have some new Patreon welcomes to share this month!
Welcome to first time members Jennifer, Hannah, Emily, and Adriana!
Thank you so much for supporting the podcast, I’m so glad you’re here!
CONTENT WARNING
A Good Night for a Murder is a true crime podcast that does cover stories including death, violence, sexual assault, and other adult themes.
Please take care while listening.
EPISODE
Sarah Jane Roberts was born on March 6, 1862, in Henllan, Denbighshire, Wales
Her parents were Hugh and Elizabeth Roberts and it sounds like she had at least 2 brothers and 1 sister
In 1880, when she was 18, Sarah Jane took a job as a domestic servant in the Greenwood household located in Harpurhey (Arbor-hey) of Manchester, Greater Manchester, England
The Greenwood house consisted of only Mr. and Mrs. Greenwood, a couple in their 70s
The home was semi-detached, meaning it was half of one building split down the middle
The other half of the house was occupied by the Cadman family
In this case, the two homes were adjoined through their kitchens
Sarah Jane had been with the Greenwoods since about March of that year - so about 10 months or so
While she was there, Mrs. Greenwood became sick and had been bedridden for the past few months,
But Sarah Jane was a responsible and reliable caregiver and the Greenwoods were happy to have her
The only peculiar thing they noticed was that Sarah Jane received a lot of letters - like a lot
Mrs. Greenwood thought she must be corresponding with suitors
Due to her young age, Mrs. Greenwood thought this was not proper and forbid her from entertaining any suitors while under her employ
And Sarah Jane had no problem with this
She said she didn’t have any suitors, nor even any male friends
But still… she received a lot of letters…
On January 7th of 1880 a somewhat mysterious letter arrived - not for Sarah Jane - but for her employer, Mr. Greenwood
The letter had been hand delivered, separate from the days post, and had been dropped in through the mail slot
A colleague of Mr. Greenwood’s found it in the foyer and handed it to Sarah Jane, joking that a love letter had arrived for her
It was clearly addressed to Mr. Greenwood, so she handed it over to him and went about her business
The letter was from one W. Wilson of Oldham Road, and requested that Mr. Greenwood meet with him that evening at the Three Tuns Inn in town, regarding some property he owned that the writer was interested in purchasing
Mr. Greenwood did not know any W. Wilson of Oldham Road, but he was open to whatever he had to say, and he departed the house at about 20 past 5 in the evening to meet them
This left only Sarah Jane and Mrs. Greenwood in the house.
Shortly after he left, Mrs. Greenwood called to Sarah Jane to assist her with something up in her room
Sarah Jane tended to Mrs. Greenwood then headed downstairs to wash up in the kitchen
About 10 minutes later, there was a knock at the door
From her room upstairs, Mrs. Greenwood heard Sarah Jane answer the door and let someone in to the house, who followed her through the hallway to the kitchen
Their footsteps were so light, Mrs. Greenwood assumed it must be a female servant friend of Sarah Jane’s
She was surprised to then hear Sarah Jane speaking in a conversational tone to a man
She couldn’t make out what they were saying, but they were not speaking in raised voices like they were having a disagreement or anything - they sounded like they could have been discussing the weather, for all she knew
The next thing she heard, though, was a loud thud from the kitchen door slamming shut, then a piercing scream from Sarah Jane
Mrs. Greenwood, who had been unable to move from bed for weeks, was so alarmed she managed to heave herself out of the bed and to the top of the stairs where she called out for Sarah Jane
But she was met with silence
At this, she staggered her way downstairs to the front door, opened it, and screamed “Murder!”
Though she admitted later, that at the time, she really had no idea what was going on - she thought Sarah Jane had suffered some sort of fit or had caught her clothes on fire
She only yelled “murder” as she thought it would be quickest way to draw attention for help
The neighbor in the adjoining house, Mrs. Cadman, heard Mrs. Greenwood and rushed over
Together, the two women hurried to the kitchen and found Sarah Jane unconscious on the floor and bleeding from her head
Mrs. Cadman rushed back out for help, and crossed paths with another neighbor, MR. HALLING
He had also heard the scream, and also a splash come from the nearby water pit
By water pit, they mean a cesspool, which, before plumbing or sewers, was just a hole in the ground that everyone emptied their human waste in to…
Mr. Halling thought the scream came from a mother whose child had fallen in to the water pit
When he encountered Mrs. Cadman, she begged him to come help Mrs. Greenwood’s servant who had been attacked and nearly killed!
The two of them rushed back into the Greenwood’s home and Mr. Halling tried to awaken Sarah Jane, but it was too late, and Sarah Jane would never actually regain consciousness
Meanwhile, fully unaware of the horrifying events happening back in his house, Mr. Greenwood has arrived at the Three Tuns Inn looking for this W. Wilson character
But, it appeared he was a no-show
No such person by that name was there
Knowing what we know about what had transpired that evening in the Greenwood home, this seems awfully suspicious…
Mr. Greenwood ended up hanging around the pub for an hour or so before heading home to find his house in utter chaos
At this point, police and a doctor had arrived and Sarah Jane had been declared dead
The inquest which concluded on January 23rd, 1880, would return a verdict of wilful murder by person or persons unknown
Her cause of death - pretty obviously - was a skull fracture so violent that it the broke her skull in to 5 separate pieces
She also suffered a number of self defense wound on her hands and arms
Interestingly enough, nothing in the kitchen or adjoining rooms had been disturbed, and there was even a large sum of money in a room adjacent to where the murder took place that was untouched
This ruled out robbery as a motive
From Mrs. Greenwood’s testimony, it was gathered that Sarah Jane had let this person in willingly, leading investigators to believe it was someone she knew and that Sarah Jane herself was indeed the target
But, why?
The assumption was it must be some romantic interest, but her belongings were searched and no letters of an amorous nature were found
Although, in hindsight, there may have been something up…
Her sister noted that about 2 months ago, Sarah Jane mentioned there were 2 different young men who were interested in paying her a visit, but she wanted nothing to do with them
Also, Mrs. Greenwood noticed that Sarah Jane had stopped leaving the house on her days off lately
At the time, Sarah Jane said she just didn’t feel right leaving Mrs. Greenwood when she was unwell - but perhaps there was actually something or someONE she was avoiding
The letter received by Mr. Greenwood asking him to leave the house to meet someone who did not exist was considered a decoy
But it would ultimately turn out to be a dead end
In fact police would run up against several dead ends throughout their investigation
They were never able to recover the murder weapon, and there were multiple false confessions
Police spent a lot of time looking in to a pair of men who several witnesses saw in the area of the Greenwood home that day
That in itself doesn’t sound too suspicious, but we have a murder case on our hands here, and investigators had few leads at the time anyway
One of the men, Robert Waite, lived in the area with his wife and young child, but left the day after the murder with his friend, Thomas Laycock
It seems the pair were planning to immigrate to Australia, and there was actually a warrant out for Waite due to using an alias on his immigration paperwork
His hand writing was said to match the note, and his landlady did launder some clothes for him after the murder - though she couldn’t say if they did or did not have blood on them
In the end, there was just not enough evidence to hold him for the crime
It sounds like at most he was guilty of trying to walk out on his wife and baby, and had the unfortunate timing of doing so the day after a murder happened in town
With no murder weapon, no suspects, and no understanding of a motive, investigators decided to try a tactic that was used occasionally in early Victorian police work…
They decided to try and capture the last thing Sarah Jane saw by removing her eyes
This was called forensic optography
In 1876, physiologist, Franz Christian Boll, discovered rhodopsin, a visual pigment in the retina of they eye that bleaches out in light, but regains its purple hue in the dark
Another physiologist, Wilhelm Friedrich Kühne, found a way to lock the bleached out rhodopsin in place
His theory was that one could then photograph the retina and magnify the result to produce an image that would allow us to see whatever that person saw right before their vision went entirely black - meaning right before they died…
It’s an interesting theory that would be great - if it worked!
The late 19th century saw scientific and technological discoveries in leaps and bounds
Advancements in photography had come a long way
And they’d just recently begun to understand that the eye also had a lens, and our retina functioned… sort of like the aperture of a camera…
Perhaps the two were not so far apart?
This reasoning led to some very interesting experiments by Khune
Kuhne said he did have some success with his experiments in rabbits, but even his best results were debatable
This didn’t stop him from testing his theory on human subjects who were to be executed though
However, the scientific community agreed those results were nothing really to write home about…
Police use developing technologies all of the time though, and this was no exception
They deployed the technique on a number of cases including Sarah Jane Roberts
The day before she was buried, police went ahead and opened Sarah Jane’s coffin to remove her eyes, in hopes they would be able to see an image of her killer, just has she had, before she died…
Unfortunately, as the Manchester Courier reported, “there was nothing visible which would furnish the slightest evidence as to the features of the murderer.”
If you’re interested in hearing about if this technique ever did actually work, I’ve covered that in the bonus content for this episode over on Patreon!
So, unfortunately, no further progress would be made on this case
Superintendent Bent, head of the investigating police force, stated he was confident they knew the identity of the killer, but would not be able to present sufficient evidence to convict
Sadly, the case remains unsolved
On the day of Sarah Jane’s funeral, it’s said over 1,000 people lined the streets
She was buried in the Christchurch Harpurhey Churchyard in Harpurhey
A public collection was made to engrave and place an Aberdeen red marble headstone for her
It is quite a striking headstone, and I do have photos of it on Instagram and the episode blog on my website.
I’m curious to know what you think about this case though
Do you think police actually knew who it was?
What do you think about the experimental eye technique?
If you head on over to Instagram, TikTok or YouTube @agoodnightforamurder, you can let me know there.
I’ve also posted photos of police illustrations of the case, Khune’s optography results, and more.
You can also see the photos and source links for this episode on the episode blog on my website at agoodnightforamurder.com
The bonus content for Patreon members for this episode is more cases where forensic optography was deployed, and if any of it actually worked.
Listen through the outro music to hear a short preview of this Patreon bonus content
To subscribe to Patreon and learn more about the podcast you can visit agoodnightforamurder.com.
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Thank you for listening,
And I will talk to you again soon