James Greenacre
He presented himself as having property in the United States and a cabinet maker called Evan Davis testified at the trial that Greenacre had claimed to have a farm of around one thousand acres at Hudson Bay.
Greenacre and Brown were engaged to be married at St Giles in the Fields on Christmas Day, 1836, and the banns were read there on 27 November, and on the 4 and 11 December 1836.
[2][3] At two o'clock in the afternoon of Wednesday 28 December James White was in Pineapple Place near the Edgware Road when he noticed a stone slab leaning up against the wall with a bag lying behind it.
The constable also found a number of rags lying on the ground close to the sack and thinking these might be relevant he placed them in a wheelbarrow with the torso and took them away for further examination.
As he pulled the object out of the water he at first thought it was a dead dog, but on examination it proved to be a human head with long dark hair.
[2][3] On Thursday 2 February, James Page, a labourer, was working on an Osier bed in Coldharbour Lane, between Camberwell and Brixton, when he came across a sack among some bushes.
Presently police constable P157 William Woodward arrived, and James Page helped carry the evidence to the station-house.
On the evening of 24 December James Greenacre called on Mrs Blanshard to let her know that the wedding was not going ahead as planned.
When Mrs Blanshard mentioned that William Gay was Hannah's brother Greenacre turned white and made a hasty retreat.
One version of events is that friends of Hannah Brown "procured a warrant" for the arrest of Greenacre, while other sources claim that a reward was offered for information as to his whereabouts.
[2][3] In any event, on Saturday 25 March 1837 Inspector George Feltham of T Division went to Greenacre's new residence in St Alban's Place, Lambeth, to arrest James Greenacre on suspicion of murder and found him there with a woman called Sarah Gale, who had in her possession several items that were later proved to be the property of Hannah Brown.
Although these neighbours knew the couple were not in fact married they treated them as man and wife and were not aware that Greenacre had any other female friends.
[2][3] The wound to the back of the head was not visible from the outside and was only discovered at autopsy where there was a noticeable hemorrhage, evidence, the medical men said, that it had been inflicted while the victim was still alive.
Whatever blow or fall had caused this could not be responsible for the damage to the eye and the prosecution alleged that this demonstrated that Hannah Brown had been struck in the face from the front, and then fallen backwards against some hard surface.
At the time of the trial he had been working as a surgeon in Paddington for twelve years, and wrote a textbook on the treatment of Asiatic cholera.
He also testified that the first blow would have been sufficiently hard to render a woman, even one as fit and healthy as Hannah Brown, at least temporarily senseless.
He testified as to the general state of Hannah Brown's health prior to death, the contents of her stomach, the appearance and significance of ecchymosis on the side of the face and around the right eye.
The jury took fifteen minutes to decide that Greenacre was guilty of willful murder and that Sarah Gale had knowingly harboured him and attempted to profit from the proceeds of crime.
