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1564, 1811: The Ratcliff Highway murders started 300 years earlier….
The English Monster
What you need to know before your trail
In the east end of Regency London, two families lie butchered. Residents of the notorious Ratcliffe Highway, the victims bear the mark of unprecedented brutality.
Panic sweeps the country as its public cries for justice. But these murders stem from an older horror, its source a sea voyage two centuries old. In a ship owned by Queen Elizabeth herself, a young man embarks on England’s first venture into a new trade: human souls.
As a nation’s sins ripen and bloom, to be harvested in a bloody frenzy on the twisted streets of Regency Wapping, an English Monster is born.
Locations
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Travel from London to around the Carribean with Ratcliff Highway murders and Francis Drake!
Ratcliffe Highway
Now called ‘The Highway’ , the district of Wapping was the heart of the British Empire’s trade and empire. It is also the scene of the gruesome murders of two families, some 12 days apart. The first one was a family of tailors and the second, the inhabitants of a pub.
John Harriott, the man behind the newly created Thames River Police and his waterman-constable, Charles Horton are based on real figures and work to catch the killers. The murders and the nature of the murders are real and based on true facts. Imagine the horrors of finding a house of murder like this.
Across the seas with Francis Drake
William Ablass is a young Oxfordshire man who goes to Plymouth in 1564. He wants to work at sea to provide for his family and so becomes a member of Jack Hawkins’ crew. In 1564, Queen Elizabeth I invested in Hawkins by leasing the old 700-ton ship Jesus of Lübeck. Hawkins sailed with his second cousin, Francis Drake, to the west African coast and across to Venezuela and the Carribean to trade in slaves.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: The English Monster
Destination/location: London, South America, Jamaica Author/guide: Lloyd Shepherd Departure Time: 1564, 1811
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