The Home Page of John Barber

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On Friday 6 September 1907 Emily met Robert Wood in the Eagle in Royal College Street..Wood pulled a postcard out of his pocket which he had brought back from a holiday in Bruges and wrote on it: ' Phillis darling. If it pleases you to meet me at 8.15 at the (and here he drew an artists impression of a rising sun). Yours to a cinder.' He signed it Alice so as not to arouse Bert's suspicions.

This postcard was to be central to the prosecution's case. It was not posted until the early hours of Sunday morning - Monday 9 September. Bert was still working his night shift on the trains. Emily had taken another man home for three nights, a ships cook by the name of Robert Percival Roberts. On the night of Wednesday, 11 September he was in the Rising Sun with a friend named Frank Clarke expecting to meet Emily again. She was in the Eagle, again with Robert Wood. It was the last time Emily was seen alive.

On that Thursday morning of September 12, Bert's mother came to visit Emily. Bert's sisters had already been down to London and been welcomed by Emily. They had fond memories of evenings at the Old Bull and Bush in Hampstead. Mrs Shaw arrived early, well before the end of Bert's shift at 11.30am, so there was no one to meet her at the station.

She made her way alone to 29, St Pauls Road (left).

Mrs Shaw knocked and couldn't raise Emily. Mrs Stocks allowed her to sit in the passage to await Bert. When he arrived home he had to borrow a key from Mrs Stocks.

The three of them discovered Emily's bloodstained body.

The rooms had been ransacked, her postcard collection had been wrecked - possibly because they may have contained incriminating evidence. They certainly did not hold the postcard sent by Wood on Monday morning. Two of Bert's razors were quite visible by the wash bowl. Someone had also cleaned their hands of blood in the wash basin.

The police soon pieced together Emily's life without Bert. The postcard was eventually found by Bert when he later cleared out their belongings. It was published in the News of the World and other newspapers. Robert Wood was identified as its author and charged with Emily's murder.

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