James Greenacre

James Greenacre (1785–1837) was an English grocer and the "Edgware Road Murderer".

Life In 1836 James Greenacre was living at 2 Carpenter's Place, Camberwell, in London. 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 also told acquaintances that he was planning on returning to America shortly. Hannah Brown was a middle-aged Englishwoman who lived with her niece at 45 Union Street near the Middlesex Hospital. Her next door neighbour and landlord was John Corney, a shoemaker, and his wife Elizabeth Corney was on friendly terms with Hannah Brown.

Hannah Brown earned her living doing laundry for private customers, and she was known to be a sober, hard working woman. She was estranged from her younger brother and had a sister who, it is believed, worked as a hat maker in Norwich. 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. In preparation for her forthcoming marriage Brown had by 24 December sold her personal property. She told her neighbour Elizabeth Corney that she would not need those things anymore as she was due to leave for America with her husband.

Dr. James Hunter Lane (1806–1853), described himself as a Physician, and also lectured on chemistry and forensic medicine. 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. His testimony confirmed the good opinions of her friends, that she was abstemious in her habits, hard working, and took good care of herself. He also agreed that the injury to the right eye and almost certainly the incision in her neck were inflicted before death had occurred, though she was probably not conscious at that point.

Dr John Birtwistle was a surgeon at Mile End Hospital. He testified that the wound over the right eye was inflicted before death, and he speculated that the other wounds to the head, particularly the broken jaw and the damage to the left side of the face were caused by attempts to stabilise the head when sawing it off the body. He also stated that the saw produced in evidence was the one used to remove the head, and that the knife in evidence could have produced the other wounds, although he readily agreed that any one of a number of other knives could produce the same result. He also testified that all four parts, the head, torso, and both legs, were part of the same body.