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The Hammersmith Ghost Whose Murder Made Legal History

The case of Francis Smith - Condemned to Death on Friday 13th of January 1804 for the 'Murder of the Hammersmith Ghost'.

Ghost-hunters and lawyers may remember this week a murdered bricklayer, shot dead in Black Lion Lane, when he was mistaken for a ghost. This 200 year old murder, its subsequent trial and ruling directly led to a change in the law of murder.

The tale goes as follows ………….

During the latter part of 1803, in the dark and foggy streets of Hammersmith, London, strange and mysterious events began to occur. Rumours of a spectral white figure haunting the local graveyard were reported. Such was the superstitious nature of people in those times that the "Ghost" was thought to be that of a local man who, a year earlier, had committed suicide by cutting his own throat and had then been buried in the same local graveyard.

A watch committee was set up in an effort to determine if the apparition was a real ghost or a prankster intent on terrorizing the neighborhood and several men-folk lay in wait on different nights.

Francis Smith, a young excise officer living in lodgings near to the area of the huntings, was one of those who volunteered his services to the watch committee. On the night of the 3 January 1804, while returning home from work, Smith stopped off for his usual tipple at the White Hart. While he was there, the general conversation turned to the subject of the Hammersmith Ghost and Smith, emboldened by liquid spirit, determined that he would be the one to catch the perpetrator.

Smith left the White Hart for his lodgings where he loaded his gun. He had decided not to lay in wait with the other members of the committee that evening but, instead, to go out and stalk the 'ghost' on his own and so set off, gun in hand, for Black Lion Lane, a known favourite haunting ground of the 'ghost'.

As Smith made his way up Black Lion Lane, he encountered an indistinct 'white clad' figure approaching him. After calling out with no response he shot at and hit the 'ghost'. Upon reaching the fallen figure, to his horror he realized that the ghost was a man. The man was Thomas Millwood, a local bricklayer dressed in a bricklayer's usual apparel of white trousers, white apron and a white linen jacket.

As soon as he realized his fatal error, Smith surrendered himself into custody and was taken to Bow Street Police Station to await the results of the Coroner's inquest. The Coroner judged the incident to have been 'a rash act of willful murder' and so Smith was charged. He was then sent to Newgate Prison to await his trial at the Old Bailey.

At his trial, the jury returned a verdict of 'Guilty of Manslaughter' on grounds of both mitigating circumstances and Francis Smith's unquestionable character. Unfortunately, however, on hearing this verdict, it was stated by the Bench that such a judgment could not be received in this case for it ought to be either a verdict of murder or a complete acquittal on grounds of want of evidence. And so, after further consideration, the jury returned with a verdict of "Guilty of Murder".

January 7, 2004