S WE E T F . A . WHEN IS A MURDER NOT A MURDER? WHEN IT’S IN HULL OF COURSE AND RESEARCHED BY
MIKE COVELL - THE HISTORICAL REMOVAL MAN
ITS COMMONPLACE FOR PEOPLE TO HEAR STORIES AND RUMOURS AND T H E N TO CO N TA C T ME TO SORT O U T T H E W H E AT FROM THE CHAFF, AND FOR YEARS I HAVE BEEN AN HISTORICAL CLEARING HOUSE O F S I L LY S T O R I E S , G H O S T S T H AT WERE NOT, HAUNTED HOUSES T H AT H A D FA K E HISTORIES, AND MEDIUMS WHO HAD MADE UP STORIES ABOUT GHOSTS T H AT S I M P LY D I D N O T E X I S T .
A few years ago, I was contacted by a lady called Sandra about Hull’s Old Dock Offices, situated on Dock Office Row, behind Hull College. A lady asked me to confirm whether anyone had died in a fire there as she was told that it was haunted by a lady who had not only died in a fire at the property, but who had bitten down on her lip, covering her mouth in blood during her last moments on earth. The building used to be the second town dock offices which were built in 1820 for the Hull Dock Company but had become too small for purpose and as such they moved to what is now the Maritime Museum in 1871. Needless to say, no such fire occurred, with none of the Hull newspapers published between 1820 and the current day covering such an event, and with no fire, was no death, and without a death we don’t have any facts to back up the claims.
Researching historical murders is never an easy feat, with most of the eyewitnesses long since deceased, and little information left in the memory of those who were around at the time, they can be enigmas, wrapped in a mystery, and buried in the sands of time. With most true crime cases, however, records do exist that can take us back to the time at which they happened. Such records can be found at the Hull History Centre, which include the Hull Watch Files, and the Hull City Police records. Bigger cases, such as murders, were often sent to the National Archives, which holds files on such cases as William Burkitt, Emily Eleanor Garbutt, and more recently Bertram Holmes. These infamous criminal files, which are often very large, can also be cross referenced with the historical editions of the Hull Daily Mail, readily available at the Hull History Centre, or online via the British Library if one is willing to pay a subscription.
I called the lady, Sandra, and presented my findings, but she was angry, she told me that her and her workmates had been told the story, but many had believed it! Furthermore, they had a load of other Imagine my surprise then when a file “stories,” and asked me to research them. crosses my desk alluding to a previously unreported murder in Hull that involved a This is a commonplace occurrence, it well-known alleyway and a lady who worked happens daily with people asking about in the oldest profession! Furthermore, and stories and in the past decade I have this is where it gets interesting, the victim researched and debunked hundreds of still haunts the spot to this day!!! stories. The latest of these is, however, the sickest of them all. A GHOST LY MURD ER VICTIM!!!
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