In the middle of the night, patrolling policeman James Baldwin hurried down Kingsland Road into Wilmer Gardens, Hoxton, his sense of duty aroused by sounds of a violent affray. A large group of men were shouting and fighting in the middle of the road the cause, it later emerged, a domestic dispute.
But one of those involved, John Ryan, 30, a labourer, didnt want the police around. He stabbed the constable in the stomach. PC Baldwin died a few hours later in hospital, and Ryan was sentenced to death at the Old Bailey for his murder. He was hanged on Tuesday, November 15th, 1898, at Newgate.