#hammersmith ghost

A random half-assed attempt at drawing LotLot Ramirez as the Hammersmith Ghost. (keep in mind that I attempted at drawing her ghostly costume and I tried my best)

My headcanon is that Cherry makes her the costume for Halloween because she wanted to go as something spooky.

Hammersmith Ghost: The Ghastly Tale of the London Haunting that Led to Murder

Through November and December of 1803, London was seized by pure terror. The Hammersmith district had been plagued with sightings of a macabre-looking ghost. Every night, reports of a malevolent apparition flooded the police station. According to most accounts, the specter was determined to frighten anyone nearby. It was described as wearing a white shroud or calfskin and having large glassy eyes. One of the most alarming encounters concerned an elderly woman and her younger, pregnant friend. The two women were allegedly so scared upon seeing the ghost that they died of fright in their beds a few days later. Another sighting occurred and caused a wagoner to lose control of his horses. His 16 passengers were injured. Finally, a brewer named Thomas Groom claimed to be strangled from behind while strolling through a churchyard. After grappling with his assailant, Groom turned around in time to see the ghost vanish behind a row of tombstones.

Local speculation eventually traced the ghost to the restless spirit of a man who had slashed his own throat 12 months prior; as a suicide case, his soul was unable to rest peacefully, so the theory went. But skeptics in the village believed they were being victimized by a prankster, and quickly formed a vigilante group.

On December 29, members of the group, including night-watchman William Girdler, spotted a shrouded figure lurking about the area. The group gave chase; halfway into their pursuit, the figure dropped his shroud and escaped. 

Four days later, everything changed.

Thomas Millwood, a 32-year-old plasterer, was returning home along Black Lion Lane on the evening of January 3, 1804. Having just come from his parents’ home, Millwood was still wearing his white work clothes: an apron, waistcoat, and trousers. One of the vigilantes named Francis Smith spotted Millwood and immediately shouted: “Damn you. Who are you and what do you want? I’ll shoot you if you don’t speak!” Without waiting for a response, Smith fired two gunshots, one of which hit Millwood in the face and killed him instantly.

Hearing the shots from her house, Anne Millwood called out her brother’s name in the street but did not get an answer. She ran into the direction of Black Lion Lane and found him sprawled across the ground, covered in blood. Once it became evident that Millwood was the victim of mistaken identity, and that Smith had fired his gun in haste, Smith surrendered to police. Millwood’s body was taken to the Black Lion Inn and examined by the local surgeon, where it was confirmed that a bullet wound to the lower left jaw and subsequent spinal damage had been the cause of death.

Hammersmith Ghost: The Ghastly Tale of the London Haunting that Led to Murder

Through November and December of 1803, London was seized by pure terror. The Hammersmith district had been plagued with sightings of a macabre-looking ghost. Every night, reports of a malevolent apparition flooded the police station. According to most accounts, the specter was determined to frighten anyone nearby. It was described as wearing a white shroud or calfskin and having large glassy eyes. One of the most alarming encounters concerned an elderly woman and her younger, pregnant friend. The two women were allegedly so scared upon seeing the ghost that they died of fright in their beds a few days later. Another sighting occurred and caused a wagoner to lose control of his horses. His 16 passengers were injured. Finally, a brewer named Thomas Groom claimed to be strangled from behind while strolling through a churchyard. After grappling with his assailant, Groom turned around in time to see the ghost vanish behind a row of tombstones.

Local speculation eventually traced the ghost to the restless spirit of a man who had slashed his own throat 12 months prior; as a suicide case, his soul was unable to rest peacefully, so the theory went. But skeptics in the village believed they were being victimized by a prankster, and quickly formed a vigilante group.

On December 29, members of the group, including night-watchman William Girdler, spotted a shrouded figure lurking about the area. The group gave chase; halfway into their pursuit, the figure dropped his shroud and escaped. 

Four days later, everything changed.

Thomas Millwood, a 32-year-old plasterer, was returning home along Black Lion Lane on the evening of January 3, 1804. Having just come from his parents’ home, Millwood was still wearing his white work clothes: an apron, waistcoat, and trousers. One of the vigilantes named Francis Smith spotted Millwood and immediately shouted: “Damn you. Who are you and what do you want? I’ll shoot you if you don’t speak!” Without waiting for a response, Smith fired two gunshots, one of which hit Millwood in the face and killed him instantly.

Hearing the shots from her house, Anne Millwood called out her brother’s name in the street but did not get an answer. She ran into the direction of Black Lion Lane and found him sprawled across the ground, covered in blood. Once it became evident that Millwood was the victim of mistaken identity, and that Smith had fired his gun in haste, Smith surrendered to police. Millwood’s body was taken to the Black Lion Inn and examined by the local surgeon, where it was confirmed that a bullet wound to the lower left jaw and subsequent spinal damage had been the cause of death.

Its 1803, and we are in fair London town. A ghost is on the loose from, I don’t know, hell, and is wandering the streets. An armed patrol is in the area to protect the citizens when a figure emerges, wearing all white.

“Looks pretty ghosty to me, must shoot ghost” thinks one of the armed patrol guys. They shoot ghost, but ghost is actually a bricklayer. 

F*ck. 

The British courts thus debate whether attacking or killing someone out of a misunderstanding counts as a crime. It officially becomes a part of UK law that stands to this day that such an act is not worthy of a sentence as if the crime was intentionally committed.

The Hammersmith Ghost Killing: A Fatal Collision of Fear and Folklore

In the winter of 1804, the quiet London district of Hammersmith found itself gripped by a peculiar terror. For weeks, residents claimed to have seen a ghostly figure drifting through the streets and churchyard, a pale apparition said to be the restless spirit of a suicide victim denied burial in consecrated ground. In an era when superstition still held real power over the public imagination, these sightings sparked widespread fear and nightly patrols by armed citizens determined to confront the phantom.

It was in this charged atmosphere that 32‑year‑old plasterer Thomas Millwood met his fate. Millwood, dressed in the standard white clothing of his trade, was returning home one January night when he encountered Francis Smith, an excise officer participating in the neighborhood patrols. In the dim light, Smith mistook Millwood’s white garments for the spectral figure that had haunted local rumor. Acting on fear rather than certainty, he fired his weapon, killing Millwood instantly.

The tragedy sent shockwaves through London. Smith was arrested and charged with murder, and his trial became a landmark moment in British legal history. The court rejected the argument that Smith’s mistaken belief justified the shooting, convicting him and sentencing him to death. Yet public sympathy and the unusual circumstances of the case prompted intervention: his sentence was swiftly commuted to one year of hard labor, and later that same year he received a full pardon.