I am pleased to announce the release of my fifth book. Spring Onions: His Life and Crimes is available in electronic formats and print from reputable sellers. William Onion was notorious as Britain’s most convicted man, allegedly being arrested over a thousand times before giving up alcohol and reforming as a street poet in his beloved East End. I have verified 112 sentences for violence and drunkenness between 1850 and 1898. During that time, he spent more than ten years in prison. I first discovered him when researching my 2018 book that documented the evidence against 333 Jack the Ripper suspects. The sole accusation against him came in an anonymous letter sent to the City of London police in November 1888, suggesting that he was responsible for the last three murders.

Jack the Ripper was an extremely violent man who killed women, predominantly middle-aged prostitutes, in Whitechapel in 1888. Many suspects had no record of violence, no connection with the East End and no apparent motivation. William Onion was born in Whitechapel and lived in the East-End all his life. Described by the local police as the most violent man in the district he attacked his wife on their wedding day after hearing that she had accepted money from a gentleman. Other women, as well as men, were victims of his random assaults. I considered him a viable suspect until I learnt that he was sent to jail for twelve months in November 1887.

William Onion was not Jack the Ripper, and this is not a book about Jack the Ripper. It is a biography of a working-class man who through a period of rapid social change and, against all odds and expectations, completely changed his own life. Using contemporary sources, I have documented that life for the first time to provide a disturbing and inspiring account. The book also includes all known poems written by the prison bard.