The gruesome unsolved murder of a Havant schoolboy in 1888 is the subject of a new true crime book by Petersfield author David Green. The Havant Boy Ripper, published on May 25, tells for the first time the full deeply shocking story of 8-year-old Percy Searle who was stabbed to death in The Pallant in the centre of Havant. Another young boy, 11-year-old Robert Husband, was charged with the crime and sent for trial at the Winchester Assizes:“It was a sensational case at the time, and local and
national newspapers paid much attention to it,” says David Green, “yet the case is almost completely forgotten today. In the media frenzy that followed the murder, there was speculation that Jack the Ripper had commenced a new campaign of terror in south east Hampshire. I explore all of this in my book, but most of all I wanted to examine how the people of Havant responded to a child murderer in their midst.”
The Havant Boy Ripper is published by Mango Books - H/B - £20.00 - 248pp