These items were found in the vaults of the Science Museum. The triangular tag appears to state that the two pieces of skin are from the body of Thomas Williams, murderer of the Italian Boy.

Surgeons and anatomists often kept as trophies in their teaching museums the skin and skeletons of dissected executed murderers, and it is well within the scheme of things that Williams’ flesh (with his ginger body hair still attached) would end up a prized exhibit. Williams and his co-defendant John Bishop were dissected by some of the top anatomists of the day after dying on the scaffold at Newgate. But both corpses subsequently went missing after their initial purchase and display at King’s College Department of Anatomy (John Bishop) and the Little Windmill School of Anatomy (Williams).

It is possible they may both have found their way to the Royal College of Surgeons’ Hunterian Museum, but the museum was damaged by bombing during World War II, and not only were many exhibits destroyed but also the catalogues detailing the holdings.

Both Bishop and Williams had extensive tattoos. When, at the National Archives, I found the Millbank Penitentiary admissions ledger for 1827, I sketched (badly, as you see below) the two tattoos Williams was sporting as he started his seven-year sentence for theft of a copper tub.

Personal details and distinguishing marks were noted in the ledger, and on Williams’ right arm were spotted (and drawn by the warder) the two love hearts, and on his left arm “T.H.N.A.”: Williams’ real name was Thomas Head, and so I’ve assumed that the letters spell out his initials and those of his sweetheart of the time.

The Millbank ledger also noted that Williams (or “Prisoner 489”, as he was called in the margin) was twenty years old, 5ft 3 and 3/4in tall, with pale skin, light brown hair and hazel eyes. He was in good health and had a “good” character. Nevertheless, he went into Millbank a petty thief and emerged a murderer.

Somewhere along the way, Williams acquired a great deal more body art. The details of the crucifixion scene on the uppermost of the two colour pictures are sadly not clear any longer. The national flag and symbol of royalty, in the second picture, have a skull and crossbones beneath them, plus other figures that age has for the most part obliterated. Both are likely to have been stock patterns drawn by the tattoo artist, who may even have been working surreptitiously within Millbank itself, undetected by the warders (despite it being a panopticon).

The string at the top of each piece of skin is presumably the method by which they were displayed by the curator/owner.

The National Archives’ Millbank Penitentiary ledger is to be found at PCOM 2/60. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
The Science Museum http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk