Spooky Season: The Hammersmith Ghost

Welcome to the first episode of Crime House's latest four-part limited series: Spooky Season. In the winter of 1803, the village of Hammersmith was convinced a ghost was stalking its darkened lanes... and armed men took to the streets to stop it. On January 3rd, 1804, excise officer Francis Smith shot and killed Thomas Millwood, an innocent plasterer whose white work clothes made him look exactly like the phantom the village feared. The case landed in London's Old Bailey with a question English law struggled to answer for the next two centuries: can a sincere but deadly mistake constitute murder?

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