The Brutal Murder of George Saunders: Tudor True Crime

A spring morning in 1573. A respected London merchant leaves a friend’s house near Woolwich… and ends up dead by Shooter’s Hill.
The killer, Captain George Brown, is caught within days. But the real shock wasn’t the killer's identity, it was the letter that told him exactly where to strike… and who wanted George Saunders gone.

I’m Claire Ridgway, historian and author. In this Tudor true-crime deep dive, we follow the manhunt, the Privy Council’s rapid crackdown, and the chain of clues later dramatised in "A Warning for Fair Women", from “a white doublet and blue breeches” to blood on a suspect’s hose and a waterman’s damning testimony. What unfolds reaches far beyond a highway ambush, right into Saunders’s inner circle.

In this episode you’ll hear about:

• The ambush near Shooter’s Hill and John Beane’s miraculous survival
• How the Council moved: arrest at Rochester, Tower examinations, and swift justice at Smithfield
• The mysterious letter and the go-between who carried messages
• Why the case obsessed Elizabethan England: status, scandal, and a rich paper trail (pamphlets, ballad, Privy Council orders, and a stage play)
• The final twist that stunned London

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