Charlie Strong was a character killed in the beginning of The Madness Underneath.
Prior to the story, he had stopped drinking long ago, and often hired recovering alcoholics to work at his pub, The Royal Gunpowder Pub. Soon after the Copy-Cat Ripper case was solved, his barman, Sam, called him down to the basement after mysterious markings showed up on the floor there. Charlie questioned Sam about it, and said it was alright to admit if he's been drinking, but Sam swore he didn't know anything. Charlie tried to clean the marks up, and was beaten to death by a hammer.
Mourners left flowers and notes. The investigation into Charlie's murder, and his obituary, made the papers, where they caught the attention of the Shades.
Stephen and Rory went to the pub, where they bluffed their way past Charlie's daughter, and went to the basement to look around and confirm their (correct) hypothesis that a ghost, which Rory quickly terminates, killed Charlie.