Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths In & Around Southend-on-Sea
Part of the Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths series
A history of true crime in a quaint resort town in Essex, England that hosts a variety of amusements-along with a legacy of madness, mayhem, and murder. This ghoulish look into the past takes readers on a sinister journey through Southend-On-Sea, from medieval times to the twentieth century, and featuring a rogues' gallery of cutthroats, highwaymen, witches, murderers, and madmen. Included are more than twenty notorious episodes offering fascinating insight into criminal acts and the criminal mind. And in addition to the eerie events of the past, the author explores grievous crimes from more recent times such as the Murrell fratricide, the brutal killing of Florence Dennis, the Watson bungalow murder, the Brown wheelchair murder, the Shoebury Garrison deaths, and many more. Gordon's chronicle of the dark side of Southend's long history will be fascinating reading for anyone who is interested in the town's rich-sometimes gruesome-past.
Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths In & Around Rotherham
Part of the Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths series
Historical true crime stories from a town in South Yorkshire, England, with photos included. Ranging from Victorian times to the World War II era, this is a collection of true crime stories from a coal town in England. Whether motivated by passion, greed, or something else, these cases come from a time before modern technology and advances in DNA evidence. They provide fascinating insight into not only the individuals affected by these tragedies, but also the society that shaped their lives.
Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in London's East End
Part of the Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths series
The author of The A-Z of London Murders investigates Jack the Ripper's stalking grounds for even more crimes and killings in England's capital. For centuries London's East End has been associated with some of the worst elements of human depravity, where foul deeds and murder were commonplace; and in 1888 the area's disrepute was added to by the horrific murders committed by Jack the Ripper. The East End was populated by people crammed together in close-knit communities. As the district grew from the ancient villages along the river, much of the village atmosphere and rivalry remained-along with some of the worst corruption and vilest slums to be found anywhere in the country. For instance the residents of Bethnal Green looked down their noses at those from Hoxton, barely half a mile away. During the 1930s, after the Depression, a government report estimated 60 percent of the children in Bethnal Green suffered from malnutrition and 85 percent of the housing was unsatisfactory. These were the times when the infamous Kray Twins were cutting their teeth. The East End's claim to fame in the annals of crime in England is not without justification, as the pages of this book show.
Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths Around Southport
Part of the Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths series
Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths Around Southport takes the reader on a sinister journey through centuries of local crime and conspiracy, meeting villains of all sorts along the way-cut-throats and poisoners, murderous lovers, baby-farmers and baby-killers, burglars, fraudsters and the so-called 'doctor of death'. The book records crime and punishment in Southport in all its shocking variety. Among the many acts of wickedness Geoff Wright describes are the shoemaker murder, the disappearance of Alfred Brewer, the unsolved murder of William Rhodes, the drugging of Councilor Fletcher, the wife-killing Dr. Clements and the baffling murder of businessman Harry Baker. His chronicle of Southport's hidden history-the history this Victorian seaside resort would prefer to forget-will be compelling reading for anyone who is interested in the dark side of human nature.
Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths Around Uxbridge
Part of the Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths series
This west London town has its own character-and its own deadly criminal history-from the author of Unsolved Murders of Victorian and Edwardian London. Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths Around Uxbridge takes the reader on a sinister and sad journey through centuries of local crime and conspiracy, meeting victims and villains of all sorts along the way. There is no shortage of harrowing-and revealing-incidents of evil and despair to recount from the earliest recorded history of the Uxbridge district up to the present day. Jonathan Oates's fascinating research has uncovered some grisly events and unsavory individuals whose conduct throws a harsh light on the history of this suburban area west of London. His book records crime and punishment in all its dreadful variety. Among many acts of violence and wickedness are the burning to death of five Protestant martyrs and the execution of a turbulent priest in Tudor times, a family massacred at Denham in 1870, and several brutal murders that have never been solved or explained. Cases that stand out as particularly shocking or bizarre include a son who was killed by his mother, a woman who died after an illegal operation, the Uxbridge tea-shop murder of 1951, and a man tried for manslaughter and later murder in West Drayton, who committed suicide two decades later. This chronicle of Uxbridge's hidden history will be compelling reading for anyone who is interested in the local history of the area and in the dark side of human nature.
Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in & Around Scunthorpe
Part of the Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths series
A revealing criminal history of the old industrial town in North Lincolnshire, England, that has been home to centuries of dark secrets and twisted crimes. As the iron and steel industries grew in the Victorian period, several villages merged into the town of Scunthorpe, an area with more than its fair share of sordid and bloody secrets. Although mainly rural, the region has been notorious in the annals of crime, from the sixteenth-century rebellion known as the Pilgrimage of Grace to the sensational murder cases of the twentieth century. Some of Scunthorpe's killings were merely tragic domestic affairs, as industrial workers cracked with stress and alcohol. Other were more appalling, baffling, and the stuff of nightmares to this day. True crime historian Stephen Wade delves into Scunthorpe's shadowy past: its bizarre murder-suicides, random slayings, cop-killers, pirates and bandits, cold-cases, night-stalkers and "The Black-Out Terror" of 1941. Centuries of dark scandal from the town's deceptively tranquil fields to the violent mean streets.
Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in Staffordshire & the Potteries
Part of the Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths series
In Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Staffordshire and the Potteries the chill is brought close to home as each chapter investigates the darker side of humanity in notorious cases of murder, deceit and pure malice that have marked the history of the area. For this journey into a bloody, neglected aspect of the past, Nicholas Corder has selected over 20 episodes that give a fascinating insight into criminal acts and the criminal mind. Recalled here are the Rugeley poisoner William Palmer, who disposed of his victims with strychnine, the vicious assaults on Issac Brooks and the miscarriage of justice that put George Edalji behind bars for three years and brought the creator of the world's greatest fictional detective to his rescue. The Canal boat killing of poor Christina Collins is described in graphic detail, as is the sad case of Thirza Tunstall's baby and the bizarre case of the headless corpse of Hednesford. The human dramas Nicholas Corder explores are often played out in the most commonplace of circumstances, but others are so odd as to be stranger than fiction. His grisly chronicle of the hidden history of staffordshire and the Potteries will be compelling reading for anyone who is interested in the darker side of human nature.
Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in Hampstead, Holburn & St Pancras
Part of the Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths series
Read about crimes over the centuries in this historic area of London-includes photos and illustrations. In this collection of true crime stories, each chapter investigates the darker side of humanity in cases of murder, deceit, and pure malice in this corner of London. From crimes of passion to opportunistic killings and coldly premeditated acts of murder, the full spectrum of criminality is recounted, bringing to life the sinister history of this part of the capital over the last four hundred years. Included are tales of assassination, highway robbery, and duels, as well as the infamous case of Dr. Crippen in 1910 and the story of the last women to be hanged in Britain.
Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in Glasgow
Part of the Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths series
The criminal cases vividly described by Paul Harrison in this gripping book take the reader on a journey into the dark secret side of Glasgow's long history. The city has been the setting for a series of horrific, bloody, sometimes bizarre incidents over the centuries. From crimes of brutal premeditation to those born of rage or despair, the whole range of human weakness and wickedness is represented here. There are tales of secret passion and betrayal, robbery, murder, gangland violence, executions, and instances of domestic cruelty and malice that ended in death. Among the fascinating and varied selection of cases Paul Harrison covers are an IRA ambush and gun battle, the policeman who murdered his lover, a Wild West-style shootout between police and a desperate robber, a sequence of horrendous serial murders including the case of Bible John, and the extraordinary acquittal of John Mitchell Henderson. The human dramas the author describes are often played out in the most commonplace of circumstances, but others are so odd as to be stranger than fiction. This grisly chronicle of the hidden history of Glasgow will be compelling reading for anyone who is interested in the dark side of human nature.
Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths In Bath
Part of the Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths series
True crime tales from this ancient British city and tourist spot-photos included. Take a journey through centuries of local crime and conspiracy, meeting villains of all sorts along the way-cut-throats and poisoners, murderous lovers, assassins, prostitutes and suicides. Among the many tales of wickedness and despair the author records in this fascinating book are:
-Robbery and revenge in Roman times
-The brutal uncertainties of Bath in the dark ages
-The highwaymen, gamblers, and duelists of the Georgian period
-The Victorian underworld and its notorious cases of prostitution, infanticide, and murder
-Outbreaks of mob violence
-Political corruption
Kirsten Elliott's chronicle of the history the town would prefer to forget is compelling reading for anyone who is interested in the dark side of human nature.
Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in & Around Mansfield
Part of the Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths series
A young girl WAYLAID AND BATTERED with a hedge stake while returning home from Mansfield on a warm summer evening. Four family members BUTCHERED in a blazing house just off Commercial Street. An old farmer repeatedly SPEARED by a hayfork in the mire of a rural farmyard. A drunken housewife found MURDERED IN A HAYSTACK at Workshop, a RAZOR KILLING and SUICIDE on Nottingham Road, and the mysterious woman's skeleton discovered in the spoil of Sherwood Colliery tip. These, and other cases detailed here, show how often VIOLENT DEATH has visited Mansfield and North Nottinghamshire in the past. Drawing on two hundred years of reported crime in Mansfield and the surrounding area, this account reveals the GRIM CATALOGUE of foul deeds, the variety of LETHAL WEAPONS used from a hedge stake to a mohair bootlace and the age-old motives of GREED, JEALOUSY, forbidden desires and thwarted love that have so often led men and women to murder.
Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in Reading
Part of the Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths series
True-life tales of bloody killings and brutal crimes wind through the dark past of this historic town on the Thames. John J. Eddleston's latest selection of notorious criminal cases takes the reader through a sequence of sensational episodes that have marred the history of Reading. His book is based on original research, and it recalls many grisly events and sad or unsavory individuals whose fate has hitherto been forgotten. Among the shocking crimes he reconstructs are those of the baby-farmer Amelia Dyer, the unsolved murder of Alfred Oliver, the suffocation of Beatrice Cox, the red Mini murder of June Cook, and the attempted murder of a family of five. This chronicle of the dark side of Reading's long history will be fascinating reading for anyone who is interested in the town's rich-and sometimes gruesome-past.
Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in South Yorkshire
Part of the Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths series
The author of The A-Z of London Murders delves into the long and storied past of South Yorkshire to reveal infamous crimes and killings. Geoffrey Howse explores the darker and sinister side of South Yorkshire's history in this diverse collection of true crime tales-from Victorian to modern times. Read about a shooting and "mob rule" in Doncaster; sensational murders in Darfield, Mexborough, and Attercliffe; trade outrages in Sheffield and Rotherham; highway robbery at Wentworth; embezzlement in Barnsley; and arson at Thorne. Unusual cases include a Doncaster elopement and robbery, burglaries by girls in Rotherham, the shocking killing of a police constable at Swinton, and "coal" riots and lawlessness in Wath-upon-Dearne and Hoyland. A dramatic event in Thurnscoe, a Wombwell stabbing, and a variety of long forgotten tragedies and crimes are also explored in some detail.
Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in Coventry
Part of the Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths series
In the middle of Great Britain sits a historic city-with a long history of horror. These are the true crime stories from Coventry's past. Now a thriving, modern metropolis, Coventry has been an established center of trade and culture for nearly a thousand years. But as with any site where mankind gathers, the darker side of humanity always shows itself. Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in Coventry takes you on a sinister journey from medieval times to the twentieth century in which you will meet villains, cutthroats, traitors, witches, martyrs, and suicidal lovers-a menagerie of crime and punishment in all their shocking variety. Among the many awful episodes included are a brutal regicide, religious martyrdoms and a witchcraft murder in the medieval period. Also included are the story of a triple execution at Gibbet Hill, poisonings and drownings in the Georgian and Victorian eras, and in more recent times, a murderer's lonely suicide. For fans of historical madness and mayhem, Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in Coventry is a fascinating compendium of crime.
Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in Cardiff
Part of the Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths series
Discover the Welsh city's history of crime with these true stories and photos. This book will introduce to you villains of all sorts-casual or calculating killers, murderous husbands and lovers, gangsters, robbers, poisoners, and suicides. There is no shortage of harrowing episodes in Cardiff's past, and this fascinating book recalls many grisly events and sad or unsavory individuals whose conduct throws a harsh light on the history of the city. Among the many shocking cases the author describes are:
*the murder of a Welsh Protestant by an Irish Catholic that provoked rioting
*the double life of a respectable widow poisoned with arsenic
*the exploits of a "Jack the Ripper" killer in Cardiff's back streets
*the throat-slashing revenge of the Cardiff Race Track Gang
*the still-mysterious wartime murder of Alice Pittman
*the case of the Somalian sailor arrested for the brutal slaying of an elderly shopkeeper
*the demise of Granville Jenkins, who was cut to ribbons by a machete
*the accidental-or deliberate?-electrocution of Mrs. Darling
This chronicle of Cardiff's hidden past and the history the city would prefer to forget is compelling reading for anyone interested in the dark side of human nature.
Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in & Around Colchester
Part of the Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths series
Colchester historian Patrick Denney takes the reader on a sinister journey from the religious persecutions of Queen Mary's time to the twentieth century, meeting villains, cut-throats, arsonists and lunatics along the way. The book is based on original research and recalls many grisly events and sad or unsavory individuals whose fate has hitherto been forgotten. This fascinating chronicle will prove to be a valuable-if gruesome-addition to the historical record of the town. It will be of great interest to the casual reader and committed historian alike.
Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths In & Around The Fens
Part of the Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths series
Discover this coastal plain in England-and the crimes that have taken place there over the centuries. The Fens of England, thinly populated with isolated farmsteads, has been the setting for a number of popular crime novels-but it has also been the actual site of many horrific, bloody, and bizarre incidents. This book takes a gripping look at the darker side of the area's history-from crimes of callous premeditation to those born of passion or despair. Included are tales of conspiracy, robbery, violence, cruelty, and murder that reveal a previously neglected side of Fenland society. Unforgettable cases are featured-a mother who murdered her son, a police officer who hid the body of his mother, a farmer brutally slain for his money, a dustman who killed a local girl, and the headless body of a woman who has never been identified. Covering a wide range of human weakness and wickedness, this chronicle of the hidden side of the Fens will be compelling reading for anyone who is interested in the sinister side of human nature and the social conditions that nurture it.
Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths Around Leicester
Part of the Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths series
Murder and more in the Midlands-true stories of historical crimes in this British city from the 1850s to the 1950s. Includes photos. Within the pages of this book are some of the most notorious and often baffling cases in Leicestershire's history-from the appalling double murder at Melton Mowbray in 1856, known locally as the Peppermint Billy murders, to the 1953 murderer Joseph Reynolds, who killed because he wanted to know how it felt. This book explores the cases that dominated the headlines, not only across the city and surrounding county but also nationwide. These are the stories from a time when murder was a capital offense and guilt or innocence was proven without the benefit of modern forensic technique or DNA profiling. Included also are some of those mysterious cases that will remain forever unsolved, as in the now famous case of Bella Wright. Known across the whole country as the Green Bicycle Murder, it commanded public attention in 1919 because of the complex and puzzling nature of the crime-and has continued to do so ever since.
Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths Around Newport
Part of the Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths series
This book contains twenty-one separate stories all based in the Newport and district area. This is a coffee table/bedtime story book for the curious. Anyone fascinated by the mindset of a murderer will enjoy this book. Whether you are a budding Miss Marple or an aspiring Morse, inside is a taste of the criminal mind, the effort of detection and the horror of motives. Please do not try this at home!
Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in and Around Newcastle
Part of the Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths series
Newcastle, Gateshead, Morpeyh, Tynemouth and North and South Shields were towns of great wealth because of the many natural resources in the area. Certainly by the eighteenth century, Newcastle had become the most important commercial centre in the north, but, along with the wealth of the merchants and the factory owners there was the dire poverty of the working class. A pall of dark fog would linger over the buildings caused by the pollution spouting out from the chimneys of the ironworks and other industries. Bad housing, sanitation, overcrowding and low wages bred superstition, ignorance and illiteracy. Alcohol was often the only release the poorer classes had from their otherwise hum-drum daily drudge. It was not only the men who would spend all their money in the many beer houses, women also would drink themselves into oblivion, even if it meant their children went hungry. Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in and around Newcastle spans three hundred years of grisly events beginning with the execution of so-called witches. The stories will show the reader the depraved side of their fellow man and give an insight into the darkest side of the history of the area.
Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in Croydon
Part of the Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths series
True crime stories that span more than 200 years in south London history-from poisonings to passion killings. We are all drawn to understand the circumstances that lead others to commit unforgivable acts of violence-the moment that turns a caring human being into a killer, the series of events that drive ordinary people to murderous acts of inhumanity, or the slow, premeditated steps of the callous criminal. And the circumstances-and the twisted motivation-behind such violent acts are the subject of Caroline Maxton's fascinating investigation of individuals whose misdeeds have tarnished the history of the Croydon area. Maxton investigates a wide range of murders and unexplained deaths, some of which are truly stranger than fiction. The events cover a span of several centuries, and the locations will be chillingly familiar to the inhabitants of Croydon. Local crimes that hit the national headlines, like the Bentley case of 1952, are covered in fresh detail, but the author concentrates on less well-known but equally intriguing, and shocking, episodes: the bizarre 'mustard and cress' murder of 1870, the brutal murder of Eliza Osborne in 1877, the Kenley Stud Farm mystery of 1922, the Birdhurst Rise poisoning of the late 1920s, and the notorious unsolved murder of eleven-year-old Miles Vallint of 1959.
Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths around Brighton
Part of the Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths series
This famous resort town attracts millions of visitors each year-but it's history of true crime proves that murder and mayhem never take a holiday. On the shores of Sussex, England, the famed town of Brighton has long been a favorite for those who want to enjoy its beaches, music, art, and culture. Unfortunately, some people in Brighton's past pursued much more sinister diversions . . . This gripping volume covers two centuries of murderous doings in Brighton portrayed in fifteen vivid case histories that span the criminal code from trunk murders, poisonings, child murders, killings over nothing, deaths suffered on journeys, infidelity, and lust. Surprisingly, no single volume devoted to murders in Brighton has ever appeared before-especially considering the town has been dubbed the 'Queen of Slaughtering Places'. Also featured are many rare historical images of Brighton at the time many of the crimes took place-helping bring readers into the dark past of this sunny seaside city.
Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in Southampton
Part of the Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths series
The stormy past of England's south coast city is vividly depicted in these true crime tales from the author of Jack the Ripper: An Encyclopedia. The criminal cases vividly described by John J. Eddleston in this gripping book take the reader on a journey into the dark secret side of Southampton's past. The city has been the setting for a series of horrific, bloody, sometimes bizarre incidents. There is the story of Augustus John Penny, who shot his mother to death while she was lying in her bed after discovering that she had come into money and refused to pass any on to him. There is James Camb, who was convicted of murder even though the body of his victim, an actress, was never found. And there is the case of Michael George Tatum, the only British killer of the twentieth century to use an African club as his chosen weapon of murder. But perhaps the most intriguing case is the Southampton garage murder of Vivian Messiter in October 1928. In spite of masterful police work, there was an eighteen-month delay before the killer, William Henry Podmore, finally paid the price on the gallows for that brutal crime. Eddleston's selection of cases from Southampton's criminal history will be compelling reading for anyone who is interested in the sinister side of human nature.
Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Sheffield
Part of the Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths series
The author of A History of London's Prisons reveals the ugly criminal past of one of England's most beautiful cities. It hardly seems surprising that what has become England's fourth city has within its rich history a sinister and darker side. Take a journey to discover cases of petty crime, riots, burglary, robbery, assault, suicide, unlawful killing, manslaughter, and murder, as well as a host of quirky and quizzical crimes from the early Victorian period to modern times. One sensational case covered is that of Sheffield-born Charles Peace, considered by some criminologists to be England's most notorious murderer. He was hanged at Leeds on February 25, 1879, for the killing of Arthur Dyson at Darnall in 1876. Peace's criminality seemed to know no bounds. Several other sensational and forgotten murders are featured and a range of cases mentioned refer to many former landmarks in and around old Sheffield, from public houses and hotels to factories, shops, and steelworks. This book is sure to be an absorbing read for anyone interested in our local social history.
Foul Deeds in Kensington & Chelsea
Part of the Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths series
London's most exclusive neighborhoods sit on sites of the some of the most sinister and scandalous crimes in British history. Stories of violent death will always hold us in a grim but thrilling grip. The dreadful crimes related in Foul Deeds in Kensington & Chelsea are shocking examples of murder cases that readers will never forget. Crimes of passion, opportunistic killings, political assassinations-the full spectrum of extreme criminality is recounted here. John J. Eddleston has selected a series of notorious episodes that give a fascinating insight into criminal acts and the criminal mind. The human dramas he depicts are often played out in the most commonplace of circumstances, but others are so odd as to be stranger than fiction. Cases involving the killing of wives, lovers, and children are among those he describes, but he also reconstructs in forensic detail several more unusual crimes-two men shot dead at a lecture, the field marshal who was assassinated on his doorstep, the acid bath killings, and the murders of two ill-fated countesses. These lethal episodes give a fascinating insight into the dark side of the history of Kensington and Chelsea.
Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths In Dublin
Part of the Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths series
Tory gangs, madmen, war criminals, frauds, anarchists, duelists, kidnappers, and more scandal-makers throughout four centuries of Irish history. Dublin is a wonderful, energetic cultural center-the pride of Irish achievements in architecture, arts, and literature. But it is also a city of paradoxes and conflicts-and a long, fascinating history of crime. Stephen Wade now reveals Dublin's "strange eventful history" in this thrilling collection of murderers, thieves, daredevil highwaymen, libelers, seducers, and bloody avengers-from eighteenth-century turncoats to Victorian-era rogues to a twentieth-century parliamentary candidate with a killer past. Amid tales of sensational investigations and infamous courtroom trials, readers will discover the truth behind the disappearance of the Crown Jewels in 1907; the bizarre motives of nineteenth-century serial killer John Delahunt; and the startling charges leveled against Oscar Wilde's father, a revolutionary doctor embroiled in a felonious and sexual cause célèbre of his own.
Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in Guildford
Part of the Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths series
The charming English town of Guildford is built upon centuries of mayhem and madness-from a Game of Thrones–style massacre to mysterious murders. The twin fascinations of death and villainy will always hold us in their grim but thrilling grip. In Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in Guildford, the chill is brought close to home as each chapter investigates the darker side of humanity in cases of murder, deceit, and pure malice committed over the centuries in the area. From crimes of passion to opportunistic killings and coldly premeditated acts of murder, the full spectrum of criminality is recounted, bringing to life the more sinister history of Guildford and the surrounding villages.
Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths Around Worcester
Part of the Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths series
The criminal cases vividly described by Anne Bradford in this gripping book take the reader on a journey into the dark secret side of Worcester's long history. This cathedral city has been the setting for a series of horrific, bloody, sometimes bizarre incidents over the centuries. From crimes of brutal premeditation to crimes born of passion or despair, the whole range of human weakness and wickedness is represented here. There are tales of forgery and betrayal, highway robbery and murder, riots and repression, public executions and instances of extraordinary domestic cruelty and malice that ended in death. The human dramas the author describe are often played out in the most commonplace of circumstances, but others are so odd as to be stranger than fiction. This grisly chronicle of the hidden history of Worcester will be compelling reading for anyone who is interested in the dark side of human nature.
Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths Around Portsmouth
Part of the Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths series
Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths Around Portsmouth takes the reader on a sinister journey through centuries of local crime and conspiracy, meeting villains of all sorts along the way-cut-throats and poisoners, arsonists and assassins, mutineers, duelists and marauders, prostitutes and thieves, and the brawling seamen and common murderers who moved through the cruel underworld of this historic town. Sarah Quail has selected over 20 notorious episodes that give a fascinating insight into criminal acts and the criminal mind. She recalls intriguing and shocking cases dating from medieval times to the present day. In the process, she uncovers an extraordinary variety of misdeeds, some motivated by brutal impulse or despair, others by malice, which taint the history of every age. Most of the cases she recounts involve ill-fated individuals who are only known to us because they were caught up in crime, but she also reconsiders more famous episodes like the murder of the Duke of Buckingham and the disappearance of the Cold War frogman Buster Crabb. The human dramas that are played out in these pages often take place in the most commonplace of circumstances, but others are so odd as to be stranger than fiction.
Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in Liverpool
Part of the Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths series
The disturbing, criminal history of Britain's "World Capital City of Pop"-home of murderers, thieves, bodysnatchers . . . and The Beatles. The city of Liverpool, England, was like every other city energized by the Victorian boon in industry and trade. It is best known today as the home of the British Invasion and music that changed the world. But Liverpool's history has a less harmonious side, and a dark past that reaches back centuries. True crime historian, Stephen Wade, goes there. In Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in Liverpool, Wade reveals the city's most shocking crimes: a notoriously deadly duel in 1806; gang wars and the infamous nineteenth-century "Cholera Riots"; a killer butcher and a terrorist bombing; grandma killers and sinister sisters; swindlers and crimes of passion; poisonings, bodysnatchers, and serial killers; a murderer who claimed to be possessed by demons; and a terrifying hunt for the fiend behind the Ripper murders. Wade invites readers into the shadowy backstreets of a fabled city in this criminally fascinating chronicle of misdeeds, madmen, and real-life mysteries.
Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in Suffolk
Part of the Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths series
True stories of real-life British mysteries and murders going back centuries-photos included. This book tells stories of murder, deceit, and pure malice committed over the centuries in this traditionally rural part of East Anglia in England. From crimes of passion to opportunistic killings and coldly premeditated acts of murder, the full spectrum of criminality is recounted here. In this collection of grisly crime stories, Mark Mower takes us on a journey through the darker side of Suffolk folklore, with tales of poisoning, grave robbing, stabbing, shooting, and larceny. On the way, we meet highwaymen, cutthroats, murderous lovers, homicidal relatives, pirates, and purveyors of human flesh. The dramas he describes are often played out in the most commonplace of circumstances-while others are so odd as to be stranger than fiction.
More Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in Birmingham
Part of the Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths series
The volume starts with the mysterious murder of Mary Ashford in 1817 and follows a trail of mayhem through the Victorian and Edwardian eras to the controversial execution of the young James Farrell in 1949. These accounts of our past are drawn from contemporary newspapers and periodicals, reflecting the way our attitudes to different crimes and punishments have changed over the years. The long debate about capital punishment is brought into focus by the public reaction to each new death sentence. Unlike the first volume, almost every case examined concludes on the scaffold. The stories encompass jealousy, lust, anger and greed-some things just never change. The city itself gradually grew from the green fields of Erdington that Mary Ashford knew, to the grim warrens of back-to-backs that housed Harry Jones and other ne'er-do-wells, but underneath normal city life there has always been those few crazed characters ready to explode into a lethal frenzy. They have carved themselves a place in local history, usually with a wickedly sharp knife. Here too are the vicious thugs whose violent robberies left widows and orphans in their wake, whether in 1830s or 1930s.