Sutton True Crime History

Hidden behind the picturesque facade of country lanes and rugged coastlines, quaint villages and busy market towns, the South West counties of Cornwall, Devon and Somerset have witnessed some of the most shocking murder cases in British history. West Country Murders brings together over 30 cases from the authors' previous collections here in one volume. They include stories of those who killed for greed, jealousy and lust, as well as those who committed murder in what a well-known judge once described as 'a gust of passion'. Some of the killers were undoubtedly insane at the time of their crimes; others were almost certainly innocent, yet paid the ultimate price for a murder they did not commit. Some remain unsolved to this day, despite the best efforts of the local constabularies. This book is sure to appeal to all those interested in the shady side of the West Country's history.

Herefordshire Murders brings together twenty-eight murderous tales, some which were little known outside the county and others which made national headlines. Herefordshire was home to one of Britain's most infamous murderers, Major Herbert Rowse Armstrong, who, in 1921, poisoned his wife and attempted to poison a fellow solicitor in Hay-on-Wye. However, the county has also experienced many lesser known murders. They include the case of two-year-old Walter Frederick Steers, brutally killed in Little Hereford in 1891; eighty-seven-year-old Phillip Ballard, who died at the hands of two would-be burglars in Tupsley in 1887; Jane Haywood, murdered by her husband near Leominster in 1903; and the shooting of two sisters at Burghill Court, near Hereford, by their butler in 1926. Nicola Sly's carefully researched and enthralling text will appeal to everyone interested in the shady side of Herefordshire's history.

Worcestershire Murders brings together numerous murderous tales, some which were little known outside the county, and others which made national headlines. Contained within the pages of this book are the stories behind some of the most heinous crimes ever committed in Worcestershire. They include the murders of the entire Gummery family at Berrow in 1780; Catherine Gulliver, killed by John Butler at Ombersley in 1864; and Maria Holmes, slain by her husband at Bromsgrove in 1872. Cases from the twentieth century include two unsolved murders - the body of an unidentified woman found in a tree in Hagley Wood in 1943, and the brutal killing of Florrie Porter at Lickey End in 1944. Nicola Sly's carefully researched and enthralling text will appeal to anyone interested in the shady side of Worcestershire's history.

Contained within the pages of this book are the stories behind some of the most notorious murders in Leicester's history. From the brutal murder of John Paas in 1832, whose killer became the last man in England to be gibbeted, and the poisoning of a seventy-year-old widow by two young men, to the failure to convict Archie Johnson of the murder of Annie Jennings in 1912 due to the inability to identify blood groups at that time, this is a collection of the most dramatic and interesting criminal cases that have taken place in Leicester between the mid-1800s and 1950s. Ben Beazley was a policeman for almost thirty years. His experience and understanding of the criminal justice system give authority to his unbiased assessment and analysis of the cases in this book. His carefully researched, well-illustrated and enthralling text will appeal to anyone interested in the shadier side of Leicester's history.

Cumbria Murders brings together numerous murderous tales that shocked not only the county but also made headlines throughout the country. They include the cases of Wai Sheung Siu Miao, strangled while on honeymoon in 1928; William Armstrong, shot by the Revd Joseph Smith in 1851; Ann Sewell, stabbed to death by farmhand George Cass in 1860; and the murder of Jack West at his home near Workington in 1964, whose killers were the last two men to be lawfully hanged in England. Paul Heslop was a policeman for over thirty years, mostly as a detective. His experience and understanding of the criminal justice system give authority to his unbiased assessment and analysis of the cases in this book. His carefully researched, well-illustrated and enthralling text will appeal to anyone interested in the shady side of Cumbria's history, and should give much food for thought.

Shropshire Murders brings together numerous murderous tales, some which were little known outside the county, and others which made national headlines. Contained within the pages of this book are the stories behind some of the most heinous crimes ever committed in Shropshire. They include the Revd Robert Foulkes, who killed his illegitimate child in 1678; the murder of Catherine Lewis by John Mapp at Longden in 1867; the horrific axe murders committed by John Doughty at Church Stretton in 1924; and the tragic death of Dennis O'Neill, who was beaten and starved by his foster parents in 1944. Nicola Sly's carefully researched and enthralling text will appeal to anyone interested in the shady side of Shropshire's history.

The county of Essex has rolling arable farmland, Epping Forest, sleepy villages, busy market towns and secluded backwaters - a wide variety of settings for murder. This selection of crimes uncovers not only famous cases, but also previously unpublished dramatic and tragic tales. The accounts included here come from a time when murder was a capital offence, carrying the ultimate penalty for the perpetrator, and when the difference between a verdict of innocence or guilt rested on a single piece of evidence, or the skill of the barrister in defence. Linda Stratmann has used original trial transcripts, material from local and national archives, contemporary accounts and the memoirs of pathologists, police and those in the legal profession in the course of her extensive research into crimes that have shocked the county. The killings explored date from as far back as the eighteenth century when the smuggler 'Colchester Jack' shot a confederate in the stomach in a row over stolen goods. They also include the case of a nineteenth-century female poisoner from Clavering and the brutal murder of a taxi driver in 1943 by two US servicemen at Birch. Supported by contemporary illustrations, "Essex Murders" reveals that behind the county's peaceful facade lies a murky criminal heritage.

Over the centuries North London has witnessed literally thousands of murders: those included within the pages of this book have shocked, fascinated and enthralled the public and commentators for generations. From Britain's first railway murder, a case that turned on the evidence provided by a distinctive style of hat, to the appalling story of two Islington woman convicted after 'disposing of' babies in their care, these are crimes that both horrified and captivated the public. No volume covering the murders of this part of London would be complete without an examination of the Crippen case; the name of Frederick Henry Seddon, hanged for poisoning Miss Eliza Barrow, is now less well known, although for several decades his waxwork effigy was a popular exhibit at Madame Tussaud's Chamber of Horrors and his story is an extraordinary one. Among other cases included here, North London Murders also re-examines the crimes of serial 'bride-killer' George Joseph Smith, the tragic story of Ruth Ellis and David Blakely, and the killing of Joe Orton by Kenneth Halliwell.

Contained within the pages of this book are the stories behind some of the most notorious murders in Gloucestershire's history. The cases covered here record the county's most fascinating but least known crimes, as well as famous murders that gripped not just Gloucestershire but the whole nation. Contained within the pages of this book are the stories behind some of the most notorious murders in Gloucestershire's history. The cases covered here record the county's most fascinating but least known crimes, as well as famous murders that gripped not just Gloucestershire but the whole nation. From the Cheltenham torso murder to the Campden Wonder, when William Harrison returned to Chipping Campden after three people were executed for killing him; from a fatal battle between poachers and gamekeepers near Berkeley to poisoning in the Forest of Dean, this is a collection of the country's most dramatic and interesting criminal cases.

Berkshire Murders is an examination of some of the county's most notorious and shocking cases. They include Hannah Carey, beaten to death by her husband at Warfield in 1851; young Hannah Gould, whose throat was cut by her father in a frenzied attack at Windsor in 1861; Nell Woodridge, murdered by her husband in 1896 and later immortalised in Oscar Wilde's The Ballad of Reading Gaol; Annie Davis, killed by her lover in 1912; and Minnie Freeman Lee, whose body was discovered in a trunk in 1940. John Van der Kiste's carefully researched, well-illustrated and enthralling text will appeal to all those interested in the darker side of Berkshire.

Derbyshire Murders brings together fifteen of the county's most extraordinary and shocking cases. The crimes covered made not just local but in some cases national headlines. For this fascinating, illustrated collection, Martin Baggoley has returned to original sources - including police interviews, trial transcripts and contemporary newspaper reports - to rebuild each story from scratch. Cases include a murder and robbery committed in 1842 in Stanley, and the murder of a police constable in Derby in 1879. Although the killer was sentenced to death, he was reprieved after it was revealed how the jury had reached their decision: they drew lots and tossed a coin. Also included are cases from Belper, Chesterfield, Bonsall, Glossop and Ilkeston. This unique re-examination of the darker side of Derbyshire's past is sure to appeal to all those interested in the shady side of the county's history.

Surrey Murders is an examination of some of the county's most notorious and shocking cases. They include the 'Wigwam Girl', Joan Wolfe, who lived in a tent built by a Cree Indian Soldier before being brutally slaughtered; the infamous stabbing of Frederick Gold by 'the Serpent', Percy Lefroy Mapleton; the poisoning of the entire Beck family with a bottle of oatmeal stout, laced with cyanide; and the sailor butchered at the Devil's Punch Bowl, later immortalised in Charles Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby. John Van der Kiste's carefully researched, well-illustrated and enthralling text will appeal to all those interested in the darker side of Surrey's history.

This chilling volume brings together more murderous tales that shocked not only the county but made headline news throughout the nation. Covering the length and breadth of Buckinghamshire, the featured cases include the brutal slaying of a family of seven in Denham in 1870, the killing of a butcher's wife in Victorian Slough for which no one was ever found guilty, a double shooting at Little Kimble and a killing near Haddenham in 1828, in which a letter written a year later sealed the killers' fate, and the doctor who disappeared in 1933 and whose decomposed corpse was found in Buckinghamshire woods the following year. This well-illustrated and enthralling text will appeal to everyone interested in true-crime history and the shadier side of Buckinghamshire's past.

Life in the largely rural county of Dorset has not always been idyllic, for over the years it has experienced numerous murders, some of which are little known outside the county borders, others that have shocked the nation. These include arguments between lovers with fatal consequences, family murders, child murders and mortal altercations at Dorset's notorious Portland Prison. The entire country thrilled to the scandalous cases of Alma Rattenbury and Charlotte Bryant who, in the 1930s, found living with their husbands so difficult that both found a terminal solution to the problem. In 1856, Elizabeth Browne rid herself of a husband and, in doing so, became the inspiration for Thomas Hardy's 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles'. The mystery of the Coverdale Kennels at Tarrant Keynston, where not one, but two kennel managers died in suspicious circumstances, remains unsolved to this day. And it was in Bournemouth that Neville Heath committed the second of his two murders, which led to his arrest and eventual execution in 1946. Illustrated with fifty intriguing illustrations, Dorset Murders will appeal to anyone interested in the shady side of county's history.

Contained within the pages of this book are the stories behind some of the most notorious murders in the history of Greater Manchester. They include the case of cat burglar Charlie Peace, who killed 20-year-old PC Nicolas Cock in Seymour Grove, and only confessed after he had been sentenced to death for another murder; the sad tale of William Robert Taylor, whose young daughter was killed in a boiler explosion and who, later, desperate and in debt, murdered his landlord as well as his three remaining children; Jack Jackson, who escaped from Strangeways Gaol by killing a prison warder while mending a gas pipe for the prison matron; and the death of Police Sergeant Charles Brett, who stuck bravely to his post despite an armed attack on his prison van by the 'Manchester Martyrs.'

Oxfordshire Murders brings together twenty-five murderous tales, some which were little known outside the county, and others which made national headlines. Contained within the pages of this book are the stories behind some of the most heinous crimes ever committed in Oxfordshire. They include the deaths of two gamekeepers, brutally murdered in 1824 and 1835; Henrietta Walker, killed by her husband at Chipping Norton in 1887; Mary Allen, shot by Harry Rowles at Cassington in the same year; and Anne Kempson, murdered by Henry Seymour, a door-to-door salesman, in Oxford in 1931. Nicola Sly's carefully researched and enthralling text will appeal to anyone interested in the shady side of Oxfordshire's history.

Somerset Murders brings together numerous murderous tales that shocked not only the county but also made headlines throughout the country. They include the cases of Elizabeth and Betty Branch, a mother and daughter who beat a young servant girl to death in Hemington in 1740; 13-year-old Betty Trump, whose throat was cut while walking home at Buckland St Mary in 1823; factory worker Joan Turner, battered to death in Chard in 1829; George Watkins, killed in a bare knuckle fight outside the Running Horse pub in Yeovil in 1843; Constance Kent, who confessed in 1865 to killing her half-brother at Rode in 1860, nearly five years earlier; and elderly landlay, Mrs Emily Bowers, strangled in her bed in Middlezoy in 1947. Nicola Sly and John van der Kiste, co-authors of Cornish Murders in this series, have an encyclopedic knowledge of their subject. Their carefully researched, well-illustrated and enthralling text will appeal to anyone interested in the shady side of Somerset's history.

The cases covered here record the county's most fascinating but least-known crimes, as well as famous murders that gripped not just Cambridgeshire but the whole nation. From the mysterious barn fire at Burwell that killed seventy-six people to the unsolved murder of Cambridge shopkeeper Alice Lawton, and from poisoning in St Neots to the murder of a fifteen-year-old drummer boy whose ghost haunted the killer and drove him to confess, this is a collection of the county's most dramatic and interesting criminal cases. Alison Bruce has gone back to original records and documents to uncover the truth about these extraordinary crimes. Using contemporary illustrations and tracing the stories through the words of those who were actually there, she re-creates the drama of case and courtroom. Cambridgeshire Murders is a unique re-examination of the darker side of the county's past.

Contained within the page of this book are the stories behind some of the most notorious murders in Norfolk's history. The cases covered here record the county's most fascinating but least known crimes as well as famous murders that gripped not just Norfolk but the whole nation. From the Burnham Poisoners of 1835 to the Yarmouth Beach Murders, from the Costessey Horror to the 'last judicial beheading in England', this is a collection of the county's most dramatic and interesting criminal cases.

Some of the gruesome cases in this book are better known than others, such as the inexplicable shooting of his wife and two daughters by Lock Ah Tam in 1926 and the Gorse Hall murder in 1909, which still excites afictionados of true crime and those who like a good unsolved mystery. Others are less well known, including the mysterious murder of Mary Malpas in 1835 and the crime of Frederick George Wood in Bramhall in 1922, a classic example of the pointless murder, for little or no reward, while few outside the town have ever heard the tale of the 'Congleton Cannibal.' All manner of murder and mystery is featured here, and this book is sure to be a must-read for true crime enthusiasts everywhere.

Contained within the pages of this book are the stories behind some of the most notorious murders in Lancashire's history. The cases covered here record the county's most fascinating but least known crimes, as well as famous murders that gripped not just Lancashire but the whole nation. From Liverpool's Florence Maybrick (was she really guilty of poisoning her hypochondriac husband with arsenic and was he indeed Jack the Ripper?) to late Victorian Bury's disturbing 'Body in the Wardrobe' case; from the infamous Dr. Ruxton and Clements, who saw off five wives between them, to Blackpool's Louisa Merrifield, whose loose tongue was undoubtedly her downfall, this is a collection of the county's most dramatic and interesting criminal cases. Alan Hayhurst has been uncovering evidence about the county's historic murders for more than fourty years. In writing this book he has visited all of the murder sites, consulted original documents and contemporary reports, and spoken to those who has personal memories of the cases concerned. Lancashire Murders is a unique re-examination of the darker side of the county's past.

Staffordshire Murders brings together murderous tales that shocked not only the county but made headline news throughout the nation. They include the poisonous Dr Palmer, murder on the canal, a tale of infanticide, the body in the gasometer, the chauffeur's revenge, murder on Cannock Chase and much more. Alan Hayhurst has spent many hours visiting the scenes detailed in this book, as well as researching original documents and talking to people who have meories of the individual crimes. His well-illustrated and enthralling text will appeal to all who are interested in the shady side of Staffordshire's history.