Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in & Around Scunthorpe


Book Description

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 and Suspicious Deaths in and Around Colchester


Book Description

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 unsavoury individuals whose fate has hitherto been forgotten.




Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths Around Leicester


Book Description

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 and Suspicious Deaths/Folkeston


Book Description

Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths Around Folkestone takes the reader on a sinister journey through the annals of crime in Folkestone, Hythe and the surrounding area. Along the way we meet villains, murderers and victims of many kinds, including cut-throat soldiers, a 'baby farmer', a Jack the Ripper imposter, two inexplicable suicides and five individuals who died violent deaths in the 'House of Horror'. There is no shortage of harrowing and revealing incidents of evil to recount, many of which will be unfamiliar to the reader. Infant murders were once so rife in Folkestone it was termed the 'infanticide capital of Kent'. This fascinating book recalls many such grisly events, as well as sad or unsavoury individuals who have darkened this otherwise pleasant corner of the Garden of England.




Foul deeds & suspicious deaths in Guernsey


Book Description

Contains chapters that investigate the darker side of humanity in cases of murder, deceit and pure malice. From crimes of passion to opportunistic killings and coldly premeditated acts of murder, this work recounts the spectrum of criminality, bringing to life the sinister history of Guernsey from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century.




Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in Croydon


Book Description

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. She 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 1921, the Birdhurst Rise poisoning of the late 1920s, the notorious unsolved murder of 11-year-old Miles Vallint of 1959.




Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Hampstead, Holburn and St Pancras


Book Description

In Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths In Hampstead, Holburn and St Pancras the chill of evil is brought close to home as 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 400 years.




Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in Lewisham & Deptford


Book Description

The twin fascinations of death and villainy will always hold us in their grim but thrilling grip. In Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Lewisham and Deptford 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 this area 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 more sinister history of Lewisham and Deptford from the sixteenth century onwards. For this journey into the bloody, neglected past, Jonathan Oates has selected over 20 notorious episodes that give a fascinating insight into criminal acts and the criminal mind. The story of one of the most famous unsolved murders in history, of the great playwright Christopher Marlowe in Deptford in 1593. is followed by a catalogue of heinous crimes of every description—political conspiracies, gang killings, murders of policemen, suicide pacts, multiple poisonings, a husband who killed his wife and four children, the suicide of a crooked councillor, a motiveless murder and two unsolved murders that are as intriguing today as they were 80 years ago. The human dramas Jonathan Oates describes 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 Lewisham and Deptford will be compelling reading for anyone who is interested in the dark side of human nature.




Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in Liverpool


Book Description

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 Staffordshire & the Potteries


Book Description

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.