Normal Madness, Murder and Mayhem


Book Description

Normal Madness, Murder and Mayhem This book was written by a madman, a friend of mine, who asked me to gather the stories together. The stories are primarily about the people of a town that is very unusual. Most of the people in the town are just a little bit off in the sense of being crazy. They are human beings living their lives in the best way they know how. The book is divided into several parts the first of which begins with the Dr. Joe series, about a man gone mad. The second part is Fantasies and Dreams-anyone's. The third part is about some Other Thoughts and Things and the fourth involves some spiritual writings. The fifth part is about the Townspeople who live in the town where the Neurological Complex is. And in the end there is the Wastebasket Series for your pleasure. The book has won the International Madman Book of the Year award, given out by the IIAA, the International Insane Asylum Association, for its depiction of the people, the town, and the creativity. I have been honored to accept the award in place of the good true author, the madman. As we expect the book to be turned into a film or at least a series for television, I'm not able to reveal the identity of the madman. For him and his peers all is very normal, natural and insane. This book can be read from beginning to the end or you may pick out certain sections to read. No doubt you will find yourself in this book somewhere in one of the characters. Do not allow the material to disturb you, as the title says, it is only normal madness, murder, and mayhem.




Madness, Murder and Mayhem


Book Description

Following an assassination attempt on George III in 1800, new legislation significantly altered the way the criminally insane were treated by the judicial system in Britain. This book explores these changes and explains the rationale for purpose-built criminal lunatic asylums in the Victorian era.Specific case studies are used to illustrate and describe some of the earliest patients at Broadmoor Hospital the Criminal Lunatic Asylum for England and Wales and the Criminal Lunatic Department at Perth Prison in Scotland. Chapters examine the mental and social problems that led to crime alongside individuals considered to be weak-minded, imbeciles or idiots. Family murders are explored as well as individuals who killed for gain. An examination of psychiatric evidence is provided to illustrate how often an insanity defence was used in court and the outcome if the judge and jury did not believe these claims. Two cases are discussed where medical experts gave evidence that individuals were mentally irresponsible for their crimes but they were led to the gallows.Written by genealogists and historians, this book examines and identifies individuals who committed heinous crimes and researches the impact crime had on themselves, their families and their victims.




Murder, Madness and Mayhem


Book Description

We have an idealised view of life in Victorian times, seeing it as idyllic and we mistakenly believe that present day society is more violent. This, in fact, is not true but, because of TV coverage we are aware of terrible events in this country and others. When you look back you see that crimes were more violent and "gory", the macabre interest of neighbours who paid to see the victims is incredible. The punishments meted out in courts were similar to that today, namely, more severe for crimes against possessions than for those against people. One crime I followed as far as possible and, with the help of the Black Museum of Manchester, was able to show was that Sarah Manion was on the roles of the prison. What happened to her there and what became of her on release, I could not trace. The "Good old days", they were certainly not.




Murder, Madness and Mayhem


Book Description

Mike Browne, host of the popular Canadian podcast Dark Poutine, chronicles some of his all-time favourite stories of true crime and dark history from Canada and around the world. Divided into four sections —Murders with a Twist, Perpetual Puzzles, The Madness of Crowds and Notable Disasters — all the stories in this collection (except two) are brand new and haven’t been covered by the podcast. In Murders with a Twist, Browne recounts seven true crime stories with atypical elements, including weird motives, unusual perpetrators and bizarre murder weapons. In one case, we meet a man who is willing to kill to possess a human voice. In another, two women play a deadly game to prove their love to each other. Perpetual Puzzles covers six stories that remain unresolved and will leave you with more questions than answers. They include the archaeological find of the century, which turns out to be something far more sinister, as well as the discovery of a dead man on the beach with a mysterious clue in his pocket. The Madness of Crowds reveals that murder and mayhem are sometimes a group effort. We meet two young Canadians who leave home one summer to find work and instead end up on a murder spree, and a bizarre California cult that asks its members to topple the Mormon church. The book concludes with Notable Disasters, which describes some of the most tragic and deadly events in history, including the deadly tsunami in the Indian Ocean on December 26, 2004, as well as the devastating Grenfell Tower fire in London in June 2017. The book includes a foreword by Alan R. Warren, bestselling true crime author and host of the House of Mystery Radio Show.




One Night of Madness


Book Description

The year was 1950. Mary Ella Harris, works hard sharecropping alongside her husband, a man with a penchant for gambling, drinking, and associating with unsavory white people. When she is cornered in her home by Leon Turner, a white man who refuses to take no for an answer, Mary Ella narrowly avoids an attempted rape. After his arrest, Leon escapes jail and enacts a bloody revenge with two accomplices. With the eyes of the nation watching, the state itself is on trial. The jury's controversial decision ultimately serves as a catalyst for change.




Murder, Madness, and Mayhem on the Iowa Illinois Frontier


Book Description

It's not the usual boring history read. It's a fast-paced, easy to read, behind the scenes look at the making of Iowa and Illinois focusing on Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois.




Murder and Mayhem in the Finger Lakes


Book Description

"The pristine waters of the Finger Lakes inspire tranquility, but the region has not been spared a history of high-profile murders. ...Author R. Marcin explores the gruesome history of homicide in the Finger Lakes."--Back cover.




Living With Contradictions


Book Description

This book explores some of the moral and public policy issues that divide Western, especially North American, feminists as the twentieth century ends and the twenty-first century begins. It represents an in-house discussion among feminists and their social ethics.




Murder, Magic, Madness


Book Description

In 1856 William Dove, a young tenant farmer, was tried and executed for the poisoning of his wife Harriet. The trial might have been a straightforward case of homicide, but because Dove became involved with Henry Harrison, a Leeds wizard, and demonstrated through his actions and words a strong belief in magic and the powers of the devil, considerable effort was made to establish whether these beliefs were symptomatic of insanity. It seems that Dove murdered his wife to hasten a prediction made by Harrison that he would remarry a more attractive and wealthy woman. Dove employed Harrison to perform various acts of magic, and also made his own written pact with the devil to improve his personal circumstances. The book will study Dove’s beliefs and Harrison’s activities within the rural and urban communities in which they lived, and examine how modern cultures attempted to explain this largely hidden mental world, which was so sensationally exposed. The Victorian period is often portrayed as an age of great social and educational progress. This book shows how beliefs dismissed by some Victorians as ‘medieval superstitions’ continued to influence the thoughts and actions of many people, viz most famously Conan `table tapper' Doyle.




Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness


Book Description

The third volume in the Docalogue series, this book explores the significance of the documentary series Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness (2020), which became 'must-see-TV' for a newly captive audience during the global Covid-19 pandemic. The series – a true-crime, tabloid spectacle about a murder-for-hire plot within the big cat trade – prompts interesting questions about which documentaries become popular in particular moments and why. However, it also raises important questions related to the medium specificity of documentary in the streaming era, as well as the ethics of both human and animal representation. By combining five distinct perspectives on the Netflix documentary series, this book offers a complex and cumulative discourse about Tiger King’s significance in multiple areas including, but not limited to, animal studies, queer theory, genre studies, labor relations, and digital culture. Students and scholars of film, media, television, and cultural studies will find this book extremely valuable in understanding the significance of this larger-than-life true-crime documentary series.