This chilling collection of cases delves into the villainous deeds that have taken place in Gloucester during its long history. Among those featured are a French sailor stabbed to death outside a Gloucester pub, a boy drowned in the Gloucester and Berkeley Canal, a warder accused of causing the death of an asylum inmate, a man murdered by his jealous wife, and a father killed by his teenage son. Illustrated with a wide range of archive material and modern photographs, Gloucester Murder & Crime is sure to fascinate both residents and visitors alike as these shocking events of the past are revealed for a new generation.
The area known as Dogtown -- an isolated colonial ruin and surrounding 3,000-acre woodland in storied seaside Gloucester, Massachusetts -- has long exerted a powerful influence over artists, writers, eccentrics, and nature lovers. But its history is also woven through with tales of witches, supernatural sightings, pirates, former slaves, drifters, and the many dogs Revolutionary War widows kept for protection and for which the area was named. In 1984, a brutal murder took place there: a mentally disturbed local outcast crushed the skull of a beloved schoolteacher as she walked in the woods. Dogtown's peculiar atmosphere -- it is strewn with giant boulders and has been compared to Stonehenge -- and eerie past deepened the pall of this horrific event that continues to haunt Gloucester even today. In alternating chapters, Elyssa East interlaces the story of this grisly murder with the strange, dark history of this wilderness ghost town and explores the possibility that certain landscapes wield their own unique power. East knew nothing of Dogtown's bizarre past when she first became interested in the area. As an art student in the early 1990s, she fell in love with the celebrated Modernist painter Marsden Hartley's stark and arresting Dogtown landscapes. She also learned that in the 1930s, Dogtown saved Hartley from a paralyzing depression. Years later, struggling in her own life, East set out to find the mysterious setting that had changed Hartley's life, hoping that she too would find solace and renewal in Dogtown's odd beauty. Instead, she discovered a landscape steeped in intrigue and a community deeply ambivalent about the place: while many residents declare their passion for this profoundly affecting landscape, others avoid it out of a sense of foreboding. Throughout this richly braided first-person narrative, East brings Dogtown's enigmatic past to life. Losses sustained during the American Revolution dealt this once thriving community its final blow. Destitute war widows and former slaves took up shelter in its decaying homes until 1839, when the last inhabitant was taken to the poorhouse. He died seven days later. Dogtown has remained abandoned ever since, but continues to occupy many people's imaginations. In addition to Marsden Hartley, it inspired a Bible-thumping millionaire who carved the region's rocks with words to live by; the innovative and influential postmodernist poet Charles Olson, who based much of his epic Maximus Poems on Dogtown; an idiosyncratic octogenarian who vigilantly patrols the land to this day; and a murderer who claimed that the spirit of the woods called out to him. In luminous, insightful prose, Dogtown takes the reader into an unforgettable place brimming with tragedy, eccentricity, and fascinating lore, and examines the idea that some places can inspire both good and evil, poetry and murder.
This book gathers together the stories of the 123 prisoners who were executed at Gloucester between 1792, when the first prisoner was hanged on the roof over the entrance gate of the newly-built prison, and 1939, when the last convict was executed within the prison's walls. Infamous cases include the Berkeley poachers who shot and killed the Earl of Berkeley's gamekeeper; Rebecca Worlock, who poisoned her husband with arsenic; notorious robbers Matthew and Henry Pinnell; Charlotte Long, the last woman to be hanged for arson in England; and Herbert Rowse Armstrong, the Hay-on-Wye solicitor who was found guilty of poisoning his wife and attempting to murder a fellow solicitor. Famous executioners - including William Calcraft, William Marwood, William Billington and the Pierrepoints - also played their part in the history of the prison.Also included in this volume is an appendix listing all the men and women hanging at Over, near Gloucester, between 1731 and 1790. Fully illustrated, Hanged at Gloucester is sure to appeal to everyone interested in true crime history and the shadier side of Gloucestershire's past.
This chilling collection of cases delves into the villainous deeds that have taken place in Gloucester during its long history.Among those featured are a French sailor stabbed to death outside a Gloucester pub, a boy drowned in the Gloucester and Berkeley Canal, a warder accused of causing the death of an asylum inmate, a man murdered by his jealous wife, and a father killed by his teenage son.Illustrated with a wide range of archive material and modern photographs, Gloucester Murder & Crime is sure to fascinate both residents and visitors alike as these shocking events of the past are revealed for a new generation.
This chilling collection of cases delves into the villainous deeds that have taken place in Gloucester during its long history. Among those featured are a French sailor stabbed to death outside a Gloucester pub, a boy drowned in the Gloucester and Berkeley Canal, a warder accused of causing the death of an asylum inmate, a man murdered by his jealous wife, and a father killed by his teenage son. Illustrated with a wide range of archive material and modern photographs, Gloucester Murder & Crime is sure to fascinate both residents and visitors alike as these shocking events of the past are revealed for a new generation.
The Sex Slave Murders True Crime Bundle: Serial Killers Gerald & Charlene Gallego\Fred & Rosemary West\Leonard Lake & Charles Ng\Paul Bernardo & Karla Homolka contains one full length bestselling true crime book and three true crime shorts. The Sex Slave Murders: The True Story of Serial Killers Gerald & Charlene Gallego chronicles the kidnapping, rape, sex slave fantasies, brutality, and serial murder of husband and wife Gerald and Charlene Gallego in California, Nevada, and Oregon, killing ten, including a pregnant woman, and destroying many lives in the process before the killer couple was finally brought to justice and pitted against each other in riveting trials in two states. The Sex Slave Murders 2: The Chilling Story of Serial Killers Fred & Rosemary West (A True Crime Short) recounts the lives of Britain’s most infamous serial killer married couple, Fred and Rosemary West, who raped, tortured, held in bondage, and. murdered more than a dozen young females over two decades, mostly at the couple’s house of horrors on 25 Cromwell Street in Gloucester, in South West England, till the authorities brought the reign of terror to an end. The Sex Slave Murders 3: The Horrific Tale of Serial Killers Leonard Lake & Charles Ng (A True Crime Short) delves into the sex-motivated crimes at a secluded cabin and adjacent custom-made bunker of horrors in an unincorporated area in Calaveras County, California, where the brutal killers sexually assaulted, tortured, and murdered their multiple victims, often videotaping the heinous crimes for their sick pleasure, before a twist of fate brought their reign of terror to a shocking conclusion. Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka is a true crime short that looks at the infamous Canadian sexually motivated serial killers and husband and wife, who took three lives including that of Holmoka’s own sister; with Bernardo a serial rapist as well, known as The Scarborough Rapist, before justice came down on them.
This carefully crafted ebook: "True Crime Ultimate Collection: The Stories of Real Murders & Mysteries" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. Edgar Wallace (1875-1932) was an English writer. As well as journalism, Wallace wrote screen plays, poetry, historical non-fiction, 18 stage plays, 957 short stories and over 170 novels, 12 in 1929 alone. More than 160 films have been made of Wallace's work. Table of Contents: The Secret of the Moat Farm (1924) The Murder on Yarmouth Sands (1924) The Great Bank of England Frauds (1924) The Trial of the Seddons (1924) Herbert Armstrong - Poisoner (1924) The Suburban Lothario (1928) Excerpt: "There is no more dangerous criminal than a small larcenist who has escaped the consequence of his offences, through, as he believes, his own dexterity and skill. Having this good opinion of himself, he progresses from crime to crime, until there comes a moment when he finds no other escape from the consequences of his meanness and folly than the destruction of a human life which, as he believes, stands between himself and freedom. And so confident is he in his own genius for evasion that he will plan the most diabolical of crimes, perfectly satisfied in his mind that the success which has attended the commission of minor offences will not desert his efforts to evade the penalty of his supreme villainy."
