First published as Firing Line. October, 1940. Bombs are falling on Stratford when air-raid warden Sylvia Parks sees a house with a shining light, in clear breach of the city's strict blackout rules. With no answer at the door she manages to break in, only to discover the body of a young woman, strangled to death with a stocking. For Detective Inspector John Jago, the scene brings back memories of the gruesome Soho Strangler, who murdered four women a few years ago but has never been caught - could there be a connection?
Foul Deeds and Suspicious Death in Stratford and South Warwickshire is an exploration of the darker history of the area. Behind the famous tourist industry of Shakespears everyday life on farms and factories carried on just like anywhere else. Ancient superstitions and curious legends provided inspriation for the great bard and other authors but real life was punctuated by sudden death, jealousy and ruthlessness. This book examines some of the most dramatic incidents in detail. Dranw from contemporary sources, newspapers, legal documents and coroner's records; each case provides a glimpse into life and death in its historical setting. The changes in the town, both in its architecture and social values from the background to the lives and deaths of its citizens.
October, 1940. Bombs are falling on Stratford when air-raid warden Sylvia Parks sees a house with a shining light, in clear breach of the city's strict blackout rules. With no answer at the door she manages to break in, only to discover the body of a young woman, strangled to death with a stocking. For Detective Inspector John Jago, the scene brings back memories of the gruesome Soho Strangler, who murdered four women a few years ago but has never been caught - could there be a connection?
Maurice Morson has reconstructed, in painstaking detail, several of the most shocking and intriguing episodes from Norfolk's criminal history for this gripping study. He recalls the extraordinary case of Richard Nockolds, the violent weaver who revelled in assault, arson and machine-wrecking; the two cut-throats who were hanged for killing Hannah Mansfield; Herbert Bennett, found guilty of strangling his wife with a bootlace; Rosa Kowen who may - or may not - have battered her husband to death; John Stratford who murdered the wrong man; Samuel Yarham, the prosecution witness and real murderer; William Jacobs and Thomas Allen, both convicted of killing policemen; and, perhaps the most infamous case of all, the Burnham Westgate multiple murders. To these cases Maurice Morson has applied his skill as a historical researcher and his forensic experience as a former detective. Each case is closely reviewed, and the evidence is questioned. He gives a vivid insight into the local background, the personalities of the individuals involved, their relationships, the means by which the crimes were committed, and the workings of the police force and the justice system which often seems, to our modern eyes, clumsy and mistaken. This engrossing new book confirms Maurice Morson's reputation as the leading chronicler of crime in the county.
Robert Lichti started life as a happy boy, living on the family farm. Tragedy struck May 21, 1962, the day his father was killed and nothing would be the same again. Robert was there when it happened, but no one thought to ask the six-year-old boy his story. He was told to keep silent. Then fifty years later Robert decided he would be silent no more....
"When a famous man dies," says Anne Hathaway Shakespeare, "it's always the men who write about his life. Why don't they ask the wife?" And so she tells the story "the way it was," including their early days, William's rise to success as a playwright, and his involvement in the treason that threatened the life of Queen Elizabeth I. Anne and Will's marriage is tested by distance and his fame, but when Will's boyhood friend, the handsome and arrogant Richard Quiney, is murdered in the garden of the Shakespeare home in Stratford-upon-Avon and Will himself is accused of the crime, the family faces their most trying time yet. Among their circle of friends and family, plenty of people had reason to wish Richard dead, but it wasn't until Anne turned "detective" that the case was finally solved. A delightful tour of Elizabethan England makes Murder in Stratford a must-read for all fans of the Bard. Audrey Peterson fell in love with England when, as Professor of English at California State University at Long Beach, she traveled there to pursue research for scholarly publication, so it is no surprise that all of her mystery novels are set in England. Audrey lives in Huntington Beach, California, near her daughters and two grandchildren.
The story of one of the vilest murders in Canadian history. One glorious autumn day in 1894, a drifter attacked thirteen-year-old Jessie Keith so violently that people thought Jack the Ripper must be loose in rural Ontario. To solve the crime, the government called in Detective John Wilson Murray, the true-life model for Detective William Murdoch of the popular TV series Murdoch Mysteries. His prime clue was a black valise. The Man with the Black Valise traces the killer’s trajectory through three counties, a route that today connects travellers to poignant reminders of nineteenth-century life. Chief among them stands the statue of the Roman Goddess of Flora, gesturing as though to cast roses onto Jessie’s grave.
