Between August and November 1888 six women were found murdered and mutilated in London's East End and Aldgate. All were prostitutes; five were found in the street and the sixth in a house. The murders provoked massive interest in the press and dozens of letters quickly appeared, claiming to have been written by the killer. The origin of the name Jack the Ripper itself was a letter, famously written to 'Dear Boss', the head of the Central News Agency.Certain letters...

Explore Britain's dark criminal history through the fascinating objects that have been hidden away in the Crime Museum at Scotland Yard, a collection that, although world-famous, is so sensitive it is not open to public view. Each object tells its own story: the briefcase with a concealed syringe owned by the notorious Kray twins; the gun Ruth Ellis used to murder her lover David Blakely; a burnt-out computer from the Glasgow airport car bomb; a picture from the property o...

At the dawn of the Victorian age there was effectively no police detective force in Britain and detecting methods were rudimentary; by the end of Victoria's reign the Criminal Investigation Department had been established and basic forensic tests were in use. This book explores the development of the professional detective during the nineteenth century, giving examples of the methods he used to track down criminals and to convict them of offences ranging from petty theft to brutal murder. ...

Two experienced Ripperologists have applied their joint knowledge and expertise to the painstaking collation of all the known official records to produce the ultimate Ripper book - a narrative account of the murders encompassing all the known evidence.The most complete work on the Ripper case ever, contains: the entire contents of the Scotland Yard files covering the full series of murders; extensive press reports; witness statements and extracts from police notebooks; documents mi...

'This is the only book from the Second World War comparable with the first-war narratives of Sassoon, Blunden or Graves... When the battle of El Alamein began, the poet Keith Douglas was in Cairo with Divisional HQ. Eager not to miss the action, he took a truck and, against orders, drove to re-join his regiment. He served as a tank commander throughout the whole of the allied advance across North Africa, and Alamein to Zem Zem (1946) is his story. Boyishness and inexperience give ...

The London of Jack the Ripper: Then and Now' is a photographic journey through the London of Jack the Ripper as it was when he stalked the mean streets and alleyways of the Capital.Robert Clack and Philip Hutchinson take the reader on a step-by-step tour of the crime scenes, giving a detailed history of the victims, the crimes and the police investigation.Using many previously unpublished photographs and illustrations, the authors put the reader on the very streets that Jack walked, s...

"Roland provides a well-balanced overview ... extensively illustrated and with timely coverage of some of the latest theories and research."-Stephen P. Ryder, Editor, Casebook: Jack the RipperMore than a century after he stalked the streets of London's East End, Jack the Ripper continues to exert a macabre fascination on the popular imagination.After scrupulously re-examining official documents of the time, investigative journalist ...

The streets of London flourish like possibly no other city on earth, with stories from its rich history, stories of death - fire - disease, of riots, and grisly murders, but also of tales of happiness, determination and success. Behind every story and every street however, are the people who lived, worked, played, and even murdered there.Everyone thinks they know of the legend of Dick Turpin, the gentleman highway robber, but Turpin was far from being the gentleman he was portrayed...

Lost London is the story of the city as told through the buildings, parks and palaces that are no longer with us. Places like the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, the leading venue for public entertainment in the city for over 200 years, or the Palace of Whitehall whose 1500 rooms made it the largest royal residence in Europe until it was destroyed by fire at the end of the 17th century. From bull rings to ice fairs, plague pits to molly houses, this is a fascinating journey through London's for...

Lizzie Borden took an axe,And gave her mother forty whacks,When she saw what she had done,She gave her father forty-one.Lizzie Andrew Borden (b.1860 – d.1927) was tried and acquitted in the 1892 axe murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts. Media coverage of the case created a furor throughout the United States reminiscent of the Rosenberg, Claus von Bulow and O.J. Simpson trials. No other suspect was ever charged with the double homici...

This compendium brings together thirty-three murderous tales — one from each of the capital's boroughs — that not only shocked the City but made headline news across the country. Throughout its history the great urban sprawl of Greater London has been home to some of the most shocking murders in England, many of which have made legal history. Contained within the pages of this book are the stories behind these heinous crimes. They include George Chapman, who was hanged in ...

The streets of London flourish like possibly no other city on earth, with stories from its rich history, stories of death - fire - disease, of riots, and grisly murders, but also of tales of hope, happiness, determination and success. Behind every story and every street however, are the people who lived, worked, played, and even murdered there. Did you know for instance that when Great Scotland Yard was being built in 1890, that the dismembered body of a woman was discovered by workmen, du...