Britain has its fair share of unsolved murders. Crimes that have both
fascinated and horrified in equal measure, with many as baffling today
as they were when the stories first hit the headlines in the national
press. Spanning 100 years between 1857-1957, this book re-examines
thirteen of these murder cases and retells the stories that have endured
and confounded both police and law courts alike. Each chapter provides
an account of the circumstances surrounding the killing, of the people
caught up in the subsequent investigation and the impact it had on some
of their lives. It also explores the question of guilt and to whom it
should, or should not, be attached. Each of these murders poses an
undeniable truth; no-one was ever proven to have committed the killing
despite, in some cases, accusing fingers being pointed, arrests being
made and show trials taking place. Consequently, notoriety, deserved or
otherwise, was often attached to both victim and accused. But was it
ever merited?
From the questionable court case surrounding Scotland's now famous
Madeleine Smith, and the failed police investigation into Bradford's
Jack the Ripper case of 1888, to the mysterious deaths of Caroline Luard
and Florence Nightingale Shore at the start of the twentieth century,
this book disturbs the dust, sifts the facts and poses the questions
that mattered at the time of each murder. Did Harold Greenwood poison
his wife in Kidwelly? Who was responsible for the Ripper-like killing of
Emily Dimmock and Rose Harsent? Why did Evelyn Foster die on the moor
near Otterburn in what became known as the Blazing car murder and who
strangled Ann Noblett to death in 1957?
These are just some of the cases examined and the stories behind them.
Each and every one, no matter how appalling the crime, still deserving
of justice.
