This is a new paperback version for 2011. It includes absorbing real life accounts of nearly every reported murder that took place around Derby during the twentieth century. It features well-known cases and those which are lesser known but equally fascinating tales of jealousy, revenge and tragedy. The people whose stories are told in this volume all had one thing in common. All of them were accused of taking the life of at least one other person, faced a trial for that crime, and were sentenced to hang by the neck until they were dead. Some, such as John Silk, who beat his mother to death, Percy Atkin, who buried his wife alive, or Albert Burrows, who claimed four lives and threw the bodies down a disused mine shaft, did pay that ultimate penalty. All the others, with one exception, had their death sentences commuted to one of life imprisonment, the exception being Ernest Prince whose murder conviction was quashed on appeal and a manslaughter verdict substituted. The killers in this book have claimed the lives of spouses, parents, friends and strangers, for motives ranging from anger to jealousy, and old-fashioned greed. Read their stories for yourself and decide if those who died at the end of a rope all deserved that fate, and equally, if all those who escaped that terrible fate, should have done so.

This is a new paperback version for 2011. It includes absorbing real life accounts of nearly every reported murder that took place in Tyneside during the twentieth century. It features well-known cases and those which are lesser known but equally fascinating tales of jealousy, revenge and tragedy. The city of Newcastle and its immediate environs of Jarrow, North and South Shields and the outlying towns, have seen some most intriguing murder cases. Perhaps the most famous of all is that of the murder of John Innes Nisbet by John Alexander Dickman, for which the latter was hanged in August 1910. Yet there are others in the pages of this book whose stories are equally fascinating. You will read of the two Millers, hanged 90 minutes apart on the same day for what was a senseless crime. Or consider Thomas Craig, a man determined to avenge himself on the woman who had spurned him; of William Ambrose Collins who brutally murdered a WAAF during the war years. Capital punishment is a very emotive subject and this book is not intended to argue the case either for, or against. The facts are told and it is up to the reader to decide for themselves whether the hanging of these killers served any purpose beyond judicial revenge.

This is a new paperback version for 2011. It includes absorbing real life accounts of every murder that took place in Manchester during the twentieth century. It features well-known cases and those which are lesser known but equally fascinating tales of jealousy, revenge and tragedy. This book tells the story of every murder which took place in Manchester during the twentieth century and which ended in the execution of the person found guilty of the crime and who went on to pay the ultimate penalty of death by hanging at the end of a rope. Some cases are well-known, such as those of George Rice, William Burtoft and Walter Graham Rowland - who was reprieved for a murder he did commit but was later hanged for one which he may not have committed - but any of the lesser known murders have equally absorbing stories of love, jealousy and lust. Readers will discover child killers such as John Horner, wife killers such as Frederick Ballington, and those who killed out of rage or for revenge, such as James Ryder. And then there was James Henry Corbitt, where the hangman was someone he had known as a friend. All manner of motives are shown, all sorts of weapons are used, but in the final analysis each story represents a human tragedy in which at least two people lost their lives. Read these stories and then decide for yourselves whether or not every one was guilty as charged.

This is a new paperback version for 2011. It includes absorbing real life accounts of nearly every reported murder that took place in the Leeds area during the twentieth century. It features well-known cases and those which are lesser known but equally fascinating tales of jealousy, revenge and tragedy. The city of Leeds and its nearby partner, Bradford, have seen some of the most intriguing cases of murder in the twentieth century. This book opens with the story of the man who killed both his daughters because he couldn't afford to take care of them. He was subsequently told by the jury which found him guilty of murder that he had been kind to his children. The book ends with the murder of a man who had bragged about a win on the football pools. Other chapters, though, are equally fascinating. The reader will find the story of William Horsely Wardell, who wormed his way into his victim's affections and then brutally battered her to death. Imagine his horror when his description was published in a newspaper and all his friends rushed to give him up to the police. Alternatively, what of the story of William Batty who shot his rival in love, or of the mysterious death of Emily Yeomans and decide for yourself whether David Maskill Blake was guilty of murder. Leeds and Bradford have indeed seem some fascinating murders and not only does this book catalogue all those this century which ended in the execution of the convicted, it also includes many illustrations never before published.

This is a new paperback version for 2011. It includes absorbing real life accounts of nearly every reported murder that took place in Sussex during the twentieth century. It features well-known cases and those which are lesser known but equally fascinating tales of jealousy, revenge and tragedy. In many ways, the counties of East and West Sussex might well be described as the murder capital of the country. True, London has had more murders that ended in the death penalty but Sussex has seen many of the cases which captured the nation's headlines. Amongst those famous cases are John Thorne, who killed his girlfriend and then buried her body on his chicken farm, Patrick Mahon, who cut his victim into pieces at a bungalow on the Crumbles, and Field and Gray who battered Irene Munro to death on that same stretch of shingle beach. The most famous case of all, though, must be that of John George Haigh, who earned himself epithets such as 'the Vampire Killer' or 'the Acid Bath Killer'. However, the lesser-known cases can be even more fascinating and these include a case which involves a house owned by a king. Sussex has them all. This book tells the stories of all the murderers of the 20th century who either killed in Sussex, or had a strong Sussex connection, and who went on to pay the ultimate penalty. Decide for yourself if they all deserved that fate.

This fascinating book examines 50 capital crimes committed in Great Britain in the 20th century in which the accused was found guilty and either executed or sentenced to life imprisonment.

A detailed and meticulously researched encyclopedia on all aspects of Jack the Ripper, one of the world's most famous, and mysterious, serial killers. The encyclopedia includes a list of more than 100 witnesses and what each one saw, descriptions of the locations where the murders took place and the police officers involved in the investigations, contemporary newspaper accounts, and psychological profiles and physical descriptions of The Ripper. In the final chapter, John J. Eddleston, author of numerous books and articles on crime, reveals his own deductions about "whodunnit," narrowing the list of suspects to one man.

This is a new paperback version for 2011. It includes absorbing real life accounts of nearly every reported murder that took place in the Birmingham area during the twentieth century. It features well-known cases and those which are lesser known but equally fascinating tales of jealousy, revenge and tragedy. Although Birmingham is England's second city, its inhabitants have proved to be much less inclined to kill their fellows than in other ares of the country, but those who have picked up the knife, cocked the gun, or wielded the blunt instrument have done so for a myriad of reasons and their stories make interesting reading. Within the pages of "Murderous Birmingham" are all the stories of the men who committed murder within the immediate area of the city of Birmingham during the 20th century, and who went on the pay the ultimate penalty of death at the end of the rope. Since the would not include every execution in the city's jail, there is an appendix which details other Birmingham hangings and so the true crime historian can use this as a complete reference work. For others it will simply make absorbing reading about a darker side of this city.

A Century of Welsh Murders and Executions brings together thirty-six murderous tales that shocked not only Wales but also made national headlines. This fascinating new book by crime historian John J. Eddleston covers every twentieth century murder committed in Wales which resulted in a judicial execution. They include the case of William Augustus Lacey, who killed his young wife with a razor in a fit of jealously at Pontypridd in 1900; baby farmer Rhoda Willis, the first woman to be hanged at Cardiff Prison, in 1907; Eric Lange, who brutally murdered the landlord of the Bridgend Hotel, Pentre, in 1904; and Thomas Ronald Lewis Harries, who murdered both his uncle and aunt and buried them in a shallow grave on a farm at Llangynin in 1954. John J. Eddleston's carefully researched, well-illustrated and enthralling text will appeal to anyone interested in the shady side of Welsh history, and should give much food for thought. It is the definitive book on capital crimes in the Principality.

Stories of violent death will always hold us in a grim but thrilling grip. The dreadful crimes related in Foul Deeds in Kensington & Chelsea are shocking examples of murder cases that readers will never forget. Crimes of passion, opportunistic killings, political assassinations - the full spectrum of extreme criminality is recounted here. John Eddleston has selected a series of notorious episodes that give a fascinating insight into criminal acts and the criminal mind. The human dramas he depicts are often played out in the most commonplace of circumstances, but others are so odd as to be stranger than fiction. Cases of involving the killing of wives, lovers and children are among those he describes, but he also reconstructs in forensic detail several more unusual crimes - two men shot dead at a lecture, the field marshal who was assassinated on his doorstep, the acid bath killings, and the murders of two ill-fated countesses. These lethal episodes give a fascinating insight into the dark side of the history of Kensington & Chelsea. John J. Eddleston is an authority on British criminal history and a prolific writer on the subject. His many books include Murderous Sussex, Murderous Manchester, Blind Justice, Jack the Ripper: An Encyclopedia, The Encyclopedia of Executions, A Century of Welsh Murders and Executions, Manx Killers, Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Southampton and Miscarriages of Justice: Famous London Cases.

The gruesome, unsolved murders by the first media-sensationalized serial killer, Jack the Ripper, continue to fascinate after more than 100 years. However, from the beginning the truth has been obscured by a fog of half-truths and misinterpretations. This book aims to clear up the misinformation and myths surrounding Jack the Ripper. The author uses a critical review of the kind that is now used to scrutinize unsolved crimes. He re-checks, re-examines and re-evaluates the facts, conjectures, newspaper accounts, eyewitness reports and official pronouncements. The book includes: descriptions of the locations where the bodies were found; detailed histories of the victims; profiles of key police officials and examinations of police procedures, investigations, blunders and errors; details of prevailing myths about the case; an evaluation of all the chief suspects; comprehensive analyses of the existing literature; discussions of written communications ostensibly sent by the Ripper; and an argument identifying the most likely suspects.

John J. Eddleston's carefully researched, well-illustrated and enthralling text will appeal to anyone interested in the shady side of Britain's capital city. A Century of London Murders and Executions includes the case of the infamous Dr Crippen, executed in 1910 for poisoning and dismembering his wife in Islington; Neville Heath, who was hanged at Pentonville Prison for the brutal murder of Margery Gardner in 1946; and Ruth Ellis, the last woman to hang in Britain after being found guilty of shooting her lover outside a pub on the edge of Hampstead Heath in 1955.