True Crime
True crime writing comes from far more than an interest in the crime itself. The genre includes elements fo biography, social history and of course, detective work. The writer also has to explain the law as it was at the time of the story. But at the heart of all this is a human dilemma, often a tragedy, and the narrative begins and ends with the exploration of that.
A bit about some of my books...
Britain’s Notorious Prisoners
Prison is an unknown world to most of us. It is a place where time stops and lives are held in suspension, out of circulation; in the gaol population, amongst the fraudsters and robbers there are the dangerous ones: the killers and rapists, the gang hit men and the serial offenders. They are the most notorious, and their reputations have been enlarged, sometimes by glamour and sometimes by horrendous tales of their misdeeds. Read More
Escapes From The Noose
Over the centuries of British history, from the Anglo-Saxons to the 1960s, our society imposed the death penalty for serious crime. In the Regency years, the number of capital offences increased to over 200. But by the side of retribution there was always clemency. What could save a felon from the noose? Read More
Famous But Forgotten Murders
The word ‘murder’ attracts the reader of the latest tabloid sensation. The story will provide animated talk at tea-breaks across the land, and the killer is vilified and hated. Then the next day has one more grisly tale of another murder. The worst crimes become yesterday’s news. Some live on, notably the lives and deeds of the worst serial killers and gangsters. But most stories are forgotten. In this book, I have gathered murder stories covering the whole span of the last century, providing a mix of cases which were famous at the time but are now for the true crime aficionado.
Here you will find the story of the first conviction from fingerprint evidence, murders of police officers, an account of the last hanging in England, and stories of murderous husbands and wives. But there are also the mysteries: unsolved murders here include the infamous Wallace case, the librarian’s confession found after his death, and the continuing puzzle of Jeannie Donald, whose case ended in the Scottish verdict of ‘not proven.’
The reader will meet the man who poisoned his rival’s scones; the perhaps wrongful conviction of Walter Rowland, and the amazing acquittal of the good wife who shot her man dead. There are also tales from the Isle of Man, which gave death penalty verdicts in the 1990s. Read more
The Torso in the Tank
Every locality in the Uk has its share of violent crimes -events so shocking that they linger in the collective memory for years - and in this respect, the North east of England is no different. In West Auckland, over a period of twenty years during the middle of the nineteenth century, Mary Ann Cotton, to date Britain's most prolific female serial killer, killed no fewer than twenty-one people. Thankfully, hers is a record that none of the thirty murders covered here have come close to although the gruesome nature of some of these deaths make Mary's chosen mehtod of dispatch -poisonong- seem almost merciful.
DNA Crime Investigations
Here I have gathered together most of the high-profile cases of recent years - and some obscure ones - examining the nature of the crimes, the investigation highs and lows, and the triumphs of the new forensic work. Some failures are also recounted too, as sceintists began to work with barristers in court, making the DNA evidence solid and meaningful for juries. The famous cases included are those of Rachel Nickel, Keith Lyon, Lesley Molseed, the World's End killings, and the Cardiff Three. You will also find here the miscarriage of justice so recently in the news - the case of Sean Hodgson.
List of My True Crime Books
- Britain’s Notorious Hangmen
- Britain’s Notorious Prisoners
- Cold Cases Revisited
- Escapes from the Noose
- Famous but Forgotten Murders
- Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths Series: volumes on Halifax, Liverpool, Grimsby, Dublin and Bradford.
- Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Doncaster
- Hanged at Lincoln
- The Torso in the Tank
- Unsolved Yorkshire Murders
- Yorkshire’s Murderous Women