Kate Clarke

Neil R. A. Bell

Trevor N. Bond

M.W. Oldridge

The new definitive guide to Victorian crime.

The A-Z of Victorian Crime

This book features the cases of six London women, each very different in temperament, age and status, who resorted to murder. Their reasons were varied: in the case of the surly maid Kate Webster, sheer temper seems the likely cause; avarice seemed to spur Catherine Wilson to murder an estimated seven times; desperation to pay for the upkeep of her two-year-old son lay behind Sarah Drake’s crime; seductive young cook Eliza Fenning was accused of serving poison with her dumplings; evil mistress Elizabeth Brownrigg whipped her servant to death in a home-built dungeon; and finally, the vicious Catherine Hayes persuaded two lovers – one of whom was her own son – to decapitate her husband in an orgy of violence. This fascinating study explores these cases in depth, and reveals whether these women were tragic, misunderstood or just plain wicked.

Six London Murderesses Who Shocked the World

Bad Companions

On the afternoon of 21 March 1815 Orlibar Turner and his family sat down to a meal of rump steak, potatoes and dumplings prepared by their young cook Elizabeth (or Eliza) Fenning. Shortly afterwards, the family was taken violently ill with stomach pains and vomiting. Next morning a local surgeon, urgently summoned to the Turners' house in London's Chancery Lane, identified arsenic in the dough that had been used to make the dumplings. Eliza was immediately arrested and within weeks she found herself on trial for attempted murder at the Central Criminal Court of the Old Bailey. After a hasty and woefully inadequate and prejudicial trial, she was convicted and sentenced to death. On 26 July 1815, wearing a white dress and lilac leather boots, she stood quietly on the scaffold outside Newgate Prison in front of a crowd of 45,000 people who had gathered to watch her die, having repeatedly declared her innocence, yet accepting her fate. The trial of Eliza Fenning is one of the most shameful miscarriages of justice in English criminal history. The Establishment closed ranks, determined to see the pretty servant of Irish descent hang. Despite gaining the support of several eminent liberals such as William Hone, John Watkins and Basil Montagu, who campaigned tirelessly for a reprieve, Eliza Fenning never stood a chance. Trial of Eliza Fenning is an important and deeply moving book. It describes the events leading up to the trial, the trial itself, and its aftermath, making use of many interesting and previously unseen documents that help place the case in its social, political and cultural context.

Trial of Eliza Fenning

Bernard Taylor

Murder at the Priory

In FATAL AFFAIRS, Kate Clarke recounts five extraordinary murder cases from the eighteenth and nineteenth century where love and romantic infatuation ended in death. In 1752, MARY BLANDY fell in love with army officer WILLIAM CRANSTOUN. Thwarted by her father's opposition to the match, they plotted his murder by arsenic poisoning. Cranstoun evaded justice, but Mary was hanged at Oxford Castle. Sexually violated as a child, ELIZABETH JEFFRIES and her lover JOHN SWAN shot and killed her uncle as he lay in bed. They were both publicly executed in Epping Forest in 1752. In 1765, nineteen-year-old KATHARINE NAIRN began a reckless affair with her brother-in-law Lieutenant PATRICK OGILVIE. When her husband died after a sudden, excruciating illness, Katharine and Patrick were arrested and convicted of incest and murder by poisoning. Ogilvie was hanged, but Katharine made a daring escape from the notorious Tolbooth Prison in Edinburgh and fled to France. On Christmas Eve in 1836, JAMES GREENACRE brutally murdered his wife-to-be Hannah Brown. He dismembered her body and dumped the remains in several locations around London. His mistress SARAH GALE spent days removing the blood stains from the crime scene. Greenacre met his death on the scaffold; Gale was transported to Australia where her life took an unexpected turn. In 1870, Brighton spinster CHRISTIANA EDMUNDS developed an inappropriate attachment to DR CHARLES BEARD. After attempting to murder Mrs Beard, Christiana began distributing poisoned chocolate creams around the town, killing one four-year-old boy. Sentenced to death at the Old Bailey she was reprieved on the grounds of insanity and spent the rest of her life in Broadmoor Hospital. FATAL AFFAIRS examines these cases in great detail and offers new insights into the motivations behind these dreadful crimes. It makes for fascinating and chilling reading.

Kate Clarke

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