Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths
4 total works
You may think Richmond, Kingston and the neighbouring districts are prosperous, safe and law-abiding in comparison to the hazardous, crime-prone centre of London, but you would be mistaken. For, as Jonathan Oates shows in this gripping book, appalling crimes have shocked the local community and left their mark on the history of the area over the last two centuries. Among the sensational criminal cases he reconstructs in chilling, forensic detail are the murder of the French count and countess who fled the reign of terror in revolutionary France only to become the victims of their own servant, the bigamist suspected of poisoning, the female servant who was hanged for chopping up her mistress, the poverty-stricken elderly couple who swallowed belladonna in a suicide pact, the jobless accountant who shot his three children and committed suicide, and the killing of two teenage girls who were assaulted, then stabbed, then thrown in the Thames. As he takes the reader through these stories of malice, perversion and despair, Jonathan Oates reveals the dark, sometimes lethal side of the history of Richmond and Kingston.
The twin fascinations of death and villainy will always hold us in their grim but thrilling grip. In Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Lewisham and Deptford the chill is brought close to home as each chapter investigates the darker side of humanity in cases of murder, deceit and pure malice committed over the centuries in this area of London. From crimes of passion to opportunistic killings and coldly premeditated acts of murder, the full spectrum of criminality is recounted, bringing to life the more sinister history of Lewisham and Deptford from the sixteenth century onwards. For this journey into the bloody, neglected past, Jonathan Oates has selected over 20 notorious episodes that give a fascinating insight into criminal acts and the criminal mind. The story of one of the most famous unsolved murders in history, of the great playwright Christopher Marlowe in Deptford in 1593. is followed by a catalogue of heinous crimes of every description - political conspiracies, gang killings, murders of policemen, suicide pacts, multiple poisonings, a husband who killed his wife and four children, the suicide of a crooked councillor, a motiveless murder and two unsolved murders that are as intriguing today as they were 80 years ago.
The human dramas Jonathan Oates describes are often played out in the most commonplace of circumstances, but others are so odd as to be stranger than fiction. His grisly chronicle of the hidden history of Lewisham and Deptford will be compelling reading for anyone who is interested in the dark side of human nature.
The human dramas Jonathan Oates describes are often played out in the most commonplace of circumstances, but others are so odd as to be stranger than fiction. His grisly chronicle of the hidden history of Lewisham and Deptford will be compelling reading for anyone who is interested in the dark side of human nature.
Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths Around Uxbridge - True Crime BooksFoul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths Around Uxbridge takes the reader on a sinister and sad journey through centuries of local crime and conspiracy, meeting victims and villains of all sorts along the way. There is no shortage of harrowing - and revealing - incidents of evil and despair to recount from the earliest recorded history of the Uxbridge district up to the present day. Jonathan Oates's fascinating research has uncovered some grisly events and unsavoury individuals whose conduct throws a harsh light on the history of this suburban area west of London. His book records crime and punishment in all its dreadful variety. Among many acts of violence and wickedness are the burning to death of five Protestant martyrs and the execution of a turbulent priest in Tudor times, a family massacred at Denham in 1870 and several brutal murders that have never been solved or explained.
Cases that stand out as particularly shocking or bizarre include a son who was killed by his mother, a woman who died after an illegal operation, the Uxbridge tea-shop murder of 1951, and a man tried for manslaughter and later murder in West Drayton who committed suicide two decades later. This chronicle of Uxbridge's hidden history will be compelling reading for anyone who is interested in the local history of the area and in the dark side of human nature.
Cases that stand out as particularly shocking or bizarre include a son who was killed by his mother, a woman who died after an illegal operation, the Uxbridge tea-shop murder of 1951, and a man tried for manslaughter and later murder in West Drayton who committed suicide two decades later. This chronicle of Uxbridge's hidden history will be compelling reading for anyone who is interested in the local history of the area and in the dark side of human nature.
Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Ealing takes the reader on a sinister journey through centuries of local crime and conspiracy, meeting villains of all sorts along the way - cut-throats and poisoners, murderous lovers, political assassins, murderers and suicides. Jonathan Oates's fascinating book recalls many grisly events and sad or unsavoury characters whose conduct throws a revealing light on their lives and the society of their day.The book records crime and punishment in the past in all its shocking variety. Among the many instances of violence, wickedness and deceit the author recalls are local merchants executed for treason, a highwayman's last robbery, the cruel fate of a forger, the unsolved murder of a servant girl, the husband who accidentally strangled his wife, the killing of local policeman and the assassination of a prime minister. The result will be compelling reading for anyone who is interested in the dark side of human nature.