The author and publishers wish to thank the following: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office for permission to reproduce the 1980 criminal statistics (pp xii, xiii); George Walpole & Company, Official Shorthand Writers to the Central Criminal Court, London EC4, for permission to quote from trial transcripts; Times Newspapers for permission to quote from trial reports; Michael Joseph Limited for permission to quote from No Answer to Foxtrot Eleven by Tom Tullett (pp 246-55); and Harrap Limited for permission to quote from Executioner: Pierrepoint by Albert Pierrepoint (pp 283-87); Pierrepoint, A Family of Executioners by Steve Fielding, published by John Blake Publishing.
CONTENTS
Title Page
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Introduction
1 Charles Peace: The Murder of Arthur Dyson, 1876
2 Jack the Ripper: The Whitechapel Murders, 1888
3 Florence Maybrick: The Murder of Mr Maybrick, 1889
4 Mrs Pearcey: The Murder of Mrs Hogg, 1890
5 Dr Cream: The Murder of Matilda Clover, 1891
6 Frederick Deeming: The Murder of Miss Mather, 1891
7 William Seaman: The Murder of John Levy, 1896
8 Milsom and Fowler: The Murder of Henry Smith 1896
9 Mrs Dyer: The Murder of Doris Marmon, 1896
10 Richard A Prince: The Murder of William Terriss, 1897
11 Samuel Dougal: The Murder of Miss Holland, 1899
12 Alfred and Albert Stratton: The Murders of Mr and Mrs Farrow, 1905
13 Dr Crippen: The Murder of Cora Crippen, 1910
14 Steinie Morrison: The Murder of Leon Beron, 1911
15 Mr and Mrs Seddon: The Murder of Eliza Barrow, 1911
16 George Smith: The Murder of Bessie Mundy, 1912
17 Alfred Bowes: The Attempted Assassination of Sir Edward Henry, 1912
18 David Greenwood: The Murder of Nellie Trew, 1918
19 Major Armstrong: The Murder of Mrs Armstrong, 1921
20 Ronald True: The Murder of Gertrude Yates, 1922
21 Freddy Bywaters and Edith Thompson: The Murder of Percy Thompson, 1922
22 Patrick Mahon: The Murder of Emily Kaye, 1924
23 Norman Thorne: The Murder of Elsie Cameron, 1924
24 John Robinson: The Murder of Minnie Bonati, 1927
25 Browne and Kennedy: The Murder of PC Gutteridge, 1927
26 Samuel Furnace: The Murder of Walter Spatchett, 1933
27 Parker and Probert: The Murder of Joseph Bedford, 1933
28 Charlotte Bryant: The Murder of Frederick Bryant, 1935
29 Leslie Stone: The Murder of Ruby Keen, 1937
30 Edward Chaplin: The Manslaughter of Percy Casserley, 1938
31 William Butler: The Murder of Ernest Key, 1938
32 Udham Singh: The Murder of Sir Michael O’Dwyer, 1940
33 Harold Trevor: The Murder of Mrs Greenhill, 1941
34 Gordon Cummins: The Murder of Evelyn Oatley, 1942
35 Jones and Hulten: The Murder of George Heath, 1944
36 Jack Tratsart: The Murders of John and Claire Tratsart, 1945
37 Neville Heath: The Murder of Margery Gardner, 1946
38 Jenkins, Geraghty and Rolt: The Murder of-Alec de Antiquis, 1947
39 Donald Thomas: The Murder of PC Edgar, 1948
40 Harry Lewis: The Murder of Harry Michaelson, 1948
41 John Haigh: The Murder of Mrs Durand-Deacon, 1949
42 Daniel Raven: The Murder of Mr Goodman, 1949
43 Craig and Bentley: The Murder of PC Miles, 1952
44 John Reginald Christie: The Murder of Mrs Christie, 1953
45 John Donald Merrett: The Murders of Vera Chesney and Lady Menzies, 1954
46 Ginter Wiora: The Murder of Shirley Allen, 1957
47 Michael Dowdall: The Murder of Veronica Murray, 1958
48 Guenther Podola: The Murder of DS Purdy, 1959
49 Roberts, Witney and Duddy: The Murders of DS Head, DC Wombwell and PC Fox, 1966
50 Reggie and Ronnie Kray: The Murders of George Cornell and Jack McVitie, 1966–7
51 Stanley Wrenn: The Murder of Colin Saunders, 1969
52 Mustapha Bassaine: The Murder of Julian Sessé, 1970
53 Arthur and Nizamodeen Hosein: The Murder of Mrs McKay, 1970
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
Appendix D
Afterword
Select Bibliography
By the Same Author
Copyright
Note
The years given above refer to the year of the crime in which the named victim was killed, not the year in which the ensuing trial took place. In cases of multiple killing the victim listed is the one for whose death the accused was tried. Neither Tratsart nor Merrett ever came to trial.
The Black Museum is now called the Crime Museum. The original Black Museum came into being in 1875, when exhibits that had been acquired as evidence and produced in court in connection with various crimes were collected together and privately displayed in a cellar in 1 Palace Place, Old Scotland Yard, Whitehall. Ten years later, the augmented collection was moved to a small back room on the second floor of the offices of the Convict Supervision Department. By then the objects on display, consisting mainly of weapons, and all carefully labelled, numbered about 150.
In 1890, when the Metropolitan Police began moving into their impressive new headquarters at New Scotland Yard on the Victoria Embankment (designed by Norman Shaw, RA), the museum went too. It was then called the Police Museum, its primary object being to provide some lessons in criminology for young policemen and its secondary one to act as a repository for artefacts associated with celebrated crimes and criminals. Privileged visitors, criminologists, lawyers, policemen and people working with the police were guided around the museum by the curator, who over the previous century has always been a former policeman, with a special responsibility for the cataloguing, maintenance and display of the exhibits, and for dealing with correspondence from criminologists all over the world.
In 1968, when the Metropolitan Police moved into their modern high-rise premises at 10 The Broadway, London SW1, the museum – by now officially called the Crime Museum – occupied a large room on the second floor. Eleven years later, on the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Metropolitan Police force, it was decided to reassess, reorganise and modernise every aspect of the museum – as well as the three other