A-Z of Victorian Crime

Few things are more evocative of Victorian Britain than its criminals; they are, together with railways, gas lamps and swirling fog, vital ingredients in any Victorian melodrama. The truth, however, was often stranger, more thrilling and more horrifying than fiction.In this book, four eminent crime historians reveal the realities of this aspect of Victorian life, illuminating not just the criminals and their victims, but also the policemen, forensic scientists and others who rubbed shoulders with the nineteenth-century underworld. Notorious crimes – the Road Hill Murder, the Balham Mystery and Jack the Ripper – stand alongside long-forgotten, neglected cases; the most shocking and terrifying cases appear next to everyday horrors, some stunning and some merely sad. This unique work of reference deserves a place on every true crime reader’s bookshelf.

‘The best handy reference to classic Victorian crimes on this planet’, ‘A most useful compendium’

Neil R. A. Bell is one of the most respected students of the Ripper case. He has been published extensively in specialist journals such as Ripperologist and Casebook Examiner, as well as for the BBC. Neil has written numerous articles upon the case and was the runner-up for the Jeremy Beadle Prize for the year’s best articles featured in Ripperologist magazine in 2009 and 2010. Neil has also recently been Police Advisor for the Channel Five documentary Jack the Ripper: The Definitive Story. Trevor Bond is a co-author of 'The A-Z of Victorian Crime'. He has given presentations at the Jack the Ripper conferences in 2009, 2012, 2014 and 2017. Kate Clarke is the author of Murder at the Priory (with Bernard Taylor), In the Interests of Science: Adelaide Bartlett and the Pimlico Poisoning, Who Killed Simon Dale?, Deadly Service, Bad Companions, Fatal Affairs and A Deadly Dilemma. Her Journals and papers (from 1958 to the present day) are archived at the library of the University of Sussex. M.W. Oldridge is the author of Murder and Crime: Whitechapel and District and The Moat Farm Mystery.