Scenes of Murder: Then and Now

In this book, "After the Battle" have explored entirely new ground to investigate 150 years of murder and present it through our 'then and now' theme of comparison photographs. It includes scene of crime plans, photographs from police files as well as from the Press, focus on a wide variety of murders committed between 1812, when a Prime Minister was shot in the House of Commons, to killings on the streets of London in the 1960s. Included are many of the 'headline' murderers like Jack the Ripper, Dr Crippen, Kennedy and Browne, the 'Black-out' Ripper, John Haigh, John Christie, Donald Hume, Ruth Ellis, Ronald Marwood, Guenther Podola and the Roberts Gang, along with other less notorious - but equally important - murders. Extracts from eyewitnesses and investigating officers, original statements taken by police including from the murderers, newspaper articles published at the time, pathologist accounts and even descriptions given by executioners are all blended with photographs of the murder scenes as they appear today. Homicide is not a subject for the faint-hearted and many of the photographs are distressing which is why the book is made available with that warning.Far too often it is the perpetrator who is remembered while their victims, many lying in unmarked graves, remain lost to history. So this book sets out to redress the balance by tracking down the last resting places, even going as far as to mark two wartime graves of taxi drivers killed by American servicemen. Research also resulted in achieving formal recognition by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission for one of the victims of Neville Heath, murdered while she was serving her country yet omitted from the commemorative records until now. Controversially, comes the revelation that 17 murderers who served in the Army during the war, and who were executed for their crimes, now have their names commemorated on the Brookwood Memorial to the Missing in Surrey. Murders covered...May 11, 1812 - The Death Of A Prime Minister, December 13, 1867 - The Last Public Execution, December 1887-September 1889 - 'Jack The Ripper', February 1, 1910 - Dr Hawley Crippen, December 16, 1910 - The Houndsditch Murders, January 1, 1911 - The Murder Of Leon Beron, June 17, 1919 - Riot By Canadian Troops At Epsom, June 22, 1922 - The Assassination Of Sir Henry Wilson, October 4, 1922 - The Bywaters/Thompson Affair, September 27, 1927 - Police Constable George Gutteridge, November 6, 1930 - The Strange Case Of Alfred Rouse, August 7, 1934 - Death At The Palace Cinema, July 14, 1938 - The 'Lovers' Lane' Murder, March 13, 1940 - The Shooting Of Sir Michael O'dwyer, February 1942 - The 'Black-Out Ripper', April 30, 1942 - Double Execution For Murder, October 7, 1942 - The 'Wigwam' Murder, December 27, 1942 - The First American Execution In Britain, September 28, 1943 - Rape And Murder At Marlborough, and, December 8, 1943 - The Birch Taxi-Cab Murder.It also includes: March 5, 1944 - Execution By Firing Squad, February 14, 1944 - The 'Cabbage Patch' Murder, August 22, 1944 - The Killing Of Betty Green, October 7, 1944 - Us Deserter Tried In A British Court, December 3, 1944 - The Murder Of Sir Eric Teichman, December 8, 1944 - Captain Ralph Binney, R.N., June 21, 1946 - Wanted For Murder: Neville Heath, April 29, 1947 - The Killing Of Alec De Antiquis, February 18, 1949 - John Haigh And The Acid-Bath Murders, October 4, 1949 - Donald Hume: 'I Got Away With Murder!', June 4, 1951 - Gun-Battle At Chatham, 1943-1953 - 10 Rillington Place, London, W11, November 2, 1952 - Christopher Craig And Derek Bentley, July 2, 1953 - The 'Teddy Boy' Murder, April 8, 1955 - Ruth Ellis: The Last Woman To Be Hanged, May 24, 1957 - The Slaying Of Countess Teresa Lubienska, December 14, 1958 - The Murder Of Police Constable Ray Summers, July 13, 1959 - The Death Of Detective Sergeant Raymond Purdy, and, June 3, 1961 - Police Murders In West Ham.It also features: August 23, 1961 - Rape And Murder On The A6, August 12, 1966 - The Shepherd's Bush Murders, and February 21, 1968 - Death In A London Street Murderers Commemorated On The Brookwood Memorial In 1958.