Notorious Murders of the Twentieth Century: Famous and Forgotten British Cases

by Stephen Wade

The word 'murder' has always attracted widespread local and national media coverage. Once known, the story becomes the subject of discussion in a variety of places throughout the land. Some grisly tales become part of a culture that lives on for generations, whilst others, even by some of the worst serial killers, are soon forgotten. In this book experienced crime historian Stephen Wade has gathered together a collection of murders covering the entire twentieth century. Although famous in their own day, most are now forgotten by the general public, apart from the best true crime enthusiasts. The first conviction for fingerprint evidence, the last hanging in England and murderous husbands and wives are included; but there are also mysteries, unsolved killings and peculiar confessions. Meet the man who poisoned his rival's scones, a wrongful arrest and the acquittal of a good wife who shot her man dead. There are even tales from the Isle of Man, whose legislators continued to issue death penalties in the 1990s.

Genres: True Crime, Crime, Nonfiction, History

231 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 19, 2011

About the author

Stephen Wade was born in Leeds and educated at the universities of Wales and Leeds.

He taught in further and higher education for many years, and this was followed by six years as a writer working in prisons.

He has written over fifty books, mainly in non-fiction, and he also lectures part-time at the University of Hull.

Reviews

[Paula Corregan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting book!

This book gave details of several murders which occurred in various areas in England, the Isle of Man , Ireland and Wales. Some of the murders were never solved. I found a few typographical errors in the book. I highly recommend this book to other true crime readers.

[Joanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had the digital copy from my local library and it was riddled with typographical errors and poorly edited. The reading material other than that was fairly interesting, and I learned about some historical cases I'd never heard of before.

[A.L. Butcher · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although some of the cases were interesting enough overall the book was a little slow and sensationalised.
The discussion about the forensics and the unsolved cases were well presented. The lesser known cases were the most fascinating, as the famous cases are easy to find elsewhere.

There were a lot of typos and formatting issues - several per chapter and this got quite annoying. Whether that was to do with kindle conversion I have no idea but it did detract from the reading experience.

*Last time I checked on Amazon the book was being reformatted so the issues may be rectified.

[Maureen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed some of the chapters in this book, thought it weird how some folk won appeals for murder and some didnt, a lot of it seemed to be just luck