The Acid Bath Murders: The Trials and Liquidations of John George Haigh

by Gordon Lowe

John George Haigh committed five perfect murders – by dissolving his wealthy victims in sulphuric acid. Then he tipped away the resultant soup to avoid detection on a ‘no body, no murder’ principle and used his victims’ property to fund his luxury lifestyle of silk ties and flashy cars.Murder number six was less than perfect. When a guest in Haigh’s hotel disappeared, the police found half-dissolved body parts carelessly thrown into the yard outside his secluded workshop. But was the urbane Mr Haigh, the man brought up by strict Plymouth Brethren parents in Yorkshire and dressed like a city stockbroker, really the monster he said he was? Did he really kill six innocent people just so he could drink their blood? Using unpublished archive papers, including recently released letters Haigh wrote from prison while awaiting execution, author Gordon Lowe sheds light on whether Haigh’s claims were a cynical ploy for a ticket into Broadmoor Hospital, or if he was a psychopathic vampire with a penchant for disposing of his victims in acid.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, History

192 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2015

Reviews

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

John George Haigh murdered six people for their money and dissolved their bodies in acid believing that he could escape the law if there were no remains. After his final victim went missing, a well-off and liked widow, the stir it caused brought the full arm of the law down on him and he eventually confessed to all his murders. Haigh then tried to appear 'mad' in the hope that he would be sent to Broadmoor instead of the gallows but this did not work and he was executed in the summer of 1949. I whizzed through this short book as the writing style was easily accessible. He wrote this almost like a novel with full conversations between killer and victim/police/girlfriend/colleagues. I wasn't sure whether these were 'real' from an official source or 'imagined' by the author. Still an interesting introduction though to the Acid Bath Murderer.

[joanna rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

This light read was enjoyable to read during brief quiet moments on the train, or to open up at the beach as the chapters were only 2-3 pages long, 44 chapters in total; making it easy to finish chapters-for someone like myself with a fairly mediocre attention span, this book is suitable.

I also take leisure in the fictional style of writing, as Lowe takes you through the events of the story by giving vivid images of the murders and sets up the backgrounds of relationships to offer the reader a chance to grasp the odd nature of John Haigh as he kills dear acquaintances. Overall, a 4/5.

[Dr Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Readable but fairly fictional for my liking. If this is your goat, by all means go for it. However, the author is often speculative and passes off fiction for fact but without indicating that he is doing so tot he reader. There's not much evidence to show that Haigh was homosexual, for example, and his confession to an Anglican minister in prison is pure fabrication.

[Phoebe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and engages as. Enjoyed this book for the most part before the trial learning about his crimes and investigation process, however when the trial section started I did loose a little interest.

[Gali · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe a 2.5* but not enough to make it 3* for sure. The writing felt very superficial, never really covering anything in detail.