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Warwickshire Murders
Warwickshire has seen its fair share of murder down the centuries. This latest collection explores notorious crimes from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, using contemporary documents, trial transcripts and newspaper accounts to examine cases that gripped both the county and the nation. Among the stories included here are the case of Edwin James Moore, who set fire to his mother after an argument over supper at Leamington Spa in 1907; the Coventry bombings in 1939, for which two men were executed in 1940; and the case of Thomas Ball, who was poisoned by his wife in 1848. She was later tried and executed in Coventry and was the last woman to be executed in public.
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 18, 2017
Short, interesting but not especially detailed.
April 19, 2023
A bit too much like watching the news, but an alright read nonetheless.
July 23, 2016
"My husband was in the habit of going with other women, and used me so ill - no one knows what I have suffered." Mary Ball
There are many juicy murders here to dissect. They range from lunatics to abused women.
There were a few that stood out for me. Mary Ball’s poisoning of her abusive husband by tricking him into putting the poison in his own drink was unique for me. However, no one bought that and she was the last woman to hang in Coventry.
There also was a man who came home from the First World War and couldn’t find work so he lived with his parents. He threatened his father with a meat cleaver and one night he came home after drinking, set his mother on fire, and refused to let the neighbors in to put her out until the house itself started on fire. If it wasn’t for his little brother testifying against him, he may have gotten away with it. We would probably call it PTSD today.
I thought the story of the woman and her bigamous husband interesting. Not only did this man beat her for anything and everything but he also started sleeping with her younger sister. When she moved back in with her mother, he broke in the house and shot her.
Many other stories populate this book of true crime in Warwickshire. This was a fast listen of around 3 hours. Why did I think this would help me sleep last night? Forewarned: not recommended for a good night’s sleep.
There are many juicy murders here to dissect. They range from lunatics to abused women.
There were a few that stood out for me. Mary Ball’s poisoning of her abusive husband by tricking him into putting the poison in his own drink was unique for me. However, no one bought that and she was the last woman to hang in Coventry.
There also was a man who came home from the First World War and couldn’t find work so he lived with his parents. He threatened his father with a meat cleaver and one night he came home after drinking, set his mother on fire, and refused to let the neighbors in to put her out until the house itself started on fire. If it wasn’t for his little brother testifying against him, he may have gotten away with it. We would probably call it PTSD today.
I thought the story of the woman and her bigamous husband interesting. Not only did this man beat her for anything and everything but he also started sleeping with her younger sister. When she moved back in with her mother, he broke in the house and shot her.
Many other stories populate this book of true crime in Warwickshire. This was a fast listen of around 3 hours. Why did I think this would help me sleep last night? Forewarned: not recommended for a good night’s sleep.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews