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Medical Murders
Tells the stories of eleven doctors, a dentist, and a nurse who committed murders
252 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1992
About the author
Jonathan Goodman
71 books6 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Jonathan Goodman was one of Britain's leading historian of crime. The American critic and historian Jacques Barzun described him as "the greatest living master of the true-crime literature", and Julian Symons, another big name in true-crime, thought of him as "the premier investigator of crime past".
His career as a full-time writer began in the 1970s when he edited the Celebrated Trials series which itself was a successor to Notable British Trials. Then in the 1980s, he worked on numerous anthologies, such as The Railway Murders (1984) and The Seaside Murders (1985), often persuading his many friends to provide a chapter and then writing a short introduction. He also continued to research old murder cases, writing books on the Newcastle upon Tyne murder of Evelyn Foster, the New York locked-room mystery of card-playing womaniser Joseph Elwell and, in 1990, The Passing of Starr Faithfull, the daughter of a Manhattan society couple whose body was washed up on Long Beach, New York, in 1931, for which he received the Crime Writers' Association's gold dagger for non-fiction.
He is most well known for uncovering a solution to Britain's most baffling real-life whodunnit, the murder of Julia Wallace in Liverpool in 1931; he not only exonerated the dead woman's husband but identified and traced the man he believed to be the real murderer. This was documented in The Killing of Julia Wallace (1969).
Jonathan Goodman was one of Britain's leading historian of crime. The American critic and historian Jacques Barzun described him as "the greatest living master of the true-crime literature", and Julian Symons, another big name in true-crime, thought of him as "the premier investigator of crime past".
His career as a full-time writer began in the 1970s when he edited the Celebrated Trials series which itself was a successor to Notable British Trials. Then in the 1980s, he worked on numerous anthologies, such as The Railway Murders (1984) and The Seaside Murders (1985), often persuading his many friends to provide a chapter and then writing a short introduction. He also continued to research old murder cases, writing books on the Newcastle upon Tyne murder of Evelyn Foster, the New York locked-room mystery of card-playing womaniser Joseph Elwell and, in 1990, The Passing of Starr Faithfull, the daughter of a Manhattan society couple whose body was washed up on Long Beach, New York, in 1931, for which he received the Crime Writers' Association's gold dagger for non-fiction.
He is most well known for uncovering a solution to Britain's most baffling real-life whodunnit, the murder of Julia Wallace in Liverpool in 1931; he not only exonerated the dead woman's husband but identified and traced the man he believed to be the real murderer. This was documented in The Killing of Julia Wallace (1969).
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 5, 2014
“A collecton of essays about doctors who have made an hippocracy of the hippocratic oath and commited murder. Predominantly the motive being money. In this volume there are some fascinating accounts, including the story of William Palmer; a doctor with a gambling addiction who pressed certain people to get life insurance policies and promptly poisoned them so he could reap the benefits and assuage his gambling debts. Fascinting.”
September 12, 2023
Interesting compilation from various real life incidents that took place and were reported in the newspapers.
August 28, 2012
I have read this one before and it is an interesting read however some of the accounts are quite long and rambling. I tend to find the last few hard going as in this particular type of book I prefer the accounts to be more concise. Not a bad book though for those who like true crime.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews