The Battered Body Beneath the Flagstones, and Other Victorian Scandals

by Michelle Morgan

A grisly book dedicated to the crimes, perversions and outrages of Victorian England, covering high-profile offences - such as the murder of actor William Terriss, whose stabbing at the stage door of the Adelphi Theatre in 1897 filled the front pages for many weeks - as well as lesser-known transgressions that scandalised the Victorian era.

The tales include murders and violent crimes, but also feature scandals that merely amused the Victorians. These include the story of a teenage man who married an actress, only to be shipped off to Australia by his disgusted parents; and the Italian ice-cream man who only meant to buy his sweetheart a hat but ended up proposing marriage instead. When he broke it off, his fiancée's father sued him and the story was dubbed the 'Amusing Aberdeen Breach of Promise Case'. Also present is the gruesome story of the murder of Patrick O Connor who was shot in the head and buried under the kitchen flagstones by his lover Maria Manning and her husband, Frederick. The couple's subsequent trial caused a sensation and even author Charles Dickens attended the grisly public hanging.

Drawing on a range of sources from university records and Old Bailey transcripts to national and regional newspaper archives, Michelle Morgan's research sheds new light on well-known stories as well as unearthing previously unknown incidents.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, True Crime, Audiobook, Victorian, Crime, Mystery

352 pages, Hardcover

Published April 15, 2018

About the author

Michelle Morgan is the author of The Ice Cream Blonde, The Mammoth Book of Hollywood Scandals, Marilyn's Addresses, and Marilyn Monroe: Private and Undisclosed. She has been interviewed on dozens of radio stations and featured on many television programs, including the BBC National News.

Reviews

[BAM doesn’t answer to her real name · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is just something about the Victorian crime. It’s so primitive.
And there is even a Netflix series on it!

[Auntie Terror · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the narrator was very good, this wasn't overly interesting, all in all, especially as some cases were spread out far too much.

[Anna Kaling · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read about 1/3 of this and gave up. The "scandals" chosen for inclusion aren't particularly interesting or scandalous, but presumably are the events that the author could find sufficient information on.

Really dull.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Covering various cases of the 19th century and early 20th, Morgan gives an overview of murders, assaults and other scandalous activities. Some of them were hardly worth mentioning but others were well-known cases such as that of Maria & Frederick Manning. As an introduction to Victorian crimes, this was good but it tried to cram too much into the one book and this is where it fell short.

[Alannah Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's always interesting listening about the Victorian scandals given that they were always portrayed as uptight with strict morals. I have had people look at me in disbelief when I tell about raging alcoholics, the idea of mother's ruin otherwise known as gin and prostitution. That's just the UK.
The book is crammed full of interesting tales from both sides of the pond, I found this kept my interest, the book didn't just focus on grisly murders, I enjoyed learning about these as the only murderers I really know about are H.H Holmes and Jack the Ripper. It also looked at kidnapping and such frivolous cases which included theft. I don't know if it was the intention of the author but as the author wrote about various court cases, I felt that the women involved were often dismissed too quickly in favour of the men who were clearly in the wrong. None the less, I did enjoy this audiobook, I felt if I had a hard copy, it would be quite a light read, despite the heavy subject. It's one you can pick up time and time again.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first two parts were moderately interesting, although I'm not sure if I was familiar with most of the murderers in part one because I have a Victorian Problem or because they're not all that obscure. The third part, which deals in little oddities of Victorian crime, is much more fascinating because it really explores the minutia of both Victorian crime reporting and daily life.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

The terms scandal might be a bit loosely defined here, but this collection of crimes that took place over the Victorian is rather interesting. There are murders, but also breach of promise, missing people and others. It was a rather entertaining listen.

[Megh Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5**

[Helen Carolan · Rating 3 out of 5]

If it hadn't been for the author's witty and entertaining style of writing, this would've been an extremely dour read. The title explains it all really. This is a book about lesser known Victorian scandals most of them murders. An entertaining read.

[Clare · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Battered Body Beneath the Flagstones, and Other Victorian Scandals is such a great book, it is absolutely jam packed full of many shocking and really quite disturbing real life cases that did actually happen during the Victorian era. Most of these cases featured in the book are set either in the UK or USA and it was quite interesting to see that things could become just as macabre on either side of the atlantic.
This book contains many dark and grisly murders, crimes of passion and the odd suicide. Most of them are quite horrific stories, especially the ones where the culprits were so cold and calculating to plan the death of a wife, a husband or lover. It really gave me chills down my spine reading about such morbid and grotesque ways that people used to murder someone. I was totally shocked to read that some of them openly admitted what they had done as if it was something they were proud of while others pleaded total insanity to literally try to get away with murder. I found it all so absolutely fascinating and such a great insight into the criminal mind of people of that time period.
Michelle Morgan has compiled a truly compelling collection of cases that will keep you totally captivated but at the same time will leave you utterly appalled to see how far someone would go to achieve their ultimate goal. This is human nature at it's very worst. A brilliant book for all lovers of crime, horror and suspense.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the surface, this is a delightful collection of pearl-clutching Victorian scandals, which titillate today just as they did over 100 years ago. The author writes in a way that mimics, to a degree, the breathlessness of Victorian scandal journalism, including the language that often condemned victims of domestic abuse as the authors of their own destruction. Story after story describe female homicide victims as having been promiscuous, or nags, or possibly insane, based (apparently) on the surviving testimony of their murderers (most often their husbands, boyfriends, or former such).

It ended up becoming rather tedious to read tale after tale of women horribly abused, presented in gossip magazine style, with little to no analysis of what any of it meant to contemporaries, nor what it means today.

On their own, each tale could easily be a bit of ghoulish fun, being so far removed from our own time. So perhaps reading a chapter here and a chapter there would be a good way to experience this book, but I can't really recommend reading it cover to cover, as I did.

[Gia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very fun, easy read with very interesting stories.

[Andrea Pryke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was provided by the publisher free of charge in exchange for a fair and honest review.



The Victorians, straight-laced and up-tight, so much so that they covered the legs of pianos in order to stop people becoming sexually excited, at least that's what we have been told - well they did cover the piano legs but there was a darker side to our Victorian ancestors one that is steeped in blood.

Michelle Morgan examines several murders and scandals in her latest book, from the murder of actor William Terriss to the battered body of the title and more and she does it with her usual style and flair and for those of you who think that no book is complete with out Jack the Ripper there is a nod to him and his crimes as well.

As with all of Morgan's work she does not impose her own feelings and conclusions on theses cases, if a story seems incomplete it's because there is no further information on that particular case. She does not condemn the guilty, that was done by the courts and newspapers of the day, instead she lays out the facts for us. We could find out this information ourselves it is public record, but we don't we are too lazy to put in the many hours that Morgan has clearly put into retelling these stories.

Beautifully written they will make you want to conduct your own research into your family history to see if you have any such scandals hiding, especially when you learn that one of the tales involves one of her own ancestors.

A great book to either read from cover to cover or dip into every now and then, this is another great title to add to your true crime collection or even your Michelle Morgan one!

[Colin Garrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aside from Jack the Ripper, grisly murders don’t usually spring to mind when we think of the Victorian era, but hundreds of downright horrible crimes regularly hit the headlines at the time. While most of these have sunk without trace, Michelle Morgan has delved into dozens of long-forgotten murders, mysteries, kidnappings, disappearances and good-old-fashioned sex-scandals to paint an enthralling picture of crime in the days of old Queen Vicky.

As well as a whole bunch of murders and throat-slashing jilted lovers, there are a surprising number of accounts centred on that well-known source of killers – the stage actor. One of the most intriguing is the story of popular thespian William Terriss and his (somewhat unhinged) fellow actor Richard Prince, who stabbed the former to death at the stage door of the Adelphi Theatre.

The inclination of a lot of killers to cut their victim’s throats left me feeling a bit woozy at times, and the sheer number of people who inflicted horrifying pain upon their victims (who, shortly before, they had intended marrying) is mind-boggling. It certainly puts twenty-first century domestic abuse statistics into perspective.

I did occasionally feel the text might have benefited from another good edit, but otherwise Ms Morgan tells a good tale. All in all, a fascinating collection of gory stories (and I do mean gory!)

[Wednesday · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining and well researched read about everyday scandals, murders and jealousy crimes amongst the mostly working class of Victorian Britain and the USA.
The theatre was obviously an hotbed of ego, spite and jealousy, (not much seems to have changed there), and these stories comprise the majority of the book.
A number of things interested me in reading these dramas of real, everyday people - the first being that human nature has changed very little over time - the passion, jealously, envy and hatred that lead to these scandals are just as rife today.
The second thing, was the way the justice system worked - I was pleasantly surprised that even in cases where the murderer had readily confessed, often at the scene of the crime, there were real efforts made by investigators and defence lawyers to ascertain the full facts. I don't think this necessarily happened 100 years prior to that.
All in all a good read.

[Olly Mogs · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was rather like reading a Victorian tabloid. Clearly a lot of work had gone in to finding all these stories and murder and mischief but there was not a lot of contextual examination of the tales being presented. The gossipy informal style makes it an easy read, and you rather get the impression that this is down to the source material. A lot seems to be taken at face value about the victims and their killers or assailants.

I had this on audiobook and to be honest the accompanying accents was one of the best things about it. We had wonderfully terrible cockney and Brummie and all sorts, bringing to life the various arguments and misdeeds of folks from the Victorian era. It's just a shame there wasn't further investigation into the biases of the press of the day, how women were viewed and treated, etc

[Marilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was not stirring stuff to me. I don't know if it was dull writing or that I had read about several of the cases in the book elsewhere. It's a good sample of cases in Great Britain and some in the United States between the 1830s and 1901. Most of it is murder out of jealousy or passion. Some are confidence trickeries.

The chapters are:
A Fine Line Between Love and Hate (pages 1-112)
Don't Put Your Daughter (or Son) on the Stage (pages. 113 to 244)
Scandals to Amuse, Bemuse or Perplex (pages 245 to 323)

Don't think number of pages per chapter means you have to slog through a long reading session. The average vignette in each is two or three pages, so if you want light bathroom, bedroom or bus-seat reading, you might enjoy this book. Just have a bookmark handy.

[Ike · Rating 2 out of 5]

A handful of these cases were interesting but from the title I really thought there would be more variety than just "violent crime after violent crime", which I can't say is what I picked the book up for. What little variation there was was often short and not elaborated on as much as the more gruesome cases and I was left feeling short changed. I will say that the quality of the writing for the more highly publicised cases was high and extremely evocative but if you're looking for a off the beaten path overview of so called "Victorian scandals" that are not simply murder cases, you'd be better off looking elsewhere.

[Magdalaena · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s a rather interesting collection of random events that occurred during the reign of Queen Victoria in USA and UK. Although certain attempt has been made to gather the stories under heading relevant to content, the overall effect is of a rather random and rambling nature. Since large number of ‘scandals’, term used loosely to denote anything press would write about on a first page in a screaming headline, was unsolved or press lost interest, some stories are left completely unfinished making you wonder why they were chosen in the first place. Audiobook is well performed.

[Sammy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very Interesting

Written well so it's a breeze to read, this book is full of numerous true stories from the Victorian times detailing murders, kidnappings and some just downright baffling disappearances. I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially with the reports being short and sweet with enough detail to understand the circumstances these people were finding themselves in. I'd recommend this to fans of true crime without the gory details, or tabloid dramas as this collection of story's clearly indicates how certain perceived scandals haven't changed even 100+ years later.

[Aishuu · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm giving this a generous 3. About 2/3 of the book is repeating the most famous cases from the Victorian era, but the last third surprised me - some really obscure, interesting tales that I've never heard of. Nothing was really added to most of the most famous cases, although my enjoyment of the Maria Manning murder case (she was the one whose hanging turned Charles Dickens off capital punishment) kept me engaged.
People who haven't read broadly on Victorian crime will probably enjoy this a lot more and rate it more highly.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I agree with other reviewers who have suggested the author’s so-called “scandals” were no more than the details of some commonplace and other less-common crimes of which she found information in archived newspapers and fleshed out with details from public records (a la census data). The stories are written well enough and with a clear goal of building suspense. However, the end of the book left me lacking, as though I had inadvertently missed the ‘good part.’ If you’re in between good reads and have interests in the Victorian age and the macabre, this will scratch the itch until you find another book. If you lack these interests, I suggest you skip it altogether.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun but fragmented. This is just a whistlestop tour of Victorian murders, missing persons, and mysteries. Ranging from the gruesome, to the weird, to the downright very sad, it gives an interesting flavour for the dramas that would have appeared in Victorian newspapers, and an insight into a rougher world (is it a coincidence so many of the key players had theatre connections?). Overall this was fine but somewhat lacking any central narrative thread or point

[Vik · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not what I expected. It was basically just a novel-length podcast of Victorian crimes, so I'm glad I had it as an audiobook rather than a physical book. I thought it would at least have some background about society and culture of the time, but it really didn't. Interesting as far as the retelling of crimes goes, but I think it could have been more.

[Marsha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Victorian lives were apparently as lascivious and corrupt as those in the Bible! This is a fun collection of real Victorian stories of murder, suicide, murder-suicide, bigamy, and more. Anyone who thinks that we have the origin of any of this in modern day, is absolutely wrong!
I guess this gives a flavor to "true crime".

[Ayesha Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of short true-crime stories, including excerpts from court reports, witness statements and suicide notes.
The book ends abruptly which I thought was a shame, purely because I was enjoying it so much. I hope a sequel will follow, and will likely read some of the authors other works

[Ash Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written, and seemed to be well research. Lots of little story’s from the Victorian era.

Some of the stories felt a bit long winded and some of them where very similar and placed close together in the overall order.

I think I might have got more out of this book if I had read it as smaller stories between other books rather rather reading it like I would a novel.

[Robert Sidwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable with a minor grumble.

This was an interesting collection of stories, the author obviously has an interest in the subject and they were well researched, however I did feel as if to much time was devoted to some stories, I personallt would have preferred more shorter stories. Having said that I did enjoy reading the book

[Geicodave · Rating 3 out of 5]

Victorian era mysteries, murders, and scandals

The book relates various mysteries, murders, and scandals that occurred during the Victorian era. Some are very interesting, others not so much. The Victorians were not the strait-laced, proper people we think them to be. Plenty of monkey business and worse. Easy read.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This beautifully presented and well-researched book tells many true crime stories from the Victorian Era. The only reason it took me a while to read is because it is full of information and I found it was a lot to take in, so I read it in fairly short sections. 8 out of 10