Victorian Murders

by Jan Bondeson

This book features fifty-six Victorian cases of murder covered in the sensational weekly penny journal the Illustrated Police News between 1867 and 1900. Some of them are famous, like the Bravo Mystery of 1876, the Llangibby Massacre of 1878 and the Mrs Pearcey case of 1890; others are little-known, like the Acton Atrocity of 1880, the Ramsgate Mystery of 1893 and the Grafton Street Murder of 1894. Take your ticket for the house of horrors.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, History, Crime, Victorian, British Literature

320 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2019

About the author

Outside of his career in medicine, he has written several nonfiction books on a variety of topics, such as medical anomalies and unsolved murder mysteries.

Bondeson is the biographer of a predecessor of Jack the Ripper, the London Monster, who stabbed fifty women in the buttocks, of Edward 'the Boy' Jones, who stalked Queen Victoria and stole her underwear, and Greyfriars Bobby, a Scottish terrier who supposedly spent 14 years guarding his master's grave.

He is currently working as a senior lecturer and consultant rheumatologist at the Cardiff University School of Medicine.


(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Charlotte Kane · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book needs a serious grammar and spelling check. It is terribly written. Instead of internal organs the author has written internal origins and spaces are missing from some words and other words are jut missing in general. Interesting book but let down majorly by the bad writing.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book! It’s well written with amazing illustrations from the old ipn newspaper. The author has clearly made a lot of research into the cases and I very much appreciated how he had found out whether the old murder houses still stands today!

[Ape · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did wonder if this one was going to be a hard slog to read cover to cover as it goes through 56 cases of murder, but it was actually very readable, with just the right level of detail to not get boring. I can imagine it would be a handy reference for the second half of the 1800s, to understand what was going on in the crime world. It's actually insightful into society at the time. These cases were all from the Illustrated Police News - yes, a melodramatic illustrated style comic book of real life murders. Can't imagine the papers getting away with that now, although I'm sure there'd be one or two that would like to. Also, there are themes coming up time and again, such as poverty, lack of dignity, poor women's rights, massive lack of mental health care and understanding... which makes you think had services been in existence, some of these cases may never have happened. Bondeson selected the cases on the basis that they appeared in the IPN, weren't things such as botched abortions, drunken husbands etc, but I suppose for want of a better expression, proper good old fashioned murders; and also that they aren't cases that already have stacks of books written about them. The Jack the Ripper murders for example don't appear in this book.

I do have a quibble with this book. The lack of proofreading is shocking. In a self-published novel you can forgive it, but this is professionally published and will have had several people working on. Does detract a bit from what is otherwise a well planned, researched and laid out book, with plenty of examples of the wonderfully melodramatic illustrations from IPN.

Borrowed from the library.

[Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mmmmmm not sure on this, yes Jan does dig around and find some corking murders, BUT for me I wanted or expected something different - finding it difficult to pin down why I wasn't overjoyed by this factual account of 56 Victorian murders as chronicled in the weekly penny journal the Illustrated Police News between 1867 and 1900. Some were well known others little known. Maybe it was just regurgitating the stories with out any discussion or conjecture on the authors part.
I wanted to look behind each murder, the social norms of the time, and questions about the sanity of the murderers.
For those of you who want a good factual read of the murders of the time then this is for you. If you want more depth, discussion and reflection on these murders then its not for you.
An interesting read tho.

[Allie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm still reading it, but damn is this good. The author has basically resurrected old pulpy crime news reported in the Victorian era -- specifically from a periodical called The Illustrated Police News, IPN -- and told them with less sensationalism and more facts and newer information.

Each is a solved case, and covers a breezy ten or so eBook pages. You get the detailed facts, the illustrations from the newspaper, and occasionally some related information, such as the use of sniffer dogs, particularly this one called Morgan. Also,, sometimes some light commentary from the pleasant old man who wrote this (he has a thing about telling you if the murder houses are still standing or have been plowed for a market or some such).

It's enough to whet your true crime appetite and find some cases to read up on in more depth elsewhere.

[Clare Snow · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF p.49

Who knew I wouldn't like reading about 56 murders from the 1800s with gruesome contemporary illustrations from the Illustrated Police News. The clergymen warned me, but did I listen?

When I found out a house where someone is murdered is called a Murder House and the author thinks they should be preserved, just as it would be if Charles Dickens had lived there. Um, WTF?? That's when I stopped reading. But I'm wondering what would be done with a house where Charles Dickens was murdered...

[Nila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sure, you can have opinions about the writing and presentation of this book (as some reviewers have had) and on the one hand I wouldn't really be able to disagree as such. For ex: a short analysis and some social context/commentary would have been a great touch, sure.

But then I also feel that this books delivered exactly what it promised to - a summary of murder cases from the Illustrated Police News. It didn't promise anything more than that, so I don't feel short changed.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book.

[Dsd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it in 2 days, that's how much I liked it.

Author was smart in not including all the done to death (!!!) well known cases like the ripper and Dr. Cream .

For those with an interest in murder, they'll be a few cases you have read about before like Wainwright.
But most cases are not going to be well known to most.

Each case is 2 - 5 pages with plenty of excellent illustrations from the cheap Victorian crime sheets.

Edited to add that the author also writes about whether the murder house is still standing or not. Which I really liked.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book about Victorian murders but some cases are better than others and not all of the cases were resolved.I will also be reading a different book from one of the cases mentioned in this book later on in the year about a man they couldn't hang.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

My goodness, those Victorians didn’t half like slitting throats and dismembering. What a gruesome lot!

[Emily BG · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great stories and odd amount of geography.

Could have had better themes and less about the surviving houses - loved learning about the souvenirs fans kept

[Ashleigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting and good book. Enjoyed the short stories. There were a few typing errors though but nothing major.

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

The editing was good but still could have been better. Subject was great.