Murder Maps: Crime Scenes Revisited. Phrenology to Fingerprint. 1811-1911

by Drew Gray

Vivid and intriguing, Murder Maps plots the nineteenth century’s most dramatic murders from around the world onto meticulous diagrams and period maps, and recounts the brilliant detective work that solved the cases. Elegant period maps and compelling crime analysis illuminate this disquieting volume, which reexamines the most captivating and intriguing homicides of the nineteenth century. Organized geographically, the elements of each murder―from the prior movements of both killer and victim to the eventual location of the body―are meticulously replotted using archival maps and bespoke plans, taking readers on a perilous journey around the murder hot spots of the world. From the “French Ripper,” Joseph Vacher, who roamed the French countryside brutally mutilating and murdering at least eleven people, to H. H. Holmes and his “Murder Castle” in Chicago, crime expert Dr. Drew Gray recounts the details of each case. His forensic examination uncovers both the horrifying details of the crimes themselves and the ingenious detective work that led to the capture of the murderers. Throughout the book, Gray highlights the development of police methods and technology, from the introduction of the police whistle to the standardization of the mug shot to the use of fingerprinting and radiotelegraphy in apprehending criminals. Vividly recreating over one hundred individual murder cases through historic maps, photographs, newspaper excerpts, court papers, and police reports, Murder Maps is perfect for everyone interested in criminal history, forensics, or the macabre. 500 color illustrations

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime, History, Crime, Historical, Maps, 20th Century

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2020

About the author

Dr Drew Gray is a social historian of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries who specialises in the history of crime and punishment. Drew is Subject Lead for History at the University of Northampton and teaches modules on both the History and Criminology programmes. Drew enjoys teaching and is a Senior Fellow of Higher Education Academy (HEA). He has developed innovative assessments based upon the Old Bailey Online website and uses a range of digital sources and active blended learning methods in his teaching approach.

Since 2011 Drew has been a member of the editorial board of the London Journal and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Reviews

[La Central · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Omnia mors aequat, «todo lo iguala la muerte», pero existen muchos caminos diferentes que conducen desde el descubrimiento del cadáver a su desconstrucción en la sala de autopsias.
Antes de que sigas, te aviso de que este libro contiene, entre otras muchas pruebas, fotografías
tomadas en la escena del crimen con el cuerpo del muerto casi aún caliente y, cuando no, de
una sola pieza.

Gray, historiador especialista en la cara delictiva de los siglos XVIII y XIX, recrea más de 400
muertes violentas ocurridas en Europa, Norteamérica y Australia de 1811 a 1894 con
abundante información de la época; reportajes sensacionalistas de la prensa del momento,
cancioncillas populares infantiles, mapas de la región en los casos de asesinos múltiples, planos
de la ciudad que reproducen los hechos…, casi nada se deja a la imaginación.
A la par de las carreras delictivas de los agresores, médicos, científicos y policías desarrollaron
los primeros pasos de cualquier investigación criminal (las huellas dactilares, las fotos de
archivo y la balística, por ejemplo). Los representantes de la ley no llegaron a ser tan célebres
como sus sospechosos. " Amatulláh Hussein

[Mis Lecturas · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5 / 5⭐

[Mark Farley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very gruesome Christmas gift from a lovely (and equally twisted) friend. On Christmas Day (remotely, obvs), my mother was like,

"Did she really send you that?"

I was like, "Yeah, it's great, right?"

(silence)

Then I had to remind her that in my last trip, I searched for Hitler's bunker in Berlin in the middle of the night and went to a church in Prague covered in Nazi bullet holes, where some fugitives hid out after assassinating a leading general. And while everyone else on my flight was probably sitting in pot cafes and getting laid in Amsterdam, Farley found himself a retired brothel madam and went on a historical tour of the red light district. He then treated her to waffles and ice cream by the river Amstel, drinking an Amstel, while she told dirty stories.

But I digress.

MURDER MAPS is a beautifully macabre account of a hundred years of crimes, murders, rapes and other things you don't discuss over waffles and ice cream. The book is nicely sectioned off by country. UK, Europe, America and Australia. There's lots of old maps and very graphic crime scene photos and everyone gets a nice interesting bio. The more famous ones like Jack, Crippen, Ned Kelly and Lizzie Borden get more extensive treatment.

It's beautifully put together, but not for the feint of heart. There is a lot of dead bodies. A lot. Including the Ripper victims, which I had never seen before. It's an absolutely beautiful thing, if you like that sort of thing.

This is an account of 1811-1911 and I would love to see a 1911-2011 version. Come on, Thames and Hudson, you know it makes sense!

[Marc Pastor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Espectacular.
Tot tipus de crims d'arreu del món (tret d'Àsia, Amèrica Llatina i mitja Europa) descrits exhaustivament i documentats a través de plànols, mapes, il·lustracions de l'època, fotografies...
Potser el més interessant és tota aquesta part gràfica històrica, així com detalls de l'ús de la incipient criminalística. Veure una de les primeres comparatives dactilars, o les fitxes de Bertillon, o la fotografia policial de les escenes del crim de finals del XIX és un autèntic goig.
Que sí, que crec que molts dels plànols de les escenes se'ls inventa, perquè saber la disposició de com van ser enterrats els nadons en una cabana de Kansas el 1894 em sembla potser massa detallat, però no m'importa.
Un dels jocs que he anat fent és el d'intentar relacionar alguns del assassins en sèrie amb Jack l'Esbudellador (l'autor fins i tot ens diu quins hi han estat relacionats alguna vegada com a sospitosos).
Imprescindible per a qualsevol criminòleg o entusiasta del true crime vintage.

[Javier de la Peña Ontanaya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un libro de poco más de 220 páginas dedicado a un recorrido por los crímenes más atroces desde 1811 a 1911. Espectaculares fotografías, mapas e infografías. El libro se divide en capítulos criminales según los continentes: Europa, América y Australia. En ellos aparecen los crímenes más importantes del momento, con una ficha informativa y una breve descripción de lo ocurrido. Edición cuidada al detalle, para verdaderos coleccionistas. Acaba uno algo saturado y deprimido ante tanto crimen, pero no es un libro para leer al uso y de continuo, pues acaba uno tarumba.

[David Zerangue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice reference style book. Easy to read through as it is setup to be (on average) a page per criminal. Great photos for enhancing the entries. The cartography is a bit weak, in my view. They seem to be a bit of a marketing gimmick and don't really provide a lot of value. The book spends the majority of its time on European murders, transitions to US murders, and then hops over to Australia for a short stint there.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty gruesome but fascinating read that will keep you hooked. It's a fairly surface level look at crimes and investigations but does mean you can do a deeper dive into any of the crimes mentioned here. Not for the faint of heart but very compelling.

[Andy Paciorek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Covering many murders from the period 1811 to 1911 and geographically from the UK and USA mostly but including also various European countries and Australia some of the cases are notorious but many are more obscure but no less interesting for that. Because of the amount of cases covered there is only a page or two generally granted to each, but fairly informative nonetheless.
Aesthetically I really liked the book for its colour scheme, copious illustrations, photographs, maps and building plans. Nice though the design is at times it is totally impractical with some maps and photos printed too small to be of use.

[Saskia Dreßler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much European and USA cases

[Stephanie Molnar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richly illustrated but the impact of the crimes is (no pun intended) deadened by their back to back to back tellings.

[Tommaso Querini · Rating 1 out of 5]

A thorough but soulless collection of information. Shallow and disrespectful of the victims.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this, I didn’t know most of the cases since they are older and from all over the world not just the United States. This is easy to read and I love the formatting and images included throughout the book. This has short notes on each case and who was suspected of committing the murder. This is a great read for fans of true crime.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Social historian Gray has compiled a detailed rogues’ gallery of some of the most infamous, gruesome, and horrific murders in Europe, North America, and Australia from 1811-1911. This was a time period when the public became fascinated with true crime and many sensational publications are reproduced in the book, from pamphlets to pages from Illustrated Police News. This was also a time when investigation techniques were being developed from the earliest use of fingerprint analysis to crime-scene photography. The book begins with an introduction to the evolution of these investigatory techniques. Hundreds of murderers are profiled with a brief retelling of their life and crime(s), photographs, maps of key sites in their lives and crimes, and categorization of each profile by type of murder (infanticide, sexual, political) and method of investigation (crime scene photograph, fingerprint analysis). This is a book that true crime enthusiasts will enjoy and covers well-known murderers like Jack the Ripper and H. H. Holmes plus many others that readers will find fascinating. Gray has included a helpful bibliography for those who will want to dive deeper into some of these stories. https://www.libraryjournal.com/?revie...

[JaumeMuntane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un recorrido cartográfico por el crimen en el siglo XIX a través de varios asesinatos sucedidos en Reina Unido, Francia, Estados Unidos, Australia...Crímenes de todo tipo, incluidos asesinos en serie como Jack el destripador, plasmados en mapas y planos así como fotografías y reproducciones de periódicos de la época, junto con las técnicas policiales que se utilizaron (huellas dactilares, etc), muchas de ellas por primera vez.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

The layout and design of this book is gorgeous. I'm really interested in the topic of early forensics. I thought the write-ups were a little lacking, especially when you would read through them and then the photo captions would talk about all of these other murders and crimes committed that weren't mentioned in the write-up. The reader should do their own extra research for many of the cases if they are interesting to the reader.

Otherwise, it's definitely a great addition to my true crime shelf!

[teddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

such a visually pleasing book and it covers a handful of cases that i knew little to nothing about! the illustrations were fascinating and the level of detail astounding!

[Necronomidoll · Rating 5 out of 5]

L'aspetto che più ho trovato interessante del libro è stato il modo in cui ogni storia raccontata venga inserita in un contesto storico e sociale appropriato, approfondito e spiegato in modo esaustivo. In questo modo ogni omicidio viene inserito in una specifica epoca storica, in uno specifico periodo di eventi rilevanti, senza togliere importanza alla mostruosità del delitto ma evidenziando anche l'importanza di comprendere come e perché l'ambiente e la Storia influiscano sull'animo umano.

Neanche a dirlo, le spiegazioni sulla nascita del metodo investigativo e sull'impatto che la Scienza ha avuto su di esso sono veramente brillanti e coinvolgenti. L'autore ha fatto un ottimo lavoro di ricerca e di analisi, fornendo una cronistoria perfetta su quella che possiamo definire la nascita del fenomeno true crime .
Anche perché, Drew Gray non manca di sottolineare quanto il pubblico e i media abbiano in qualche modo influito sulla criminologia, e su come vengono percepiti, raccontati e assorbiti i racconti di cronaca nera, nel bene... Ma soprattutto, nel male.

Interessantissime le numerose mappe che mostrano non solo le zone degli omicidi nello specifico, ma anche intere città o zone e il numero di omicidi commessi, senza mai tralasciare i nomi di vittime e killer. Ogni mappa delle macrozone fa riferimento ad un tipo specifico di atrocità, dal fenomeno delle gang a quello della violenza domestica.

Oltre a ciò, numerosissime foto e disegni dell'epoca, a volte crudi, a volte dotati di un'arte fine e macabra davvero affascinante.

Nel volume troveremo omicidi noti e meno noti, sia per aggressori che per protagonisti della criminologia moderna, gli scienziati e gli esperti che hanno contribuito a rendere sempre più avanzati i metodi investigativi. Ma ogni caso è davvero interessante, perché Gray ha scelto tutti gli eventi più rilevanti per la Storia, che in qualche modo hanno segnato un punto di svolta e di evoluzione per il modo in cui vengono svolte le indagini su una scena del crimine.

Consigliato a chi cerca un volume più "tecnico", raffinato e completo, per chi è curioso di scoprire come è nato il true crime , e per chi è appassionato del genere e della Scienza della criminologia.

[Lệ Lin · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a person who cannot bear horror and thriller materials, more than 200 pages of this work crept me out. Scandalous relationships come with violent murders and serious crimes, this book deserves a five-star rating because it reveals the ugly part of society with the truest-as-it-could-be details, amazing layout design and precious visual references. However, I do think that the book should come with a graphic warning since some images are quite disturbing and gruesome (that being said, I have utterly respect towards people who work in true crime scenes, not easy on the minds).

A few cases ended with the murderer convicted but unconvincing for the contemporary fellows at that time; some even put in jail for more than ten years for a murder they did not commit. Dr Drew Gray did a great job in examining more than 100 murders, even re-evaluating each case with the least bias and as much information as he got in hands. Old black and white illustrations from the sensationalist magazines along with the using of archival maps included were an excellent choice to help readers immerse in the sensations of a period that witnessed the development of modern forensics.

Not sure if I will be able to re-read, but the fact that it is like no other book I'd read before and provoked such soul-stirring thinking in a few days is worthwhile anyhow.

[Eve Keeller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is incredible! One of the best true crime books I’ve ever read it’s so easy to read and shockingly addictive. The way the book is laid out makes it so simple to read that you can really dive in and devour it. You can tell it’s been researched so fantastically and gives enough information that you know the full story but the story is cut down to a page of text.
I love books that are designed like this and honestly it’s practically a piece of art. I will warn though there is some very graphic images included which I wasn’t expecting but strangely I couldn’t look away. I’ve never seen pictures of crimes in the 1800s, maybe I’m weird but it blew my mind! Loved the sections on well known killers as well such as H.H Holmes, Jack the Ripper, Lizzie Borden etc. I find it so hard to imagine the scenes of these crimes and very rare are we shown pictures of it but this book really had it all.
If this is something you’re interested in I recommend this book 100%.

[Amy H. Sturgis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an exceptionally good work for anyone interested in the history of science, forensics, and/or detectives. It covers 1811-1911 in Western Europe, North America, and Australia, with comprehensive timelines, maps, crime scene sketches and photos, newspaper excerpts, etc. It introduced me to some cases and innovations of which I wasn't aware, but it also presented new insights and images about cases and technologies/approaches that were already very familiar to me. The book is also beautifully designed and reader-friendly, very useful for anyone who wants to use it as an occasional research tool rather than read it cover-to-cover. Highly recommended!

[Sayo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Got this for Christmas and read it all in a few days back to back...not sure what that says about me! Variety of cases covered, I actually quite liked that there wasn't heaps of information on all of them, allowing for separate books to be bought on the specific cases or that cover the same cases but might include different information. Appreciated the honest and brutal depiction of true crime from the pictures to the many acquitted for seemingly no reason! Definitely a permanent find for my bookshelf.

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully macabre and insightful book recounting a selection of some of the most famous and highlight lesser known murders from 1811 to 1911. Sharing information about the perpetrator, victims, motives, early detection and policing methods and early forensics being used to solve these murders, rapes and thefts.

Very well laid out with exceptionally photography and illustrations accompanying the texts allowing a full insight into the crimes.

Will be a book I keep and refer back to for many years to come.

[Starry · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very difficult book to rate. It skims the surface of a number of crimes, across time, so it lacks a lot of depth that true crime devotees enjoy, however it has its interesting points - some of the maps and photographs are very good. Some of the materials shared however, are so small, its almost pointless trying to look at them, I even got a magnifying glass in hand. So its completely vexing to sit here and figure out whether I want to recommend this book to anyone. I don't hate it but I don't love it either. Its kind of "meh"

[Kris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yes, it shows improvements in investigations through the years. Yes it’s interesting. But. To call it exhaustively researched projects something not shown in the writing. The crimes are distilled down to essence, which is fine, but details are lacking. The maps are pretty pointless in terms of adding detail. House floor plans are put in just because they’re available. And it’s really really weird that a large number of victims have their dates listed as “unknown” when IT’S CLEAR WHEN THEY DIED, and many other people are listed as (unknown-1894).

[Susan Holmes-Sherwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Visually macabre but excellent and interesting in detail. However, I felt it lacked conclusions. Yes, I have a map showing locations of baby farming in the 1800s in Melbourne, Australia and I can assume by the maps that these are based in poor areas, but nothing tells me that. Some information on what those areas are like would have been fascinating. Instead, we’re left to either do our own research or assume.

That said, I enjoyed reading the book, brief as the case histories are.

[Helen White · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like your Victorian murders grisly with photographs and a map then this is the book for you. There's the usual famous ones - Jack the ripper, Lizzie Borden and Ned Kelly included but plenty of people I've never heard of. Examples of developing investigation techniques such as crime scene photography, finger prints and criminal profiling are all detailed along with crimes. Some of the crime scene and mortuary photographs may be a bit graphic for some readers. Overall very interesting.

[Estrella (Starbooks) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un libro interesantísimo y muy curioso. Una recopilación de crímenes en Reino Unido, EEUU y Australia a lo largo del siglo XIX, con fotos y mapas de los lugares del delito. Una maravilla de edición de Siruela. Una joyita para todos aquellos amantes de la novela negra y especialmente del true crime. En algunos de estos crímenes vemos los albores de la ciencia forense. Me parece un trabajazo de recapitulación de crímenes de una época en la que los registros no eran los actuales obviamente.

[Pauline B · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Un livre fascinant sur l'évolution de la criminologie en 100 ans (1811-1911)
La découverte du relevé d'empreintes, la distinction entre le sang humain et animal, les premières photographies criminelles,.. ces années ont été le pilier de la découverte.
Certains décortiquages de crimes très intéressants, d'autres moins. Beaucoup de plans, photographies (certaines un peu gore quand même.. les photos des corps de victimes tels que trouvés), ce livre est très complet et simple d'accès.

[anna maziarska · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is definitely the most beautifully and carefully edited book I've read in my life so far. But the key of choosing the murders the author wrote about in the book seems confusing to me. Don't get me wrong - he's done a lot of research on the profiling and and policing historical and current methods, but some cases he highlighted were just added for the shock value or to fill out the extra pages, I guess.

[LBD · Rating 5 out of 5]

The strength of this book resides not in the stories it tells, but in the way they’re presented. Although that’s not to say the stories aren’t also interesting!

I love how the addition of maps, illustrations, and photographs complete the image of these historical murders.

I would definitely recommend it to anyone who has a healthy curiosity towards the history of Murder and policing.