Madness, Mayhem & Murder: More True Tales of Crime and Justice from Nova Scotia’s Past

by Dean Jobb

Meet the larger-than-life characters from Nova Scotia’s past who broke the law as well as the mold. Jack Randell, skipper of a Lunenburg-based rumrunning schooner, sparked a diplomatic row in 1929 when he tried to outrun the United States Coast Guard. Henry More Smith was a nineteenth-century thief so brazen that he swiped law books from the office of a Halifax judge, then returned them to collect a reward. Samuel Herbert Dougal was a monster who preyed on women and likely murdered two of his wives while serving with the British Army in Halifax in the 1880s. And Irish-American terrorists hatched a fiendish plot to blow up a Royal Navy warship anchored in Halifax Harbour in 1883. Their target? Prince George of Wales, a midshipman on board who would one day ascend to the British throne as King George V.

Madness, Mayhem & Murder is a collection of sixteen true tales of crime and justice drawn from almost two centuries of Nova Scotia’s history, from the province’s first murder case in 1749 to its last execution in 1937. The cast includes pirates and privateers, terrorists, shadowy Confederate agents, and a motley crew of smugglers, thieves, killers, duel-fighting gentlemen and a few people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. These are stranger-than-fiction stories of crime and punishment, tragedy and redemption, and guilt and innocence, with a lot to say about the past – and the unending quest for justice.

246 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2021

About the author

"Jobb's true crime stories are not to be missed" – CrimeReads

I specialize in true crime and I'm drawn to overlooked or forgotten stories. My new book, A Gentleman and a Thief, coming in June 2024, tells the incredible story of Arthur Barry, one of the world’s most successful jewel thieves, who charmed the elite of 1920s New York, brazenly swiped gems worth millions of dollars from their posh country estates, and outfoxed the police and private detectives on his trail.

My previous books include The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream , winner of the inaugural CrimeCon CLUE Award for Best True Crime Book of 2021 and longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. It recreates Scotland Yard's hunt for a Victorian Era serial killer who murdered at least ten people in Britain, the U.S. and Canada. Empire of Deception, the rollicking tale of Chicago con man Leo Koretz and his amazing 1920s oil swindle, was the Chicago Writers Association's Nonfiction Book of the Year. Esquire proclaimed it one of the best biographies of all time.

I'm also the author of The Acadian Saga: A People's Story of Exile and Triumph , which chronicles the expulsion of French-speaking Acadians from Eastern Canada more than two centuries ago and the founding of Louisiana’s Cajun culture.

My books have won the Crime Writers of Canada Award for best true crime book and I have been a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize, Canada's top award for nonfiction.

My true crime column "Stranger Than Fiction" appears in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and I write book reviews and features for The Irish Times, CrimeReads, the Washington Independent Review of Books and other major publications. I'm a professor at the University of King’s College in Halifax and teach in the King's MFA in Creative Nonfiction program.

Reviews

[Ronan O'Driscoll · Rating 5 out of 5]

Succinct episodes of Nova Scotia's history. Well-researched and entertaining. Dean Jobb is a real asset to Nova Scotia's history community.

[Evan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of stories about crime and justice is Nova Scotia's past. From the first trial in Nova Scotia in 1749 to the last person hanged in 1937 and everything in between. Privateers, thieves, terrorist and murders all feature into Nova Scotia's criminal past.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

This easy to read tome highlights some of the low lights in Nova Scotian criminal history. The author obviously did a tremendous amount of research to bring these nonfictional stories to light and some of my favourites were the ones that outlined the nautical “crimes” like piracy and privateering. You can get through each of these stories in about a dozen minutes (more or less), so it takes no time to read through these 16 takes of “madness, murder and mayhem”.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting read on Nova Scotia’s past. It’s so interesting to see what was considered a crime, who communities could help change sentencing, how privateering was so lucrative, and just how all these cases shaped the culture and legal system in the province today.

[Ethel Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book documents various cases -- it isn't a "story" book, it is more a factual accounting of the crimes and their progress through the arrest and legal process.