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From the bestselling author of John Christie of Rillington Place. “If you have an interest in post war crime and criminals this is one for you!” —Robert Bartlett, author of Blood Royal The trial of the year in 1950 was of Donald Hume, a North London petty thief accused of stabbing car dealer Stanley Setty to death, of cutting up his corpse and dropping his body parts from an airplane. The press and public were horrified and fascinated by the details. But Hume was convicted and jailed as an accessory—he later claimed his wife was guilty of the crime. He then fled to Switzerland, taking up with a Swiss woman in Zurich, but he needed money to finance his lavish lifestyle and he returned to robbery. He carried out two armed robberies, shooting a member of the bank staff, but getting clean away. Then in 1959 his attempt to rob a bank failed and he shot dead a bystander. Arrested, he stood trial and was sentenced to life, but was later deemed criminally insane and was returned to Britain and to Broadmoor. Jonathan Oates's compelling account of Hume's notorious life of crime is based on extensive primary research. It sheds new light on Hume and his crimes, especially the murder of Setty, and gives the reader a rare insight into the criminal underworld of the time.

Thomas Griffiths Wainewright, a talented writer, mixed with the leading figures of the literary scene in Georgian London; as an artist he exhibited at the Royal Academy, but he was also a profligate dandy and swindler. For 150 years he has also been damned as a murderer who poisoned three of his relations to pay his debts. New research has uncovered quite a different story about his extraordinary life.

The true crimes of one of nineteenth century England's most notorious thieves and killers, whose exploits still capture the public's imagination. Once immortalized in Madame Tussauds's Chamber of Horrors, and brought to life in two silent films, his gnarled and prematurely aged features would be the last image his victims ever saw, yet ironically, he was known by the name of Peace. A grotesque figure who took on many names and many faces, he could slip into the home of an unsuspecting family with the silent stealth of a cool night time breeze, and leave without a trace. Spending his nocturnal hours limping through the dirty streets with villainy on his mind, and impishly disappearing into the industrial smoke that hung over Victorian Sheffield like a perpetual storm cloud, this devil wrote his own place in the folklore of his hometown. Committing one gruesome crime after the next, he was the most wanted man in England for a time. Tales of burglary, murder, daring escapes, and a truly shocking miscarriage of justice feature in Charlie Peace along with moments of lost love, damaged pride, and violent revenge. Ben W. Johnson's biography tells the chilling story of a man who turned to crime through necessity, but consciously chose to continue in an ever spiraling life of wickedness.

Archibald Hall was one of our most enigmatic criminals. A man of multiple personae, Hall became more widely known as Roy Fontaine, the Monster Butler. But how did this one-time petty thief from Glasgow end up fleecing the wealthy aristocracy in London and beyond before becoming one of Britain's most notorious serial killers? And, along the way, how did his story acquire such glitz and glamour? Convicted of murder in both Scotland and England in 1978, Hall quickly took the opportunity of being in the public spotlight to rewrite his past. He cultivated a more alluring version of his criminal past, using the celebrity names he had encountered in London along with his aristocratic contacts to romanticise his story, to the point where fact became lost in fiction. In The Monster Butler, A. M. Nicol now re-examines Hall's versions of events to reveal the true story of a fantasist who portrayed his actions as unavoidable but who, in reality, was a ruthless and devious killer.

From sex-crazed fiends to cold-eyed professional assassins, only those convicted of the most terrible murders are told they will die behind bars.This book tells the stories of those most depraved killers whose crimes outraged society and demanded the harshest penalty available to a British court. Among a UK prison population of close to 100,000, fewer than 40 men and women have been told they will end their days in a prison cell. They range from men who crossed continents to slay youngsters, to contract killers who relished their grisly calling. Some planned their killings in a sick and sadistic manner, others killed in an unanticipated explosion of rage, lust, greed or jealously. But whatever their crime, whatever their motive, each of these beasts has one thing in common: they are the most evil people in our prison system. A graphic and harrowing read, this book is the first ever to bring together the case histories of every full-term lifer in Britain's jails. It offers never-before-published information about these extraordinary offenders. Police, lawyers and the relatives of the victims and killers all describe how the truth behind these awful crimes was pieced together and those responsible were brought to justice to face the harshest punishment. These are the 36 monsters deemed beyond redemption, who by their own hands forfeited the right to live among us, forever. These are the killers whose crimes were such that society demanded that...LIFE MEANS LIFE!

Among a U.K. prison population of close to 100,000, fewer than 40 men and women have been told they will end their days in a prison cell. Collected here are the stories of those most depraved killers whose crimes outraged society and demanded the harshest penalty available in British court. From men who crossed continents to slay youngsters to contract killers who relished their grizzly calling, the court cases of Britain's lifers are covered in graphic and harrowing detail. Never-before-published information about these extraordinary offenders is provided, and interviews with police, lawyers, and the relatives of the victims and killers describe how the truth behind these awful crimes was pieced together. Gripping and alarming, these are the stories of the 37 killers deemed beyond redemption.

'Under that veneer of charm there lies a most evil, violent and horrible side to your character. You should never be at liberty outside of prison walls.'- Mr Justice Drake, Exeter Crown Court, 28 April 1989Before being sentenced to three life terms for the murder of Bristol newlywed Shirley Banks in April 1989, John Cannan boasted of over a hundred one-night stands. He was charming, he was handsome and he wooed his conquests - among them professional women - with flowers and champagne.When Suzy Lamplugh disappeared in July 1986 following her meeting with'Mr Kipper', Cannan had only been out of prison for three days following an eight-year sentence for rape. After Cannan was convicted of the murder of Shirley Banks, the Lamplugh case was closed. To this day Cannan denies his involvement in the Lamplugh cash and protests his innocence in the murder of Shirley Banks. His appeal has been dismissed.Drawing on the latest psychological profiling knowledge developed in American by the FBI and, most importantly, an intense three-year correspondence with Cannan, Christopher Berry-Dee provides a chillingly personal, comprehensive portrait of a complex, intelligent but disturbed man.

Revealing the secret world of one of Britain's highest security jails as no one on the outside could possibly imagine, Norman Parker has spent over half his life in prison. He was released from prison after 23 continuous years in prison. From his arrival in Parkhurst in the early 1970s as a category-A prisoner, he mixed with some of Britain's hardest cases. Parkhurst is immensely tough. But Norman Parker has one special quality that helped sustain him there - he is a natural observer of the human condition. There at close quarters he encountered: gangsters, such as Reg and Ron Kray and Eddie Richardson; armed robbers, including Great Train Robber Buster Edwards; characters such as Billy G, a well-known London club owner who went robbing with John McVicar; and'Lambo'Rony Lambrianou of the Krays, as well as a host of others who would prove that Parkhurst itself was such a dangerous place that you had to watch out for your life.