Crime and Criminals of Victorian England

Dark and foggy Victorian streets, the murderous madman, the arsenic-laced evening meal—we all think we know the realities of Victorian crime. Adrian Gray's book thrillingly reflects some of this, ranging over classic murders by knife and poison. But it also covers much more, taking the reader into less familiar parts of Victorian life, uncovering the wicked, the vengeful, the foolish, and the hopeless amongst the criminal world of the nineteenth century. Here you will encounter the women who sold their children, the bankers who stole the money they were supposed to keep safe, smugglers, highwaymen, the first terrorists, ruthless "footpads" and the "mesmerists" who fooled a credulous public, even the Salvationist band that went to gaol. The book takes in the cities, villages, lanes, mills, and ships of the period. In the process of telling a host of human tales, the author shows how our laws today have been shaped by what the Victorians considered acceptable—or made illegal.