Murderers' London

Over two hundred bizarre, mysterious, gruesome or just plain vicious slayings are detailed in this chilling compendium of metropolitan murder. They range in time from the slaying of Edmund Ironside on 1016 to the still unsolved murder of Gloria Booth in 1971; and in space, though concentrating on inner London, they range from Radlett to Ilford to Eltham, Penge and Richmond. 'Famous cases' such as Crippen, Christie, Seddon, Wainwright, Cream, appear as a matter of course, but also included are many which are less well known to the general reader, but which nevertheless have some special interest of their own. In those instances, rapidly increasing in this era of wholesale 'planning', where sites of old crimes have disappeared, the author has been at pains to pinpoint them as closely as possible. He has also threaded his way through the torturous mazes of street-name alterations. Kidbrooke Lane, where young Jane Clouson was brutally battered to death, for instance, is not the Kidbrooke Lane of today; and one would seek in vain for Rifle Terrace, Bayswater, where middle-aged Dr Smethurst shocked his landlady by the fervour of his relationship with Isabella Banks.
Wherever possible, both old and new names are provided. A map of the central area is included as an additional guide.