"Daily Telegraph" Murder File

This is a collection of celebrated murder cases which uses reports from "The Daily Telegraph", enabling readers to follow the cases and see the contemporary headlines and advertisements used in the paper at the time. The reports are linked to commentary by Jonathan Goodman, the author of 30 books on crime. He looks at the background to the murders and the evolving ways of reporting them, and introduces some of the influential figures, from judges to executioners, responsible for their trial and sometimes capital punishment. Cases are chosen for their variety of methods of murder, locations and social classes of killers and/or victims. The earliest is that of Dr William Palmer, the multi-poisoner of Rugeley, who was tried in 1856, a year after the "Telegraph" began publication. Covering the "brides in the bath" case, Elvira Barney, Christie and Evans, and Ruth Ellis, the book ends with the last public hanging.