Murder on Several Occasions

Jonathan Goodman

Description

A new look at some gruesome and riveting murdersIn this grisly and gripping collection of essays-some revised and updated, some never before published, but all new to American audiences-prize-winning English crime historian Jonathan Goodman turns his attention to a variety of British and American crimes from the 1820s to the 1980s, some high profile and others not.With the author as detective, each of Goodman's essays examines a particularly notorious murder and subsequent trial. He introduces the readers to the 1923 shooting at the Savoy Hotel in London of Prince Ali Kamel Fahmy Bey at the hands of his wife, Madame Marie-Marguerite Fahmy; he revisits the "Crime of the Century," the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby in March 1932 allegedly by Bruno Richard Hauptmann, and his subsequent execution for this crime, even though this case against Hauptmann has come under scrutiny; and he explores the 1980 serial killings committed by Michele de Marco Lupo, a gay man who coaxed other homosexuals to meet with him, then strangled and savagely bit them.Goodman's careful research and "forensic" work, together with his lively and engaging prose and fascinating subject matter, make these tales of murder a valuable addition to the field of true crime history.

Sujets

• True crime

Informations

• Publié par: The Kent State University Press
• Date de parution: 20 janvier 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781612779331
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 7 Mo

Extrait

Murder on SeveralOccasions

TRUE CRIME HISTORY SERIES Albert Borowitz, editor

Terrorism for Self-Glorification: The Herostratos Syndrome  Albert Borowitz

Tracks to Murder  Jonathan Goodman

Twilight of Innocence: The Disappearance of Beverly Potts  James Jessen Badal

The Good-bye Door: The Incredible True Story of America’s First Female Serial Killer to Die in the Chair  Diana Britt Franklin

The Murder of Mary Bean and Other Stories  Elizabeth A. De Wolfe

Murder on Several Occasions  Jonathan Goodman

Murder onSeveralOccasions

jonathan goodman

illustrations bynina lewis smart

§

the kent state university press Kent, Ohio

©2007by The Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio44242 all rights reserved Libraryof Congress Catalog Card Number2006037737 isbn: 978-0-87338-898-6 Manufactured in the United States of America

11 10 09 08 07

542 1 3

“The Passingon the Fourth Floor Back” and “Slaughter at the Governor’s Lodge” first appeared inMurder in High Places(London, Piatkus Books,1986).

“The Death of the Devil’s Disciple” first appeared inActsofMurder(London: Futura,1986).

“A Wolf in Tan Clothing” and “An Anatomy of Murders” first appeared in Murder in Low Places(London: Piatkus Books,1988).

“A Coincidence of Corpses” first appeared inThe Railway Murders(1984). “The First Trunk Murder” and “Also Known as Love” first appeared inThe Seaside Murders(1985) (London: Alison & Busby).

“Yours—Truly?” first appearedin theNewLawJournal(London: Butterworth; serial publication).

“DoubtsaboutHauptmann” first appeared inThe Modern Murder Yearbookand is reprintedwith the permission ofConstable&Robinson.

libraryofcongresscataloging-in-publicationdata

Goodman,Jonathan. Murder on several occasions / Jonathan Goodman. p.cm. —(True crime series) isbn-13: 978-0-87338-898-6(pbk. : alk. paper)∞ isbn-10: 0-87338-898-4(pbk. : alk.paper)∞ 1.Murder—Case studies. I. Title. hv6513.g664 2007 364.152'3—dc22 2006037737

British LibraryCataloging-in-Publication data are available.

Contents

Some Slight Explanations

The Passing on the Fourth Floor Back

A Postscript on a Subsequent Murder at the Savoy

Slaughter at the Governor’s Lodge

The Death of the Devil’s Disciple

A Wolf in Tanned Clothing

A Coincidence of Corpses

A Postscript on Mr. England’s Surprising Autobiography

The First Trunk Murder

Also Known as Love

Yours—Truly?

Doubts about Hauptmann

An Anatomy of Murders

A Postscript on an Italian (or Lincolnshire) Subject

Index

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3

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57

81

137

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330

347

Some SlightExplanations

Sparked by two of my collections of essays,Murder in High Placesand Murder in Low Places,Jacques Barzun suggested that “every geographical level has been scanned by our tireless crime chronicler except perhaps the middle distance,” and went on to grumble: “It seems no longer pos- sible to publish studies of crime without attaching them to some extra- neous feature that provides a link.”  Apropos of the latter comment, I was, of course, surprised, also de- lighted, to be asked by the enterprising Kent State University Press to put together an assortment of essays, diverse apart from being about murder.  Jacques Barzun calls me a crime chronicler—and (I had forgotten) Inotice that in one of the pieces I have included here, written a long, long time ago, I used the same term. Better—oh, so much better—than “criminologist,” which was the invariable job title when I turned to crime. I am advised to say that I am sure that criminologists are wor- thy people; but, even so, neither I nor any of the colleagues I respect has the least interest in, or slightest use for, their statistics, extrapo- lations, and psychiatric guesses. No; for many years now I have qui- etly campaigned (eventually, I believe, successfully) for acceptance of “crimehistorian”—“historian” being preferable to “chronicler” because a chronicle is a bare-bones retelling, without analysis or interpreta- tion, and an account of a case should surely be subjective—should permit the expression of personal likes and dislikes, the inclusion of associated peculiarities.  For me, the peculiarities are usually of a theatrical kind (and I have just been amazed, looking at my account of the Brighton Trunk Crimes, that I somehow resisted the temptation to attach a footnote to the first of its several references to the adjacent town of Hove, noting that in the programme for a Brighton light-operatic society’s production of

vii

viii

Some Slight Explanations

Oklahoma!a misprint appeared in the list of musical numbers, giving local significance to one of them by entitling it “People Will Say We’re in Hove.”  Grimness is sufficiently in the tales; there is no need for it in the telling of them. Remembering that if the “s” is detached from “slaugh- ter,” one is left with “laughter,” I hope that my sense of (often gallows) humour, my delight in unintended oddities, chimes with yours.

ThePassing on the Fourth Floor Back