FIRST DEGREE

Hardback. A book in which the author, who believes that, while truth may not always be stranger than fiction, it is often at least as interesting, has selected 18 murder prosecutions and translated them into fascinating narratives. From Dr. John White Webster, who killed his chief creditor more than a century ago, to the 8 boys indicted for the murder of 15yr. old Michael Farmer in 1958, the author describes the give and take of the homicide trials he has recreated. In each one, the stakes were high, with life and death often depending on the jury's interpretation of highly conflicting evidence. Whether the verdict was guilty or innocent, the uneasy spectator was, in most cases, never quite sure that justice had triumphed or gone awry. Features amongst others : Hauptmann, Lisenba, Gillette, Snyder and Gray, Sheppard, Caruso, Birch et al, Borden, Leyra, Becker, Buchalter, Stephenson, Patterson, Hall and Stevens, Webster, Gibbs, Noxon, Leopold and Loeb. With Post-Mortem, Bibliog. and Index. 239pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true-crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. V. lightly browned edges, o/w Nr. F. in Vg+ dw. which has v. sunned sp.