TWENTY MORTAL MURDERS Bizarre Murder Cases from Canada's Past

Hardback. The author features some of the most infamous murderers in Canadian history. Includes : Dr. Thomas Neill Cream, an expert with chloroform and strychnine, shared a penchant for prostitutes with Jack the Ripper. Henry Sovereign was sentenced to death for shooting a horse in 1828, but was granted clemency on that occasion. Four years later, he was sentenced to hang a second time for the brutal murder of his wife and 7 children. Swift Runner, a Cree Indian apprehended by the North West Mounted Police in 1879, disposed of the remains of his victims by eating them. Cornelius Burleigh, convicted of the slaying of a police constable, suffered the final indignity of a public dissection following his execution. The top of his skull later became a showpiece in the travelling exhibition of an American phrenologist. Herman Webster Mudgett's crimes ranged from arson through bigamy, embezzlement, fraud, torture, and murder. The total number of his victims, buried in basements and stuffed behind walls, will never be known for certain. Reginald Birchall lured wealthy young Englishmen to Canada with promises of lucrative investments and then engineered their disappearance. He was brought to justice finally by the great Canadian detective John Wilson Murray. Earle Leonard Nelson, the Bible-toting strangler and necrophiliac, who specialised in landladies, eluded police and escaped from prison several times before his capture in Winnipeg. He went to the gallows protesting his innocence. These and 13 other cases comprise a spine-chilling collection of extraordinary tales - bizarre, frightful, but true. Illus., Notes, Bibliog. and Index. 226pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Vg+ in sl. frayed vg. dw. showing a little shelfwear.