THE VICTIMS

Hardback. The victims of murder have seldom been of much interest to the public whose curiosity has usually been reserved for the murderer himself. Yet in over three-quarters of the murders committed in this country, (at the time of publication), the murderers were either related or known to their victims. Who then are these victims who are so easily forgotten? Can they be held 'responsible', in some measure, for their own deaths? The author investigates this little-known aspect of murder and has written extended studies of 4 victims of homicide: William Whiteley, founder of the great department store, who was shot by his supposed illegitimate son; Bessie Mundy, one of the victims of the brides-in-the-bath murderer, George Joseph Smith, whom she knew only as 'Henry Williams'; Max ('the Red') Kassel, reputed white-slaver and gang leader, who was shot in a flat above a crowded Soho street; and Joan Wolfe, the romantic but pathetic camp-follower who was murdered in rural Surrey by a Canadian soldier during the second World War. The author has re-created the lives and deaths of the victims to show the part their personalities and social background played in their ultimate fate. Finally, there is an interview with a near-victim, who almost died at the hand of her estranged husband. With Bibliog. 224pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Vg+ in sl. frayed and sunned Nr. Vg. dw.