FATAL AFFAIRS (SIGNED)

Hardback. SIGNED. The author recounts five extraordinary murder cases from the 18th and 19th century where love and romantic infatuation ended in death. In 1752 Mary Blandy fell in love with army officer William Cranston. Thwarted by her father's opposition to the match, they plotted his murder by arsenic poisoning. Cranston evaded justice, but Mary was hanged at Oxford Castle. Sexually violated as a child, Elizabeth Jeffries and her lover John Swan shot and killed her uncle as he lay in bed. They were both publicly executed in Epping Forest in 1752. In 1765, 19yr old Katharine Nairn began a reckless affair with her brother-in-law Lt. Patrick Ogilvie. When her husband died after a sudden, excruciating illness, Katharine and Patrick were arrested and convicted of incest and murder by poisoning. Ogilvie was hanged, but Katharine made a daring escape from the notorious Tolbooth Prison in Edinburgh and fled to France. On Christmas Eve in 1836, James Greenacre brutally murdered his wife-to-be Hannah Brown. He dismembered her body and dumped the remains in several locations around London. His mistress Sarah Gale spent days removing the blood stains from the crime scene. Greenacre met his death on the scaffold; Gale was transported to Australia where her life took an unexpected turn. In 1870, Brighton spinster Christiana Edmunds developed an inappropriate attachment to Dr. Charles Beard. After attempting to murder Mrs Beard, Christiana began distributing poisoned chocolate creams around the town, killing one 4yr old boy. Sentenced to death at the Old Bailey she was reprieved on the grounds of insanity and spent the rest of her life in Broadmoor Hospital. The author examines these cases in great detail and offers new insights into the motivations behind these dreadful crimes. Illus., Select Bibliog. and Resources + Index. 318pp. lge. 8vo. h/back. INSCRIBED AND SIGNED BY KATE CLARKE. F. in protected F. dw. A fairly heavy book which may require additional postage if shipped overseas.