Max DÃ©charnÃ©
Capital Crimes, tells the shifting story of crime and punishment in London through vivid re-creations of a series of murders that stretches from the killing of Roger Legett, a notorious â€˜questmongerâ€™, during the Peasantsâ€™ Revolt in 1381, through to the hanging of Styllou Christofi in 1954. Some of the murderers, such as the political assassin John Bellingham, are still remembered. Others, including the eighteenth-century highwayman John Davis, are largely forgotten. But all their lives and fates have much to tell us â€“ about Londonâ€™s changing underworld, about the slow evolution of policing in the capital, and about the sometimes strange workings of the law. Above all, they provide a fascinating sideways view of London over the centuries â€“ from the crime-ridden alleyways of the Georgian capital to the supposedly respectable suburbs of Finchley, where the notorious â€˜baby-farmersâ€™ Amelia Sach and Annie Walters operated at the beginning of the twentieth century.,Illustrated throughout with contemporary engravings and photographs, this is an essential read for all devotees of London â€“ and of crime.
History,Mystery,Crime,Nonfiction,Crime,True Crime
Capital Crimes: Seven Centuries of London Life and Murder