Famous Trials

‘Most of the interest and part of the terror of great crime are due not to what is abnormal, but to what is normal in it; what we have in common with the criminal, rather than that subtle insanity which differentiates him from us.’

This new selection presents eight notorious cases from the late 19th and early 20th century – the true Golden Age of the British murder trial. Each chapter guides us carefully through the background to the crime, the fateful act and the police investigation, before taking us into the courtroom and face-to-face with a defendant in a life-or-death situation: from the chillingly calm Dr. Crippen, accused of butchering his wife and disposing of her remains in his own cellar to roguish chancer George Joseph Smith, dubbed the ‘Bluebeard of the Bath’; from mild-mannered Robert Wood, who faces overwhelming evidence that he is the prostitute-killing ‘Camden Town Murderer’ to the tragic Alma Rattenbury, who repeatedly claims to have killed her elderly husband, in spite of her young lover’s confession.

Will it end on the scaffold or with freedom? And will justice be done – or miscarried?

With a new introduction by Geoffrey Robertson QC, celebrated defence lawyer and self-confessed ‘Famous Trials’ fan. Lavishly illustrated with fifty integrated black and white images, including contemporary pictures of the key participants, crime scene photographs, and evocative images of trial evidence and original prisoner records.

Geoffrey Robertson QC has had a distinguished career as a trial and appellate counsel and as an international judge, and has argued many landmark cases in media, constitutional and criminal law. He made his name as the defender of Oz magazine at the celebrated 1971 trial and went on to engage in some of the most newsworthy cases in recent history. He has defended John Stonehouse, Cynthia Payne, Salman Rushdie, Kate Adie, Arthur Scargill and others. He is also the author of many leading textbooks and a memoir, The Justice Game (1998).