ADAM WOOD
TRUE CRIME HISTORIAN
BOOKS
THE TRUTH ABOUT JACK THE RIPPER
This 162-page book features a detailed account of the Whitechapel murders of 1888, a history of Chief Inspector Donald Swanson's handwritten notes discovered 50 years after his death which name the chief suspect and what happened to him, and an examination by the author into the events described in Swanson's marginalia.
Donald Sutherland Swanson was born in the far north of Scotland, leaving for London in 1867. The following year he joined the Metropolitan Police and began patrolling the streets of the capital as a uniformed constable. When he retired 35 years later, in 1903, he had risen to the rank of Superintendent of the CID at Scotland Yard, the top detective in the country.
On 15th September 1888 Swanson was hand-picked by Commissioner Sir Charles Warren to lead the investigation into the Whitechapel murders by the so-called Jack the Ripper, as a result learning more about the case than any other officer as he read every report, statement, letter and telegram.
Although the mystery was never officially solved, more than 50 years after Donald Swanson’s death his grandson discovered private handwritten notes which seemed to finally explain what happened to the murderer – and to name him at last.
£10.00 Paperback, £5.00 Digital.
THE BLACK KALENDAR OF COVENTRY
1840 saw the publication of the Black Kalendar of Aberdeen, a chronicle of cases which had gone before the courts of the Scottish city over the preceding hundred years.
Following in the same format, this collection of twelve true crime cases relates the stories of murders and other dreadful deeds in Coventry dating from 1820 to 1872.
Cases include the woman who desperately attempted to conceal the birth of her newborn daughter before her unknowing husband returned home from a three-year prison sentence, the shooting of a man at the Wyken Colliery which almost resulted in the cage containing six men he was bringing up from the pit hurtling back down the shaft to their certain doom - and the truth of the story of 'Duckfat' Bradshaw, supposedly found by police sitting in the Malt Shovel on Spon End eating a pie following the murder of the landlord.
£10.00 Paperback, illustrated.
THE WATCHMAKER'S REVENGE
"Last night considerable excitement was caused in Coventry by the report that a number of persons had been shot and seriously wounded by a man who was going about the town with a revolver."
The horrific actions of watchmaker Oliver Style on the evening of Thursday, 27th May 1880 are now long forgotten. But at the time the case was national - and international - news, and barely left the pages of local newspapers for six months.
He had walked into the Old Half Moon tavern on Coventry's Spon End and shot two customers and the landlady without saying a word, then just as suddenly left and made his way to Much Park Street, where he shot his wife, their infant son and his mother in law.
Think of Coventry's famous watchmaking industry, and the image which comes to mind is of a genial, skilled craftsman, hunched over a workstation, carrying out his work with infinite care to support his loving family. But scratch beneath the surface and tales of drunkeness, domestic abuse and infidelity are rife.
This book examines the long-forgotten case of Oliver Style and the harrowing aftermath of his actions, and reveals the real lives of the Coventry watchmaking community.
£10.00 Paperback.
Illustrated / bibliography / index.
THE CASE OF THE PAINTED BICYCLE LAMP
The gruesome double murder of Richard and Mary Phillips in Coventry’s Stoke Park estate seemed a perfect mystery.
The bloodied bodies of the elderly couple were found in their bedroom, with the previous days’ newspapers piled up on the doormat.
A calendar on their mantlepiece had not been changed for two days, capturing the date of the attack – Wednesday, 10th January 1906.
The only clue for Coventry’s City Police was the discovery of a crudely-painted bicycle lamp, its side lights covered over, which the murderer had seemingly used as a lantern.
Could Detective Inspector Imber solve the riddle?
This book examines the events leading up to the fatal night, and why, despite the owner of the lamp being charged with the murders and standing trial at Warwick Assizes, the case is officially classed as ‘Unsolved’.
£10.00 Paperback.
Illustrated / bibliography / index.
BLOODY KENILWORTH
A pocket-sized illustrated walking guidebook, giving step by step directions to visit more than twenty locations around Kenilworth where misdeeds were committed between 1790 and 1928, with true crime tales from the town’s grim history on almost every corner.
Learn how the former caretaker of the Kenilworth Baths on Abbey Fields, bristling with resentment over his dismissal, made sure his successor met a watery end; how a one-armed man became one of the earliest motor fatalities when he was struck by a speeding driver outside the Royal Oak, and what happened when a drunken cyclist was annoyed when the lamplighter extinguished the last light on Warwick Road one dark night in 1910.
And that's not to mention the man who discovered Jack the RIpper's hideout on Kenilworth Common...
This walk on the dark side of the streets can be taken at your own pace. The clear directions and map included in the guidebook allow the reader to take the full tour in one go, or two distinct parts.
£10.00 Paperback, Illustrated.
MURDER ON THE BRIGHTON EXPRESS
“As the train entered the Merstham tunnel, a Brighton chemist named William Gibson heard four or five loud bangs, which he took to be fog signals. The reports followed one after the other, all in the space of five or six seconds. The train continued on its journey.”
At 3.20pm on the hot afternoon of 27th June 1881, the London to Brighton express train pulled into Preston Park, a mile from its final destination. As the ticket collectors approached the carriages, one saw a thin, sickly looking man sitting in a first-class compartment beckoning him over. As the official arrived at the window, he saw that the passenger’s face and neck were smeared with blood, and there was a clot beside an ear. There was blood between his fingers, blood upon his clothes, blood in the carriage and blood upon the train’s footboard, which also bore the marks of bloodstained fingerprints. The carriage was otherwise empty.
A terrible tale was told of being attacked and shot at by two other passengers, who had now disappeared ‒ apparently from the moving train ‒ before falling into unconsciousness until arriving at Preston Park.
As the passenger stepped onto the platform, it was noticed that a small chain was hanging out of his left shoe. One of the ticket collectors stooped to pull on it, and a gold, white-faced watch emerged. The passenger had, he said, put it there for safekeeping.
So began the extraordinary story of Percy Lefroy Mapleton. During his return journey to south London accompanied by two railway police officers, a body was found by workers on the tracks in Balcombe Tunnel, eighteen miles before Preston Park. Was this one of Lefroy’s attackers, or was there something more sinister behind the discovery?
£10.00 Paperback.
Illustrated / bibliography / index.
SWANSON: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF A VICTORIAN DETECTIVE
Donald Sutherland Swanson was born in the remote far north of Scotland, leaving for London in 1867 at the age of 19 and initially working as a City clerk.
The following year he joined the Metropolitan Police and began patrolling the streets of the capital as a uniformed constable. 35 years later he retired as Superintendent of the Criminal Investigation Department, the top detective in the country.
Set against the backdrop of the developing Metropolitan Police, this book tells the story of a life and career which included railway murderers, grave robbers, fraudulent mediums, Jack the Ripper, the Philosopher’s Stone, Fenian dynamite campaigns, shocking revelations about the aristocracy and a crazed captain with sea serpents in a bottle.
Linking it all together is Donald Swanson, whose application letter to the Metropolitan Police spoke of a desire for “a good opening”. After reading his story, the reader will be left in little doubt that he made the most of the opportunities which came his way.
* 790-pages
* Paperback
* More than 100 illustrations
* Over 1,800 Notes and references
* Bibliography
* Index
* £20.00
THE ANNOTATED FAMOUS CRIMES PAST AND PRESENT: JACK THE RIPPER
Covering celebrated cases of the day such as the Maybrick murder, poisoner William Palmer and the notorious burglar-turn-killer Charlie Peace, Famous Crimes was a true crime periodical which ran for three years, under the editorship of Harold Furniss.
Now highly collectable, the four-part 'Jack the Ripper' series is one of the scarcest. Produced around 1904, just sixteen years after the Whitechapel murders, the text was written by 'a journliast who was specially engaged to investigate the crimes at the time they were committed.' It is impressive in its accuracy, and includes some interesting commentary made in the wake of the murders.
The illustrations, by Ferdinand Fissi, are some of the most recognisable and atmospheric ever produced on the subject.
This reproduction of the full Ripper series has been scanned in colour from original editions, and includes an Introduction and annotated notes throughout by Adam Wood.
A4 softcover, A4 44 pages. Colour throughout.