Diane Surtherland - Crime: Investigations & Evidence

Crime: Investigation & Evidence is a collection of tales about all aspects of the criminal world. It brings together cases, both notorious and little known, to offer an enthralling compendium of true crime.

Criminal Curiosity

There has always been a universal fascination with stories of crimes and criminals. Who knows the cause? Maybe it is to do with law-abiding citizens curiosity as to how others have flouted the conventions of society in a way they would never do, or because they provide an insight into human psychology and behaviour. Perhaps it is an escape from everyday life: as a species, we are curious, and who could not fail to feel the slightest twinge of intrigue at the details of the latest murder trial covering the front pages of our morning newspaper?

The Sensationalization of Crime

Prior to stories of true crime being printed in books and newspapers, accounts of sensational crimes of the day were spread through other media. Verses and ballads from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries gave gory details of crimes with moralistic overtones and, occasionally, criminals would write true confessions themselves. The advent of the daily newspaper meant that information about criminal activity could be spread easily to a wide audience, a practice which continues unabated today. When the judicial process shifted to trial by evidence rather than confession, there was a whole new series of events to include in the newspaper accounts: the search for evidence, interviewing of witnesses, locating the suspect and the trial itself, at which evidence is displayed and witnesses are presented. When police forces were first formed, the detectives became the main investigators in criminal cases. From then on, many accounts, both fictional and real, were based upon their work.

Today, people are more interested than ever in the workings of the criminal mind: countless films and books are based on real crimes, and many criminals, such as Bonnie and Clyde, Myra Hindley, and Fred and Rosemary West are virtually household names. Turn on the television, and you will see real life criminal investigation programmes, drama series based on actual events, and re-enactments of crimes as an attempt to solve cases, both old and new. No day goes by without some kind of criminal activity being reported on our news bulletins. We live in a world where people are highly aware of the types of crime that go on around them, and are fascinated and fearful in turn.

Famous Cases

True Crime embraces the scope of the criminal world. It is divided into sections that deal with particular aspects of crime, and looks at the most notorious or celebrated cases within each category over time. In organizing the book in this way, the authors succeed in showing how crime has evolved over the last three or four hundred years, and, in many cases, how frighteningly similar crimes committed today are to those committed three or more hundred years ago. Recent cases included are all too painful and familiar: the tragic case of the death of toddler James Bulger; the unbelievable extent of the murders committed by Dr Harold Shipman; the did-he-didnt-he intrigue of the O.J. Simpson case, and the seemingly random shootings of the Washington sniper. Looking to the past, it contains details of some notorious cases, including the cannibalistic Sawney Bean family and the elusive Jack the Ripper. Organized crime plays an increasingly large role in todays society, and the book includes a section on the organized crimes committed by gangsters over the past hundred years or so. Mass murderers, serial killers and spree killers from the past three centuries all have a place in the book, as do crimes committed by women and children and cases that remain unsolved.

The methods used to catch criminals have changed as scientific techniques have advanced. Where once a case was unsolvable, the perpetrator can now be caught using incriminating evidence such as a speck of saliva or a hair, thanks to forensic science and DNA testing. Punishment, too, has changed over time. True Crime looks at different investigative techniques, and at the types of capital punishment that have been meted out, past and present.

The Tragedy Behind the Truth

What one must not forget is that behind each of the stories in this book there lies a human tragedy the death of the victim, the grief of those left behind, or even a miscarriage of justice for the accused. True Crime does not seek to glorify crime in any way; instead, by gathering together stories of real events from around the world, it presents a sickening and, at the same time, engrossing account of what drives people to commit crimes.

Barry Pritchard

Former Superintendent Operations, Salisbury

Multiple Murders

Massacres

A massacre is defined as the indiscriminate slaughter of people. They are often political in intent, but sometimes those perpetrating a massacre are simply tyrants wishing to exert their power or oppress a people.

Vlad the Impaler (1400s)

Vlad the Impaler, or Vlad Tepes, was a fifteenth-century Wallachian ruler who, over 400 years later, was immortalized as Dracula (son of the devil) by the author Bram Stoker. During his various dynastic struggles and wars against the Turks and Hungarians, Vlad had tens of thousands of victims impaled on stakes. In 1461 Vlad ordered the massacre of all Turks at Giurgiu; nearly 24,000 perished. When he was captured by the Hungarians in the late 1460s, Vlad spent his time in prison impaling small animals. Vlad would relish having banquets surrounded by impaled victims in agonizing pain; unfaithful women would be skinned alive and other victims would be literally worked to death.

Vlads end came in January 1477, when his small army was attacked by Turks near Bucharest; his head was conveyed to the Turkish sultan in triumph.

Ivan the Terrible (153084)

Ivan the Terrible was a sixteenth-century Russian tyrant who used unparalleled savagery to create an empire. As a child, Ivan liked to throw dogs from a castle tower. At 13, he set hunting dogs on a key rival and at 17, during his honeymoon, he set fire to men who interrupted his celebrations. He created a secret police to kill for him and in 1570, he virtually eliminated Novgorod, murdering over 60,000 people. Ivans life of murder, torture and rape ended in 1584.

The Houndsditch Killings and the Sidney Street Siege (1910)

The Sidney Street Siege, or the Battle of Stepney as it was also known, was the culmination of a series of armed burglaries in the Houndsditch area that had claimed the lives of three policemen.

The Siege

The desperados Latvian and Russian nationals were cornered in a house in Sidney Street in December 1910 and were besieged until 2 January 1911. Attempts to seek a peaceful resolution were met with a hail of gunfire. At one point, operations were directed by the home secretary, Winston Churchill. Eventually, the revolutionaries set the house on fire. Two bodies were found and four other members of the gang were arrested. It was established that the two dead men had been the Houndsditch killers and the other four were later released.