The Murderous Children of 19th Century Britain
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Narrated by:
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Tim Fearon
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By:
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Christina Croft
About this listen
If ever you worry about children today, spare a thought for the people of 19th century Britain, when knife-crime was rife and gangs of children roamed the streets and countryside, committing countless horrendous crimes including murder. There were poisoners, vengeful housemaids, disgruntled apprentices, unhappy siblings, and potential serial killers, some of whom were hanged but many of whom received remarkably lenient sentences. While politicians and the judiciary struggled to find the best means of deterring and dealing with violent juvenile offenders, a few were reformed but many quite simply "got away with murder".
©2022 Christina Croft (P)2023 Christina CroftListeners also enjoyed...
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catch the facts if you can
- By Alexandra on 11-17-19
By: Donald Rumbelow
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The Wicked Boy
- The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer
- By: Kate Summerscale
- Narrated by: Corrie James
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Early in the morning of Monday, July 8, 1895, 13-year-old Robert Coombes and his 12-year-old brother, Nattie, set out from their small, yellow-brick terraced house in East London to watch a cricket match at Lord's. Their father had gone to sea the previous Friday, the boys told their neighbors, and their mother was visiting her family in Liverpool. Over the next 10 days, Robert and Nattie spent extravagantly, pawning their parents' valuables to fund trips to the theatre and the seaside. But as the sun beat down on the Coombes house, a strange smell began to emanate.
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Amazing True Story
- By Lisa Belle on 01-08-17
By: Kate Summerscale
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Old Sparky
- The Electric Chair and the History of the Death Penalty
- By: Anthony Galvin
- Narrated by: Jack Reynolds
- Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Old Sparky covers the history of capital punishment in America and the "current wars" between Edison and Westinghouse, which led to the development of the electric chair. It examines how the electric chair became the most popular method of execution in America before being superseded by lethal injection. Famous executions are explored alongside quirky last meals and poignant last words.
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Information not a sermon.
- By Jakk on 10-24-16
By: Anthony Galvin
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Southern Horrors & The Red Record (AmazonClassics Edition)
- By: Ida B. Wells-Barnett
- Narrated by: Kristyl Dawn Tift
- Length: 4 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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In the United States at the turn of the nineteenth century, crusading African American journalist Ida B. Wells-Barnett bravely reported on the scourge of white supremacist violence that had personally impacted her own life and work. Her reporting exposed and riled the South, enlightened uninformed Northerners, and captured international attention. Southern Horrors and The Red Record offer extensive accounts of the lynching, cruelty, and hate that African Americans faced in the early years of the Jim Crow South.
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So Courageous
- By eric lewis on 09-29-23
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The Battered Body Beneath the Flagstones, and Other Victorian Scandals
- By: Michelle Morgan
- Narrated by: Anne Dover
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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A grisly book dedicated to the crimes, perversions and outrages of Victorian England, covering high-profile offences - such as the murder of actor William Terriss, whose stabbing at the stage door of the Adelphi Theatre in 1897 filled the front pages for many weeks - as well as lesser-known transgressions that scandalised the Victorian era. The tales include murders and violent crimes but also feature scandals that merely amused the Victorians.
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Doesn’t question it’s sources enough
- By Emily Stoneking on 11-27-18
By: Michelle Morgan
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The Lost King of France
- How DNA Solved the Mystery of the Murdered Son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette
- By: Deborah Cadbury
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 12 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Louis-Charles, Duc de Normandie, enjoyed a charmed early childhood in the gilded palace of Versailles. At the age of four, he became the dauphin, heir to the most powerful throne in Europe. Yet within five years he was to lose everything. Drawn into the horror of the French Revolution, his family was incarcerated and their fate thrust into the hands of the revolutionaries who wished to destroy the monarchy.
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Not For the Faint of Heart
- By Liane on 01-23-20
By: Deborah Cadbury
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Last Woman Hanged
- The Terrible True Story of Louisa Collins
- By: Caroline Overington
- Narrated by: Jennifer Vuletic
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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In January 1889, Louisa Collins, a 41-year-old mother of 10 children, became the first woman hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol and the last woman hanged in New South Wales. Both of Louisa's husbands had died suddenly and the Crown, convinced that Louisa poisoned them with arsenic, put her on trial an extraordinary four times in order to get a conviction, to the horror of many in the legal community. Louisa protested her innocence until the end.
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Enlightening, entertaining and exceptionally done
- By Karol Heim on 02-09-24
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The Big Book of Serial Killers
- An Encyclopedia of Serial Killers - 150 Serial Killer Files of the World's Worst Murderers
- By: Jack Rosewood, Rebecca Lo
- Narrated by: Kevin Kollins
- Length: 17 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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There is little more terrifying than those who hunt, stalk, and snatch their prey under the cloak of darkness. These hunters search not for animals, but for the touch, taste, and empowerment of human flesh. They are cannibals, vampires, and monsters, and they walk among us. These serial killers are not mythical beasts with horns and shaggy hair. They are people living among society, going about their day-to-day activities until nightfall. They are the Dennis Rader's, the fathers, husbands, church-going members of the community.
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GREAT FOR TRUE CRIME DEVOTÉES, BUT....
- By The Louligan on 10-31-17
By: Jack Rosewood, and others
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The Salem Witch Hunt
- A Captivating Guide to the Hunt and Trials of People Accused of Witchcraft in Colonial Massachusetts
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Edwin Andrews
- Length: 3 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Decades after witch-hunting had begun to die down in Europe, North America was about to witness its bloodiest witch hunt in history. The Massachusetts of 1692 was a very different one to the state we know today. Populated by colonists, many of them a generation or less from life in an England bathed in religious turmoil, Massachusetts was not the safe haven that the fleeing Puritans had hoped it would be. Persecuted for their faith in Europe, the Puritans had pictured a kind of utopia founded on biblical principles.
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I love the the book but......
- By Regan Gibson on 11-21-20
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A Death in Belmont
- By: Sebastian Junger
- Narrated by: Kevin Conway
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1963, with the city of Boston already terrified by a series of savage crimes known as the Boston Stranglings, a murder occurred in Belmont, just a few blocks from the house of Sebastian Junger's family, a murder that seemed to fit exactly the pattern of the Strangler. Roy Smith, a black man who had cleaned the victim's house that day, was convicted, but the terror of the Strangler continued.
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Excellent
- By Susanna on 01-13-15
By: Sebastian Junger
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Manhunters
- Criminal Profilers and Their Search for the World’s Most Wanted Serial Killers
- By: Colin Wilson
- Narrated by: Brandon Massey
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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In this fascinating, in-depth account of the hunt for serial killers, Colin Wilson, one of the world's leading authorities on the subject, examines the ways they can be tracked down and caught, from the tried-and-true methods of the early 20th century to the high-tech processes in use today. Wilson examines such areas as psychological profiling, genetic fingerprinting, and the launch of the Behavioral Science Unit. He delves into the importance of fantasy to serial killers, the urge to keep on killing, the desire to become notorious, and murder as an addictive drug.
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Reprinted Material, Questionable Commentary
- By B on 10-18-15
By: Colin Wilson