Bøker av Matthew Spicer

Unsolved Murders in Britain and Ireland (1800-2002) Vol 1 looks at 30 [Thirty] cases from across these islands - most are not that well known but are, nevertheless, fascinating .... there are two IRA cases from London in 1921, cases from Basingstoke, Gt Yarmouth, Aberdeen, Middlesbrough, a police case from London in 1921, a bomb-explosion on the London Underground in 1897 that killed two people, and many others ....

Murder In Wales (1800-1978) looks at 30 [Thirty] cases from across the country - many have never been told before; some of the lesser known cases were also landmarks such as the last case of a police-officer being murdered on duty in Wales - in 1941 .... Apart from cases from Cardiff, Swansea and Newport there are ones from Trimsaran, Gilfach Goch, Knelston, Garthbeibio and many more .... Some of the killers were hanged, some reprieved, some served life-sentences, some committed suicide, some were guilty of manslaughter ....

Albert Pierrepoint (1905-1992) was the most prolific hangman from Britain in the 20th century - he was certainly the most famous - but how many people did he actually hang by the neck until they were dead. Although he kept a diary, he did rewrite it at certain points. In one at the end he wrote: " .... engaged in approx. 606 executions. approx. 173 reprieved." Thus this figure would be 433. In terms of the figure from others sources, e.g. the Official Execution Sheets, he executed 433 people between 1932 and 1955; and officially observed at one. Of that total he was an assistant in 49 cases - all but a few in assisting his Uncle, Thomas Pierrepoint .... Here are 30 [Thirty] of the lesser known cases that he participated in ....

"London Killers Who Faced The Noose (1800-1965)" Vol 1 looks at 30 [Thirty] cases from across the 32-London Boroughs as they stand now in the era of capital punishment .... there are cases from Islington, Chelsea, Stanmore, Fitzrovia and many others ....

"Murder, Mystery And Execution" - Volume 2 - looks at another 30 [Thirty] capital cases of murder in Britain and Ireland from 1800 to the effective end of the death penalty in these islands in 1964 .... The motives ranged from anger/revenge; passion & jealousy; robbery, sexual et al to those who had no motive .... But all of them had as their last sight - the rope on the gallows and the hangman and his white hood .... There are cases from Plymouth, Luton, Leeds, Durham and many others as well as from Scotland, Wales, Jersey and Ireland and London ....

"The Last To Face The Gallows In Britain [1957-1965]" looks at 30 [Thirty] cases in the period when although the death penalty for murder was abolished in Britain in November 1965, the first mandatory life sentence for murder was in fact passed in May 1957 under the terms of the Homicide Act (1957). The reason for this apparent paradox was that for eight-and-a-half years British courts distinguished between capital murder - where the mandatory death sentence was retained - and murder where, as is the case today, a mandatory life sentence was passed. In all, between March 1957, when the Act received Royal Assent, and November 1965, 402 persons were convicted of murder in Great Britain; of this number only 73 (including just eight in Scotland) were convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death, or more accurately as stipulated by s.10 of the new Act, they were: "To suffer death in the manner authorized by law." In retrospect the Act was a compromise, if not directly intended as such, to ease Britain into life without the death penalty for murder. It is widely regarded as a very poor piece of legislation that had few supporters .... Within the 30 cases are the last execution on Jersey and a death sentence passed in Northern Ireland after November 1965 - In neither of those jurisdictions did the 1957 Act apply; and also included is the case of the first person to stand trial for what would have been capital murder after the Abolition Act came into force in England ....

Berkshire Murders (1800-2003) looks at 30 [Thirty] cases from across the county as the boundary stands today [February 2024] .... There are cases from Slough, Wraysbury, Maidenhead, Windsor, Colnbrook, Reading, Ascot, Winkfield, Sunningdale, Newbury, Warfield and Lambourn .... Some of the killers were hanged - including the last in public at Reading; some served life-sentences; some were convicted of manslaughter; others were insane and there are a number of unsolved cases too ....

Hanged In Ireland (1800-1961) looks at 30 [Thirty] cases from across the island - all were convicted of murder - many have never been told before; many of the lesser known cases were also landmarks such as the last executions at Omagh both in private and public; the first private execution in Dublin which saw the condemned man's head come off [see front cover]; the last women executed - both under British Rule and post independence; the first execution in the New Irish state; a triple-killer from Co Sligo; a brother and sister who went to the gallows; a triple-execution that saw the last woman hanged in public in Ireland; plus many more ....

Police Murder-Homicides In Britain (1900-2023) looks at all 144 cases of officers who were killed on duty that resulted in a murder or homicide outcome or were recorded as unsolved from January 1st, 1900 to December 31st, 2023 [The last was in September 2020]. Some cases saw the killers go to gallows, some have served very long terms of imprisonment - one killer remains in prison after nearly 60 [sixty] years in custody; some killers have served short terms; some were found insane; some committed suicide after the killing ....

"Murder, Mystery And Execution" - Volume 1 - looks at 30 [Thirty] capital cases of murder in Britain and Ireland from 1800 to the effective end of the death penalty in these islands in 1964 .... The motives ranged from anger/revenge; passion & jealousy; robbery, sexual et al to those who had no motive .... But all of them had as their last sight - the rope on the gallows and the hangman and his white hood ....

The smash tv hit Peaky Blinders which ran for six series between 2013 and 2022 was a fictional account of gangland in Birmingham after the First World War - however the name was - indeed - of a real gang that operated in the city from 1890 (First time name appears on the BNA) .... until just before the Great War .... Although the fictional gang were Irish Travellers and Romani Gypsies in real life the gang simply reflected the ethnic make-up of the city in those years .... They were so named as gang-members wore signature outfits - tailored jackets, lapelled overcoats, buttoned waistcoats, silk scarves, bell-bottom trousers, leather boots, and peaked flat caps. There is no definitive list of actual murder cases that they were involved in, but in 1901 three of their group faced the threat of the gallows for the death of a city policeman - they escaped the noose with manslaughter convictions as did a previous gang-killer of a Birmingham city policeman four years earlier and just a month after the 1901 case a young detective-constable was found dead in the Birmingham Canal .... Four years later a 'Peaky Blinder' shot dead a rival outside a pub in Summer Hill - yet again he escaped the noose .... and in another killer avoided the death-penalty - his victim a young woman of just eighteen .... in one two young men burgled and robbed an old lady during which she died .... in another a rival of the 'Peakies' sort revenge outside a musical-hall but the tables were turned .... and .... at the same venue the manager is killed in a punishment-beating ....