Search results for ""author john j eddleston""

A Century of Welsh Murders and Executions brings together thirty-six murderous tales that shocked not only Wales but also made national headlines. This fascinating new book by crime historian John J. Eddleston covers every twentieth century murder committed in Wales which resulted in a judicial execution. They include the case of William Augustus Lacey, who killed his young wife with a razor in a fit of jealously at Pontypridd in 1900; baby farmer Rhoda Willis, the first woman to be hanged at Cardiff Prison, in 1907; Eric Lange, who brutally murdered the landlord of the Bridgend Hotel, Pentre, in 1904; and Thomas Ronald Lewis Harries, who murdered both his uncle and aunt and buried them in a shallow grave on a farm at Llangynin in 1954. John J. Eddleston's carefully researched, well-illustrated and enthralling text will appeal to anyone interested in the shady side of Welsh history, and should give much food for thought. It is the definitive book on capital crimes in the Principality.

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In the Great War of 1914-1918, Southampton played a vital role in the war effort. Designated as Port Number One it saw hundreds of thousands of men and many tons of equipment sail for the fields of Belgium and France. The Second World War was a completely different type of war. Hitler s blitzkrieg tactics led to a more mobile war and, arguably for the first time, air-power played a crucial role. Whoever had superiority in the air had a massive advantage in any particular theatre, or battle. This does not, however, mean that Southampton s role was relegated to a minor one. Southampton s men still enlisted in their hundreds. Her women took over roles in factories, on buses and trams, and many of them also served in the armed forces. Her citizens formed defence groups and helped to watch for the enemy invasion and those same citizens suffered greatly when the bombs fell. The Southampton Blitz claimed many lives and this, perhaps, was the greatest difference the town saw in this second global conflagration. It is true that her citizens had also served in the Great War but now, through the efforts of the Luftwaffe, these men, women and children were now also in the front line. Hitler once described Germany s plans as total war . The phrase is certainly apt when one considered how the towns and cities of Britain suffered during the Nazi supremacy. One of those towns was Southampton, a town that once again, just 20 short years after she had given so much, had to brace herself for long years of war in which every single person had their role to play. And once again, Southampton and her citizens were not found wanting.

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Stories of violent death will always hold us in a grim but thrilling grip. The dreadful crimes related in Foul Deeds in Kensington & Chelsea are shocking examples of murder cases that readers will never forget. Crimes of passion, opportunistic killings, political assassinations - the full spectrum of extreme criminality is recounted here. John Eddleston has selected a series of notorious episodes that give a fascinating insight into criminal acts and the criminal mind. The human dramas he depicts are often played out in the most commonplace of circumstances, but others are so odd as to be stranger than fiction. Cases of involving the killing of wives, lovers and children are among those he describes, but he also reconstructs in forensic detail several more unusual crimes - two men shot dead at a lecture, the field marshal who was assassinated on his doorstep, the acid bath killings, and the murders of two ill-fated countesses. These lethal episodes give a fascinating insight into the dark side of the history of Kensington & Chelsea. John J. Eddleston is an authority on British criminal history and a prolific writer on the subject. His many books include Murderous Sussex, Murderous Manchester, Blind Justice, Jack the Ripper: An Encyclopedia, The Encyclopedia of Executions, A Century of Welsh Murders and Executions, Manx Killers, Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Southampton and Miscarriages of Justice: Famous London Cases.

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