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Titles to Look Out For:
(In Alphabetical Order of Title)
1961. The Concise Encyclopedia of Crime and Criminals. Edited by Sir Harold Scott (formerly Chief of Scotland Yard)
The Fifty Most Amazing Crimes of the Last 100 Years by J. M. Parrish
1966. Peterman: Memoirs of A Safe-Breaker by Shifty Burke

Suggested Crime Books on Amazon:
Scott, Sir Harold et al. 'The Concise Encyclopedia of Crime and Criminals', published in 1961 by André Deutsche for Bookplan in hardback, 351pp, with dustjacket. Condition: good, but worn, with good but worn dustjacket (dj edges slightly ripped & rubbed in places). Price: £6.99, not including p&p, which is Amazon's standard charge (currently £2.75 for UK buyers, more for overseas customers)
1961, Bookplan
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  • The Concise Encyclopedia of Crime and Criminals [top]
    Edited by Sir Harold Scott, who also contributed
    Sir Harold Scott was formerly Chief of Scotland Yard
    Other contributors: J. C. Alderson, Peter Archer, G. Billington, Lyon Boston, Andrew Bradley, B. S. Brown, Rex B. Cowan, S. R. Eshelby, R. G. Fenwick, Ian Fleming, Gilbert Forbes (Reader in Forensic Medicine at the University of Sheffield), W. O. Gay, Francis Grierson, Max Grunhüt (former reader in criminology at the University of Oxford), J. D. Heatly, Christina Hole, J. Edgar Hoover (director of FBI), T. E. James (Reader in Law at King's College, University of London), E. L. Johnson, Alister Kershaw, Robert Lafontaine, The Earl of Longford (formerly Lord Pakenham), Donald McCormick, A. Keith Mant (Lecturerer in the Department of Forensic Medicine, Guy's Hospital, LO, Gerhard Mitschke, Alan Moorehead (author and journalist), Eric Partridge, Joseph Pessell, H. H. Pioch (Ministerial Officer, Ministry of the Interior West Germany), A. Laurence Polak, Patrick Pringle, Henry T. F. Rhodes, Maurice Richardson (author and journalist), Sir Harold Scott, Marcel Sicot (Secretary General of Interpol), William Stapley, Dame Rebecca West, Christopher Williams, W. H. D. Winder, Charles Wrong
    First published in 1961 in Great Britain by André Deutsche in hardback, 351pp; and reprinted for Bookplan by the same publisher, same number of pages, title and author, etc.

About the book: when published, this book was the most complete and up-to-date history of crime, criminals and criminology ever published in a single volume containing 96 pages of illustrations and giving the general reader as well as the expert authoritative information on every aspect of crime, including such widely diverse subjects as arson, Common Law, crime reporting, embezzlement, espionage, highwaymen, juvenile delinquency, kidnapping, libel, murder, penology, pornography, rackets, robbery, smuggling and war crimes, as well as articles on more unusual areas of crime such as piracy, treason and witchcraft.

There are articles dealing with law enforcement from the days of the Bow Street Runners to the present time, which describe in detail the working of organizations such as Scotland Yard, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Interpol, The Sûreté Nationale, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. A number of notorious criminal organzations are also dealt with, including the Carmorra, the Crime Syndicate, the Ku Klux Klan, the Mafia, Mau Mau, and Murder Inc.

Among the many biographies of well-known criminals are those of Al Capone, Blackbeard, Horatio Bottomley, Sir Roger Casement, Crippen, John Herbert Dillinger, Guy Fawkes, Haigh, Kreuger, Henry Landru, "Lucky" Luciano, Van Meegeren, Charles Peace, and Stavisky, Oscar Wilde, as well as others of earlier days, such as Ned Kelly, Captain Morgan, Jack Sheppard and Dick Turpin.
Here, too, are biographies of celebrated legal figures and penal reformers, among them Alphonse Bertillon, Sir Edward Coke, Thomas Dewey, Jeremy Bentham, John Howard, John Marshall, Clarence Darrow, and Sir Patrick Hastings, Q. C.


Parrish, J.M.; and Crossland, John R. 'The Fifty Most Amazing Crimes of the Last 100 Years', published by Odhams Press Ltd, Long Acre London, 768 pages, with red leatherette cover, embossed on the front with a gun and poison bottle. Sorry, out of stock
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Contents & brief description:
1) Wakefield, H. Russell. 'Landru: A Real Life Bluebeard'
Dark, bearded, sinister, urbane, greatest "lady-killer" -in the most terrible sense-of all time
2) Beresford, J. D. 'Charles Peace, The Devil Man'.
In barbarous times, he might have been a chieftain; civilisation judged his banditry and murders differently
3) Clark, Denis. 'The Grim Secret of the Galapagos Islands.'
Tragedy, written in blood, on an island of doom and despair.
4) Garvin, Katharine. 'The Step-Daughter's Revenge:Constance Kent's Confession.'
Adolescent surrender to a dreadful impulse of revenge-years in a convent-and then confession.
5) Jenkins, Elizabeth. 'Man of Letters Turned Murderer:Lacenaire.'
Social outcast, unsuccessful poet, Lacenaire killed coldly and deliberately for a living.
6) Eaton, Harold. 'The Case of the Century:Crippen and the Belle Elmore.'
The problem of why a mild, well-liked, conventional doctor committed a crime that horrified the country.
7) Thomson, Sir Basil. 'The Great Bank Forgery:Macdonnell and the Bidwells.'
Four brains against a mighty system, and the tiny detail that turned success to failure
8) Carswell, Donald. 'Spotlight on the Underworld:Steinie Morrison.'
The crime that revealed to the public gaze the mysteries of London's sinister night life.
9) Adam, H.L. 'The Great Pearl Robbery.'
The owner of the £130,000 necklace knew the pearls would come back-they did, thanks to Scotland Yard.
10) Muggeridge, Malcolm. 'Fatal Obsession of A One-Track Mind:The Case of J.B. Troppmann.'
He might have been a famous scientist-he possessed the perseverance, singleness of purpose. Instead...
11) Kingsmill, Hugh. 'The Gigantic Frauds of Jabez Balfour.'
Bogus Building Societies, guinea-pig directors, demonstrations of philanthropy and piety-Jabez Balfour knew all the ways of deceiving others-and of helping himself.
12) Garvin, Katharine. 'The Eternal Mystery of a Woman's Mind:The Case of Madame Lafarge.'
Psychologically, probably the most fascinating murder-if murder it was-of all time.
13) Adam, H.L. 'The Green Bicycle Mystery.'
Most baffling of all unsolved murder mysteries-or was it perhaps, not murder?
14) Chadburn, Paul. 'An Epic of Detection:The Voirbo Chase.'
The scheming of Voirbo and the counter-scheming of Detective Macé, present a real-life example of the detection story
15) Beaumont, F.A. 'The Fiend of East London:Jack the Ripper.'
London's most horrible case of the invisible assassin. Who was he? Why did the murders suddenly stop?
16) Adam, H.L. 'Face at the Window: The Gorse Hall Murder.'
The terrible ordeal of a lonely household waiting for the unknown assassin to strike
17) Kingsmill, Hugh. 'The Phoenix Park Murders and the Sequel of the Pigott Forgeries.'
The tragedy of Lord Cavendish's death and the ignoble comedy of a forger and the great Parnell.
18) Adam, H.L. 'Murder at Moat House Farm.'
The emotionally starved spinster who fell an easy prey to one of the most amazing murderers in criminal history.
19) Eaton, Harold. 'Poison in a Private School: The Lamson Case.'
Prince of Hypocrites who gave deadly aconitine to a crippled schoolboy.
20) Browne, Wynyard. 'Crime of the Chemistry Professor: The Webster Case.'
A love of wine and good cigars, a nagging creditor with a bullying manner -these were enough to transform the easy-going professor into a fiend incarnate.
21) Adam, H.L. 'The Summer-House Mystery: The Luard Case.'
A pleasant tea-party arranged for a summer afternoon-and then the hostess found murdered. Who could have been the assassin? A fascinating speculation for amateur detectives.
22) Wood, David. 'Murder at a Famous Hotel: The Madame Fahmy Case.'
One of Sir Edward Marshall Hall's most famous defences based on the age-old saying- "East is East..."
23) Glen, Enid. 'The Terrible Ordeal of Madeleine Smith.'
Acquitted on a verdict of "Not Proven," Madeleine Smith, some thought, had suffered persecution enough for any woman to bear.
24) Adam, H.L. 'The Brides in the Bath.'
The man who "understood women"-and how horribly he misused his powers.
25) Davis, Ernest. 'Connoisseur and Company Promoter:Whitaker Wright.'
Fraudulent winner of so many fortunes, he gambled once too often-he couldn't cheat the law
26) Eaton, Harold. 'The Benevolent Monster: Doctor Pritchard.'
The portly, bearded, almost patriarchal Dr. Pritchard-cheat, hypocrite, poisoner of women.
27) Adam, H. L. 'The Roundabout Trail of Robinson, Trunk Murderer.'
An amazing hunt that led at last to the strangest scene of murder imaginable-a room overlooking a police court
28) Lunn, Brian. 'Incitement to Murder: Mrs Thompson and Bywaters.'
Passions that ran their fatal courses in a drama of "the eternal triangle."
29) Wakefield, H. Russell. 'The Problem of the Shot Pupil: The A. J. Monson Case.'
A whole array of expert witnesses, tangling the evidence, made this case one of the most difficult in Scottish legal history.
30) Adam, H. L. 'Trail that Led Nowhere: The Case of Georgina Moore.'
The terrible ordeal of an innocent woman brought into the shadows of the gallows by mistaken witnesses.
31) Chadburn, Paul. 'Murder on the High Seas: The "Veronica" Mutineers.'
Doom on the Atlantic-but neither sea, nor wind, nor fire had any part in this disaster
32) Carswell, Donald. 'The Great Scandal of A City's Bank Directors.'
Seldom, if ever, has such rottenness in the financial affairs of a great bank been revealed to the public.'
33) Eaton, Harold. 'Horse-Fancier and Wholesale Poisoner:William Palmer.'
Callousness, cunning, supreme confidence-these were the stock-in-trade of William Palmer. They did not save him from the gallows.
34) Muggeridge, Malcolm. 'The Terrible Fate of Mrs Staunton'
Nowhere in the annuals of crime is there a more shameful case of cruelty and neglect
35) Kingsmill, Hugh. '"D.S. Windell":Swindler and Practical Joker.'
The man who made all London smile-but the banks did not find him amusing
36) Adam, H. L. 'The Tragedy of the Moneys: The Merstham Tunnel Mystery.'
Brother and sister were afflicted with the same fatal weakness for leading double lives
37) Davis, Ernest. 'Fatal Temptation of a Banker Baronet.'
The scandal that shook the city and ruined the name of an old-established banking house
38) Beaumont, F. A. 'Double life of a Dickens-Loving Brush Maker:The Wainwright's Case.'
Proof, at the cost of two lives, that a love of libertinage and of respectability do not go together.
39) Adam, H. L. 'Tragedy at the Blue Anchor: The Vaquier Case.'
Love of publicity that led to identification and arrest of Vaquier the Vain.
40) Beaumont, F. A. 'Misapplied Ingenuity of a Bigamist: The Rouse Case.'
The infamously famous case of a man cornered and desperate who tried to lose his identity in another's burned body.
41) Beaumont, F. A. 'Men-Hunters: The "German Rouse Cases."'
Their idea was to burn others so that they might live new and more comfortable lives with the help of their insurance indemnity
42) Carswell, Donald. 'An Amazing Case of Mistaken Identity:Adolf Beck.'
An almost unbelievable error that led to long imprisonment of an innocent man.
43) Chadburn, Paul. 'The Case of the Gambling Ledger Clark: The Goudie Bank Forgeries.'
The bank employee who stole thousands, but was arrested almost penniless-ruined dupe of turf swindlers.
44) Eaton, Harold. 'The Meanest Murder: Seddon and the Spinster's Sovereigns.'
How cold and calculated greed led the highly-respected insurance superintendent to become one of the most callous murderers in the calendar of crime.
45) Lunn, Brian. 'The Imposter Who Claimed The Tichborne Millions.'
A famous trial for perjury revealing one of the most extraordinary false claimants ever known.
46) Clark, Denis. 'The Jekyll and Hyde Murders: The Case of A. W. Waite.'
A real life case that might have come straight from the pages of Stevenson or Oscar Wilde
47) Adam, H. L. 'Rogues Who Fell Out: The Case of Browne and Kennedy.'
Two desperadoes of the roads who left behind them only the slenderest of clues, relentlessly tracked down by the law's "long-arm." One of Scotland Yard's most brilliant achievements
48) Lunn, Brian. 'The Great Scotland Yard Scandal: The Trial of the Detectives.'
The astounding feat of the two turf swindlers who disorganised the police system
49) Adam, H. L. 'Death in an Old-World Village:The Peasenhall Mystery.'
Was it murder or accident? At all events, it transformed a quiet Suffolk village into a furious battlefield of conflicting opinions.
50) Beaumont, F. A. 'Fritz Haarmann: Terror of Hanover.'
Horror had reached the pitch of hysteria in the old town where youth after youth disappeared, and dreadful tales of a devouring monster were abroad

 

True Crime Books at Amazon:

Famous Murder Books at Amazon:

Burke, Shifty. 'Peterman: Memoirs of A Safe-Breaker'  published in 1966 in hardback by Arthur Barker Ltd, 192pp, no ISBN. Condition: good quite clean ex-library copy with plastic sleeve protecting the dustjacket. Price: £7.95, not including p&p, which is Amazon's standard charge (currently £2.75 for UK buyers, more for overseas customers)
1966, Arthur Barker Ltd, hbk
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  • Peterman: Memoirs of A Safe-Breaker [top]
    Written by Shifty Burke
    First published in 1966 in Great Britain by Arthur Barker Limited, in hardback with dustjacket, 192pp, No ISBN
    Jacket design by Leslie McCombie Associates
    Original UK retail price: 21s net (21 shillings)

About the Book: This is the life story of a 'peterman' (safeblower) who also took part in other crimes, including the abortive London airport bullion raid. Shifty was born in 1921 of a respectable working-class family in Mitcham and did his first 'job' at the age of twelve. Having, as he puts it, 'tasted blood' he continued and eventually met a real 'pro' who took him under his wing and taught him the ropes. Their first job together was blowing the safe of a cinema. Shifty got £100 as his share from this and it marked his formal entry into the London underworld. He tells how he got to know other people in the game and writes in fascinating detail of the way the jobs were organized under the general direction of the Big Boss who parcelled out the various, expertly 'cased', jobs that he had approved, and who took his usual cut of £2,000-whether the job was successful or not.

The reader (aided by a comprehensive glossary) learns in this remarkable account every technical detail of the science of safe-blowing and other criminal expertise. The author also explains, in the course of describing a series of exciting episodes, how the underworld of professional criminals is organized and run with remarkable consideration for conscientious employees but a degree of efficency and discipline that the management of many large corporations might wish to emulate. The result is undoubtedly one of the most authentic and revealing exposés of the criminal world and its techniques ever to be written (as of the date of publication)

 



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True Crime Anthologies on Amazon:
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