Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in and Around Newcastle

Maureen Anderson

• Publisher: Pen & Sword True Crime
• Year: 2004
• eBook ISBN:
  9781783037957
• Print ISBN:
  9781903425343

A true-crime tour of this historical British coal town, with photos and illustrations.
 
Historically, Newcastle was a town of great wealth because of the abundance of natural resources. Certainly by the eighteenth century, Newcastle and its surrounding towns made up the most important commercial center in the north of England. But alongside the wealth of the merchants and the factory owners, there was the dire poverty of the working class—and plenty of crime.
 
A pall of dark fog would linger over the buildings, caused by the pollution spouting out from the chimneys of the ironworks and other industries. Bad housing, sanitation, overcrowding, and low wages bred superstition, ignorance, and illiteracy. Alcohol was often the only release the poorer classes had from their otherwise humdrum daily drudgery. It was not only the men who would spend all their money in the many beer houses—women also would drink themselves into oblivion, even if it meant their children went hungry.
 
This book spans three hundred years of grisly events, beginning with the execution of so-called witches—stories that show the depraved side of humanity, and provide insight into the darker history of the area.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 The Witch Hunt, 1649
• Chapter 2 Murder or Suicide? 1764
• Chapter 3 The Demon Drink, 1752–1901
• Chapter 4 The Faw Gang, 1791
• Chapter 5 Guilty on the Word of a Felon, 1809
• Chapter 6 Was He Guilty? 1816
• Chapter 7 The Pitmen’s Revenge, 1832
• Chapter 8 A Violent Robbery, 1833
• Chapter 9 Murder and Arson at the Savings Bank, 1838
• Chapter 10 They Were Only Prostitutes, 1840–86
• Chapter 11 The Stabbing of an Apprentice, 1841
• Chapter 12 Domestic Violence, Drink and Death, 1844–98
• Chapter 13 Honour Thy Father and Mother, 1845
• Chapter 14 The Irish Workers, 1846–90
• Chapter 15 Murder at Matfen, 1855
• Chapter 16 All Because of a Dog Tax, 1861
• Chapter 17 Rape and Murder at the West Walls, 1863
• Chapter 18 A Violent Arrest, 1863
• Chapter 19 Helpless Victims, 1859–98
• Chapter 20 Confession of a Child Killer, 1866
• Chapter 21 An Unexplained Death, 1869
• Chapter 22 A Tragedy in Blenheim Street,1870
• Chapter 23 Trivial Incidents, 1870–72
• Chapter 24 For Love or Money? 1875
• Chapter 25 A Bad End to a Good Day, 1875
• Chapter 26 Anonymous Letters, 1894
• Chapter 27 Beaten with a Coal-rake, 1898
• Chapter 28 A Crime of Passion, 1901
• Chapter 29 The Cullercoats’ Affair, 1901
• Chapter 30 Murder of an Innocent at Bill Quay, 1902
• Chapter 31 More Executions at Morpeth and Newcastle, 1305–1842
• Sources