Scottish Murders

Lisa Wallis, Derek Wright

• Publisher: Wordsworth Editions Ltd
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN: 9781848705463
• Edition: 0

Here are twenty true tales of murder most foul: dark deeds at the court of Mary, Queen of Scots; the great Victorian trials of Madeline Smith and Dr Edward Pritchard ('The Human Crocodile'); the grisly exploits of the body-snatchers Burke and Hare; and the still-undetected 'Bible John', who terrorised a famous Glasgow dancehall in the 1960s.

The famous Scottish murder cases gathered here are by no means straightforward crimes. Some are still unsolved; in some, the apparently innocent are found guilty, in others the guilty have surely walked free – some by means of that uniquely Scottish verdict, 'Not Proven'. The legal process could produce some unlikely results, leading to trials nearly as notorious as the crimes they sought to prosecute.

From the busy city streets of Edinburgh and Glasgow to the remote, desolate beauty of the Scottish Highlands, these cases are in turn chilling and heart-breaking, but never less than fascinating.

Table of contents

• David Rizzio and Mary Queen of Scots
• The Legend of Sawney Beane
• Burke and Hare
• A Dream of Murder
• The Case of Miss Madeleine Smith
• The Case of Jessie Mclachlan
• The Ratho Murderer
• The Human Crocodile
• The French Tutor
• Death on Goatfell
• The Mystery of Ardlamont
• The Trials of Oscar Slater
• The Dalkeith Poisoner
• The Bodies in the Quarry
• The Ungrateful Son
• The Polish Soldier
• The Beast of Birkenshaw
• Sheila Garvie
• Bible John
• The Butler Did It