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  • A tremendous history lesson and essential reading for everyone in the Rochester area. You'll recognize the locations and find interest in how those places looked 140 years ago. Book tells the story of five murders, all taking place in the City of Rochester, N.Y., during the latter decades of the nineteenth century. The first story, which takes up the first half of the book, is about the home invasion murder of a young wife and mother. Her body is found in the cellar, a flour sack tied tightly around her neck and her skirts hiked up. At first, of course, the husband was arrested, amid rumors that he and his wife, along with another couple, were swingers. But he was released in favor of a preferable suspect, a damaged young tramp who'd been floating around the Hayward Avenue neighborhood looking for food. In another story, the resort town of Charlotte (that's Cha'LOT to Rochesterians) where the rich went to play along the crystal clear waters of Lake Ontario. At night it was where the pick pockets and the thugs went to fleece drunks who still had money in their pockets. After our victim checks into a hotel for the night complaining he'd been mugged, he dies overnight from brain swelling. Who bonked him on the head. The answer seems to come the next day when a man is going around trying to sell the victim's watch. In another story, brother kills brother. Book spans the last years of the gallows in Monroe County, and the first of the new-fangled electric chair.

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  • Bram Stoker: Author of Dracula is an affectionate and revealing biography of the man who created the vampire novel that would define the genre and lead to a new age in Gothic horror literature.


    Based on decades of painstaking research in libraries, museums, and university archives and privileged access to private collections on both sides of the Atlantic, the private letters of Bram and the reminiscences of those who knew him not only shed new light on Stoker's ancestry, his life, loves and friendships they also reveal more about the places and people who inspired him and how he researched and wrote his books. Bram wrote numerous articles, short stories and poetry for newspapers and magazines, he had a total of eleven novels and two collections of short stories published in his lifetime, but he would only become known for one of them – Dracula. Tragically, he did not live long enough to see it as a huge success.


    In his heyday as Acting Manager for Sir Henry Irving at the Lyceum Theatre in the West End of London, Bram was a well-known figure in a golden age of British theater. He was a big-framed, ebullient, genial, gentleman, with red hair and beard, who never lost his soft Irish brogue, was blessed with wit, and a host of entertaining stories fit for every occasion. Described as having the paw of Hercules and the smile of Machiavelli, above all he knew what it meant to be a loyal friend.


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  • Undetected by the FBI for three decades until the turn of the twenty-first century, a handful of elusive, transient long-haul trucker serial killers had been murdering hundreds of sex workers and hitchhikers along major US highways. This was not the first time innocent victims were attacked along major US interstate thoroughfares. Nearly lost to history was a similar pattern of carnage that occurred in the late nineteenth century. No less than thirty-nine unsolved murders and nearly forty brutal assaults of women were committed in the United States, but instead of along major highways, these heinous crimes were committed along the railways. At the time, the attacks were termed ‘mysterious,’ since they seemed to be motiveless—meaning there was no evidence of the usual rape or robbery. In cases where an assailant or suspicious person was spotted, his physical description was the same: tall, middle-aged, and wearing a specific gray overcoat. Shockingly, one of Scotland Yard’s prime Jack the Ripper suspects cannot be eliminated as having committed each of these Stateside crimes. That suspect was the tall, transient hater of women, Dr. Francis Tumblety.

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  • On 6 December 1886, Arthur Foster leaves the Queen's Theatre, Manchester with a pocket full of gold and a lady bedecked with diamonds on his arm. He hails a hansom cab unaware that a detective has been trailing him as he crisscrossed the streets of the city. As the cab pulls away, the detective slips inside and arrests the infamous 'Birmingham Forger.' The detective is Jerome Caminada, legendary policeman and real-life Victorian super-sleuth. A master of disguise with a keen eye for detail and ingenious methods of detection, Caminada is at the top of his game, tracking notorious criminals through the seedy streets of Manchester's underworld. Relentless in his pursuit, he stalks pickpockets and poisoners, unscrupulous con artists and cold blooded murderers. His groundbreaking detective work leads to the unravelling of classic crime cases such as the Hackney Carriage Murder in 1889, secret government missions and a deadly confrontation with his arch-rival, a ruthless and violent thief. Caminada's compelling story bears all the hallmarks of Arthur Conan Doyle and establishes this indefatigable investigator as one of the most formidable detectives of the Victorian era and The Real Sherlock Holmes.As seen in The Sunday Telegraph, The Sunday Express, The Times, La Stampa and Lancashire Life.Also featured in Discover Your History Magazine.

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  • There’s no question that The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is one of the most influential texts of all time. The now-iconic tale, which has confounded and thrilled readers for more than a century, was described by one scholar as the only detective-crime story in which the solution is more terrifying than the problem. And even as its plot gets continually reinterpreted and reimagined in literature, film, and theater, the main themes persist, as do the titular characters, now so familiar as to have become a part of the English language.


    This new edition gives the classic tale of depraved murder and unrelenting horror its most complete and illuminating presentation yet. Heavily illustrated with over a hundred and fifty full color images from the history of this cultural touchstone—including reproductions of rare books, film stills, theatrical posters, and the true-life people associated with the adventure—and extensively annotated by Edgar Award winning editor and noted Victorian literature expert Leslie S. Klinger, this thorough and authoritative approach is both an invaluable resource for scholars and a sumptuous treat for fans of the text.


    Introduced by a compelling and erudite essay from bestselling novelist and short story writer Joe Hill, this complete illustrated and annotated edition of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is the ultimate tribute to an enduring classic, combining revelatory and surprising information and in-depth historical context with beautiful illustrations and photographs. It is sure to please anyone interested in the Victorian era, mystery fiction, and horror tales.


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  • Jack the Ripper did not exist.


    This second, expanded, edition of Simon Daryl Wood's award-winning book continues to reveal the endless stream of lies, invention, political misinformation, self-publicity and opportunism which has kept this Victorian bogeyman alive in the darkest reaches of our 21st Century imaginations. It introduces characters many readers may not have encountered before, takes a closer look at some of Ripperology's sacred texts, and provides additional facts, allowing for a better understanding of the people, places and events surrounding the Whitechapel murders of 1888.


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  • London, 1942.


    A killer going by the name of “Crimson Jack” is stalking the wartime streets of London, murdering women on the exact dates of the infamous Jack the Ripper killings of 1888. Has the Ripper somehow returned from the grave? Is the self-styled Crimson Jack a descendant of the original Jack—or merely a madman obsessed with those notorious killings?


    In desperation Scotland Yard turn to Sherlock Holmes, the world's greatest detective. Surely he is the one man who can sift fact from legend to track down Crimson Jack before he completes his tally of death. As Holmes and the faithful Watson tread the blacked out streets of London, death waits just around the corner.


    Inspired by the classic film series from Universal Pictures starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, which took Sherlock Holmes to the 1940s, this is a brand-new adventure from a talented author who brilliantly evokes one of mystery fiction’s most popular characters.


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  • A quiet morning at Baker Street is thrown into turmoil by the arrival of Inspector Lestrade who informs Holmes a man's body has been discovered in the Tower Bridge which was then under construction. That grisly event proves to be the opening salvo in a terrifying game of wits between Holmes and an unknown adversary.


    Determined to make Sherlock Holmes suffer, the ruthless foe launches a campaign of terror against the Great Detective. However, instead of striking at Holmes directly, this nemesis targets those in the Great Detective's limited circle of friends and acquaintances.


    Stymied, Holmes must first ascertain why he has been targeted because he cannot retaliate until he discovers who is behind this persecution.


    With moves and countermoves, gambits declined and accepted, the struggle soon evolves into a human chess game between Holmes and a grandmaster of evil - where each move might have untold consequences on the lives and reputations of those on both sides.


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  • A4 softcover, 142 landscape pages in full colour throughout.

    In the early years of the twentieth century, London was a city of opposites. The affluent west of the city was prosperous and wealthy, but in contrast the east was an area of poverty, crime and disease. Life expectancy was low, and the streets were filled with the homeless, the destitute and the sick.

    When the American author Jack London ventured into the East End in the summer of 1902 to research the hopeless living conditions so typical of the area, he was to witness such sights as the cramped living conditions in shabby Frying Pan Alley, the revolting menial tasks that inmates of the Whitechapel casual ward carried out to pay for a dismal bed and a frugal meal of bread and ‘skilly’. In his book “The People of the Abyss”, a written account of his experiences, he relayed the tale of Dan Cullen, a resident of one of Whitechapel’s municipal dwellings, whose worsening health had forced him to move into the old Temperance Hospital, near Euston station. Jack had witnessed the sorry sight of the homeless sheltering under Tower Bridge and others trying to sleep by the steps of Christ Church in Spitalfields. He had tasted coffee and tea that was close in appearance to dirty dishwater and bore little resemblance to anything his readers might have drunk, and he had seen desperately hungry men and women pawing their way through the filthiest of meat scraps outside a butcher’s shop in Aldgate. In short, he had, if only briefly, lived the life of one of the people of the abyss, and had witnessed the horrendous life that circumstance had forced them to endure.

    As well as his vivid written descriptions of the East End, Jack London also photographed a considerable number of evocative scenes to complement the text. These well-known images have been frequently reprinted over the years, often to illustrate books about Jack the Ripper and the East End in general.

    But where exactly were these photographs taken? Jack London gives very little detail about the locations, choosing to caption the images vaguely as “A house to let” or the similarly ambiguous “Where the children grow up”. What do these obscure places look like today, and is there anything left of the old workhouses and dwellings that Jack London captured in his photos


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  • Jostling for position in this cornucopia of the criminal and the curious are diverse tales of baby farmers, garrotters, murderers, poisoners, prostitutes, pimps, rioters and rebels. Other tales tell of those who walked the poverty-stricken streets of 'the abyss', trying to earn a few honest coppers by the most unusual and desperate occupations, from tater man to tosher. This colourful cast of characters is accompanied by accounts of prisons and punishments, as well as a liberal smattering of funerals, executions, disasters and bizarre events. If it's horrible, if it's ghastly, if it's strange, its here - and if you have the stomach for it, then read on.

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  • An investigation of the evidence for links between Dracula and Jack the Ripper, containing original research and previously unpublished and rare materials/illustrations—as well as an evocative exploration of the theater and esoteric scene in 1880s LondonSince its publication in 1897, there have been suggestions that the fictional exploits of Dracula were more closely associated with Jack the Ripper than a Transylvanian Count. Historian Neil Storey provides the first British-based investigation of the sources used by Stoker and paints an evocative portrait of Stoker, his influences, friends, and the London he knew in the late 19th century. Among Stoker's group of friends, however, were dark shadows. Storey explores how Stoker created Dracula out of the climate of fear that surrounded the Jack the Ripper murders in 1888. Add to this potent combination the notion that Stoker may have known Jack the Ripper personally and hidden the clues to this terrible knowledge in his book. The premise is seductive and connects some of the giants of stage and literature of late Victorian Britain. Having gained unprecedented access to the unique archive of one of Stoker's most respected friends and the dedicatee of Dracula, Storey sheds new light on both Stoker and Dracula, and reveals startling new insights into the links between Stoker's creation and the most infamous murderer of all time.

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  • Book******WINNER***Independent Publisher (IPPY) Bronze Medal Award for Best History Book 2014******FINALIST*** Indie Excellence Award for Best True Crime Book (second place)***Jack the Ripper stalked the streets of London’s East End from August through November of 1888 in what is dubbed the ‘Autumn of Terror’. However, the grisly ripping of Polly Nichols on August 31st was not the first unsolved murder of the year. The April murder of Emma Smith and the August murder of Martha Tabram both occurred on bank holidays. They baffled the police and press alike and were assumed by the original investigators to have been the first murders in the series. Where they correct? In this provocative work of literary archeology, author Tom Wescott places these early murders in their proper historical context and digs to unearth new evidence and hard facts not seen in over 125 years. The Bank Holiday Murders is the only book of its kind. It eschews the tired approach of unsatisfying ‘final solutions’ in favor of solid research, logical reasoning and new information. The clues followed are not drawn from imagination but from the actual police reports and press accounts of the time. The questions asked by Wescott are ones first suggested by the original investigators but lost to time until now. The answers provided are compelling and sometimes explosive. Among the revelations are:•New information linking the murders of Smith & Tabram to the same killer(s).•Proof that the police did not believe key witnesses in either case. •Proof that at least one of these witnesses was working with the murderer.•New evidence connecting many of the victims that may lead to their actual slayers.•Information on Emily Horsnell, the ACTUAL first Whitechapel murder victim.•The hidden truth of ‘Leather Apron’ and its role in unraveling the Ripper mystery.•Proof of a corrupt police sergeant who thwarted the investigation. Was he protecting the Ripper?•Much more.The Bank Holiday Murders: The True Story of the First Whitechapel Murders brings us closer than ever to the actual truth behind the Jack the Ripper story and is sure to appeal to fans of Paul Begg, Stewart P. Evans, Philip Sugden, Donald Rumbelow, Ann Rule, Patricia Cornwell as well as readers of Victorian true crime, true life mysteries and historical cold cases in general.

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  • Groundbreaking history and exciting investigative journalism combine in a work jam-packed with newly unearthed finds and fresh insights that pull us deeper into the world of Jack the Ripper and closer to the man himself. Wescott does not promote a suspect but instead comprehensively investigates the murders of Polly Nichols and Elizabeth Stride, bringing to light new medical evidence, crucial new material on important witnesses, and – revealed for the first time – the name of a woman who may have met Jack the Ripper and survived to tell the tale.Also discussed in this book:Charles Lechmere, recently named as a suspect in the Jack the Ripper documentary, Conspiracy: The Missing Evidence, is restored to his proper place in history as an innocent witness. Walter Sickert, the subject of Patricia Cornwell’s Jack the Ripper books, was not the Ripper, but is revealed here to have been only one of several artists and poets who may have been acquainted with victim Mary Kelly.Bruce Robinson’s Jack the Ripper book, They All Love Jack, controversially endorsed the myth that fruiterer Matthew Packer sold grapes to Liz Stride which were later found on her hand. Around this was constructed an intricate police conspiracy. In Ripper Confidential the truth is exposed and these events are proved beyond doubt to have never taken place.Was Elizabeth Stride a Ripper victim? For the first time, all the myths are cleared away and the facts are looked at in great detail. The contemporary investigators speak out from the past and tell us what they thought of one of the Ripper’s most enigmatic and controversial clues – the chalk-written message on the wall in Goulston Street. Did the Ripper write it and what might it actually have said?A comprehensive look is taken at Berner Street witness, Israel Schwartz. Why did he disappear within weeks from the written record? Was or was he not a legitimate witness? This and much more is discussed, and for the first time it’s revealed why he did not give evidence at the inquest, why the two best known versions of his story are inconsistent, and – most crucially – that he was not the last person to see Liz Stride with a man who was probably her killer. From the author of the award-winning The Bank Holiday Murders: The True Story of the First Whitechapel Murders.

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  • The autumn of 1888 went down in British history as “the autumn of terror”. From August to November, a serial killer named “Jack the Ripper” murdered five women in London’s East End and was never caught. His first “canonical” murder took place in Buck’s Row, Whitechapel, on 31 August. At around 3:45 am, two workmen, Charles Lechmere and Robert Paul, found the lifeless body of prostitute Mary Ann “Polly” Nichols in front of Brown’s Yard in Buck’s Row.

    They decided to tell the next policeman they would meet. In the meantime, Police Constable Neil found the body and called for help and a doctor. Polly’s throat was cut and there were stab wounds in her stomach and her genitals. A small pool of blood had formed underneath her and soaked in her hair and her clothes. At this point, nobody knew that this gruesome murder was still only the beginning of a murder series.


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  • Investigative Reporter Carl Axford is offered the story of a lifetime. When recruited by Limbo, (a covert group that uses unique technology to solve cold cases), Axford is presented the chance to crack the greatest cold case in existence. Catch Jack The Ripper!

    The opportunity of a front row seat to the Jack The Ripper murders seems too good to be true. What will Axford discover in 1888? Will he be able to identify history’s greatest criminal and bring him to justice? Or does Victorian Whitechapel hold further secrets that influence events of the past as well as the present?

    Jack The Ripper may not be the only mystery Axford has to solve.


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  • Would Sherlock Holmes be able to catch Jack the Ripper?


    Everyone knows the name of Sherlock Holmes -- the fictional detective created by Arthur Conan Doyle with his superhuman powers of observation and unbeatable methodology for solving crimes. But could his 1800’s philosophy really work in the modern world to solve genuine crimes?


    That’s the very question that a real-life US-based private detective asked himself before embarking on the adventure of a lifetime by stepping into Holmes’ shoes and using his mindset to solve real crimes. So effective was this method that he decided to turn his attention to the greatest set of crimes known in history -- the brutal murders perpetrated by the criminal who came to be known as Jack the Ripper.


    The author, along with a team of three of the world’s top forensic scientists and criminologists, Dr. Michael M. Baden, Dr. Cyril H. Wecht and Dr. Henry C. Lee, have convincingly solved the infamous Jack the Ripper murders of 1888 London – arguably the world’s most talked-about unsolved murder mystery. But their true-life resolution of the case is presented here in the form of a Sherlock Holmes novel, painstakingly penned faithfully in the style of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In it, the author – who actually used Holmes’ methods to uncover the killers’ identity – explains exactly how the crimes were committed and by whom, all in the form of a fast-paced thriller featuring the world’s most beloved detective along with Dr. Watson, from whose point-of-view most of the tale is told. Once the reader has finally been clued in on the final solution, the murders are then revisited from the killers’ perspective.


    The story opens in the year 2017 with the sealed box of Holmes’ most controversial cases being opened by Watson’s great grandson Jacob, and among those cases is that of London’s Ripper murders that took place in what was then and has forever after been known as the “Autumn of Terror.” Jacob is shocked to learn the true story, as well as the reasons Holmes deemed the case’s explosive resolution too shocking and incendiary to have been revealed to the public in Victorian England and so to be sealed “entombed in a tin box” for 125 years, as were a number of other cases that are mentioned in some of Doyle’s Holmes stories. Along the way, the actual facts of the case and the evidence that led Randy and his team to the real killer will be revealed to the reader through Holmes’ investigative methods.


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  • In the autumn of 1888, a serial killer known as Jack the Ripper stalked the East End of London. He was never identified, but hundreds of people were accused. Some were known to the authorities at the time, and others were named by later researchers. The truth about them, and the reasons why they came under suspicion, is often lost in a plethora of opinions and misinformation. For the first time, this book presents the evidence against 333 suspects. They include the publican who painted his dog, the first woman sentenced to the electric chair, the writer of the Red Flag, the man with a thousand convictions, Britain’s oldest Prime Minister, and many others. People from all walks of nineteenth century life, representing many different nationalities and professions. United by a link, however tenuous, to the most famous murderer in history.

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  • Using contemporary documents, police files, Home Office papers and newspaper reports, 'Jack the Ripper: The Facts' recreates the notorious crimes and police investigation of 1888 to provide the best available overview of the 'Great Victorian Mystery', the greatest unsolved, true crime story of all time. Written by one of the world's foremost authorities on the case, this is a completely rewritten and fully updated edition of Begg's classic title Jack the Ripper. It follows the crimes chronologically and records the most significant events, witness testimonies and aspects of the police investigation. As well as objectively examining the primary police suspects, Begg provides a fascinating and authoritative insight into related political issues and background events.

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  • Herman Mudgett, whose alias was H.H. Holmes, is believed to have been the first serial killer in America, potentially responsible for as many as 200 murders in the late 19th century. Around the same time, Jack the Ripper famously killed at least five people on the streets of London. In this series, Jeff Mudgett -- Holmes' great-great-grandson -- tries to prove a controversial theory that Holmes and Jack the Ripper were the same person. Mudgett has spent 20 years researching his ancestor, and he uses that information, combined with 21st-century science and technology, to team with former CIA analyst Amaryllis Fox to launch an investigation that could solve one of history's biggest cold cases.

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