May. 27th, 2018

truepenny: artist's rendering of Sidneyia inexpectans (Default)
Cooke, Elizabeth. The Damnation of John Donellan.

The murder of Sir Theodosius Broughton--or maybe the not-murder of SIr Theodosius Broughton, since Cooke's speculation that he was (a) epileptic, (b) killing himself with quack medicines (18th century "cures" for syphilis all involve great quantities of mercury), or (c) both, seems not unreasonable--and the question of who did it. Did John Donellan kill his 20 year old brother in law, or did Sir Theodosius' mother kill him? Since everything we've got is documents from 1780 when neither forensic science nor medical science was even invented yet, all Cooke can do is speculate (and I don't buy all of her speculations), but she certainly raises enough reasonable doubt to make it clear that Donellan should not have been convicted and hanged for his brother-in-law's death.

Borowitz, Albert. The Thurtell-Hunt Murder Case.

This is an excellent no-frills nuts-and-bolts discussion of the murder of William Weare by John Thurtell and a couple of his friends. There's no doubt involved here (Thurtell shot Weare, cut his throat, and actually killed him by shoving the barrel of the gun through his skull), except in the degree of involvement of Joseph Hunt and William Probert, both of whom gave accounts of the murder that threw the blame exceedingly hard at the other guy. Borowitz is comprehensive, a little dry, but not "academic" (by which I mean unnecessarily polysyllabic and difficult to read--if it was academic without the sarcastic quote-marks, I would mean something else). If you're interested in Regency England at all, this is full of details about daily life and the Fancy (boxing) and the odd workings of the justice system.
truepenny: artist's rendering of Sidneyia inexpectans (Default)
We Is Got Him: The Kidnapping that Changed AmericaWe Is Got Him: The Kidnapping that Changed America by Carrie Hagen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is a better book about the Ross kidnapping than Zierold's Little Charley Ross, but it is not a substantially different book. Hagen doesn't have any new information, although she does offer a better analysis of the political response to Charley Ross' kidnapping and she does have a theory about what happened to him that is perfectly plausible, at least arguably supported by the evidence, and greatly advantageous in that it offers both an explanation and a resolution for Charley Ross' complete and utter disappearance. But of course none of that means that it is correct.

She makes no attempt to analyze, or even come to terms with, the bizarre ransom letters (even though she uses them for her chapter headers and the title of her book), which is definitely a weakness in the book, but if you're interested in the history of kidnapping for ransom in America, or in unsolved missing persons cases, or just in the particular kidnapping of Charles Brewster Ross, age 4 and never seen again, this is a good place to start.



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