Sensational Crimes

Crime detection before the 19th century was fairly basic; however criminals, whether innocent or guilty were caught and punished. Just like today details were circulated in the social media of the day and the miscreants became well known and even celebrated. The crimes we’ll be looking at show how ideas of justice and detection developed. Some of them are brutual and some jaw droppingly stupid; sometimes the detectives use the latest technology and sometimes they seem to act based on prejudice and – of course there are victims to remember. From the 13th century when blows were exchanged in a urinal leading to the death of a bystander to the first railway murder and a chase across the Tottenham marshes come with me on a short trip to explore the darker side of London.  

We will explore some these looking at how society engaged with the victims and perpetrators and how these events changed laws and detection. Explore the histories of The Tottenham Outrage, the Ratcliffe Street Murders, the Siege of Sydney Street, the first railway murder, the Kray twins and the Grandpa gang.