Join us on a literary world trip!
Add this book to bookshelf
Grey
Write a new comment Default profile 50px
Grey
Subscribe to read the full book or read the first pages for free!
All characters reduced
A Book of Remarkable Criminals - Ten Cases from the Criminal Record - cover

A Book of Remarkable Criminals - Ten Cases from the Criminal Record

H. B. Irving

Publisher: Aeneas Press

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Summary

Ten cases studied by a barrister turned actor, the elder son of Sir Henry Irving: Charles Peace, the burglar who played the fiddle; Professor Webster of Harvard, who killed a colleague over a debt; the American multiple murderer H. H. Holmes; and a run of French poisoners and killers from Derues to the Gouffé case. Irving read law before he went on the stage and writes about crime with a lawyer's eye for evidence, and his introduction on what makes a criminal remarkable is as good as the cases. Sixty plates of painting, from Daumier and Doré to Caillebotte, trace the criminal's world across two centuries of city streets and landscapes.
Available since: 09/16/2026.
Print length: 292 pages.

Other books that might interest you

  • Bear Witness - The Pursuit of Justice in a Violent Land - cover

    Bear Witness - The Pursuit of...

    Ross Halperin

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    As young men, Kurt Ver Beek, an American sociologist, and Carlos Hernández, a Honduran schoolteacher, devoted their lives to helping the poor. But it wasn't until they moved to an extraordinarily dangerous neighborhood in Honduras that they came to a radical conclusion: The charity world was combating poverty incorrectly. 
     
     
     
    In gripping prose, journalist Ross Halperin chronicles how these two best friends became quasi vigilantes and charged into a series of life-and-death battles: first with the gang that terrorized their community, then with a notorious tycoon who commanded about a thousand-armed men, and finally with a police force whose corruption and brutality defied credulity. Their efforts made some of the most violent neighborhoods on earth safer and arguably improved the functioning of a national government, but in the process of pulling that off, they compromised their principles, precipitated collateral damage, and acquired their share of outraged critics. 
     
     
     
    A remarkable and dangerous feat of reportage, Bear Witness is a thrilling account of an unorthodox mission to establish justice in a place thought to be beyond the reach of the law.
    Show book
  • The Monster Clown - The Horror Behind The Psychobiography of John Wayne Gacy - cover

    The Monster Clown - The Horror...

    Davis Truman

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    Step into the chilling depths of the mind of one of history's most infamous serial killers. The Monster Clown unravels the disturbing psychobiography of John Wayne Gacy, the seemingly ordinary man who hid monstrous darkness behind the painted smile of a clown. 
    This book explores Gacy's twisted double life through gripping psychological analysis and haunting true-crime storytelling — from his respectable community presence to the horrifying crimes that shocked the world. Delve into the formative experiences, psychological patterns, and hidden traumas that shaped his descent into violence while uncovering the chilling realities behind his mask of deception. 
    A must-read for true crime enthusiasts, criminology scholars, and those fascinated by the complexities of the human psyche, The Monster Clown offers an unflinching examination of evil. Its haunting question is: What drives a man to commit unimaginable horrors? 
     
    Show book
  • Save Our Souls - The True Story of a Castaway Family Treachery and Murder - cover

    Save Our Souls - The True Story...

    Matthew Pearl

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER 
    From the bestselling author of The Taking of Jemima Boone, the unbelievable true story of a real-life Swiss Family Robinson (and their dog) who faced sharks, shipwreck, and betrayal. 
    On December 10, 1887, a shark fishing boat disappeared. On board the doomed vessel were the Walkers—the ship’s captain Frederick, his wife Elizabeth, their three teenage sons, and their dog—along with the ship’s crew. The family had spotted a promising fishing location when a terrible storm arose, splitting their vessel in two and leaving those onboard adrift on the perilous sea. 
    When the castaways awoke the next morning, they discovered they had been washed ashore—on an island inhabited by a large but ragged and emaciated man who introduced himself as Hans. Hans appeared to have been there for a while and could quickly educate the Walkers and their crew on the island’s resources. But Hans had a secret . . . and as the Walker family gradually came to learn more, what seemed like a stroke of luck to have the mysterious man’s assistance became something ominous, something darker. 
    Like David Grann and Stacy Schiff, Matthew Pearl unveils one of the most incredible yet little-known historical true stories, and the only known instance in history of an actual family of castaways. Save Our Souls asks us to consider who we might become if we found ourselves trapped on a deserted island.
    Show book
  • Stolen Smuggled Sold - On the Hunt for Cultural Treasures - cover

    Stolen Smuggled Sold - On the...

    Nancy Moses

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
     “A riveting look at the backstory of what’s in the display cases at your local museum. The author profiles seven historic objects with checkered pasts.” —Library Journal   There are many books about museum heists, Holocaust artwork, insider theft, trafficking in antiquities, and stolen Native American objects. Now, there’s finally a book for the general public that covers the entire terrain.   Stolen, Smuggled, Sold features seven vivid and true stories in which the reader joins the author as she uncovers a cultural treasure and follows its often-convoluted trail. Along the way author and reader encounter a cast of fascinating characters from the underbelly of the cultural world: unscrupulous grave robbers, sinister middlemen, ruthless art dealers, venal Nazis, canny lawyers, valiant academics, unstoppable investigative reporters, unwitting curators, and dedicated government officials. Stories include Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer 1, the typset manuscript for Pearl Buck’s The Good Earth, a ceremonial Ghost Dance shirt from the massacre at Wounded Knee, the theft of 4,800 historical audio discs by a top official at the National Archives, a missing original copy of The Bill of Rights, the mummy of Ramses I, and an ancient treasure from Iraq.   While each story is fascinating in and of itself, together they address one of the hottest issues in the museum world: how to deal with the millions of items that have breaks in the chain of ownership, suspicious ownership records, or no provenance at all. The issue of ownership touches on professional practices, international protocols, and national laws. It’s a financial issue since the illicit trade in antiquities and cultural items generates as much as $4 billion to $8 billion a year.  
    Show book
  • West Virginia's Lonely Hearts Killer - The Vile Deeds of Harry F Powers - cover

    West Virginia's Lonely Hearts...

    Angela Fielder

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    Dive into this riveting tale and discover just how deadly a pen and paper can be when wielded by a master manipulator. In the 1930s, in the sleepy town of Quiet Dell, West Virginia lonely, wealthy women began to disappear. Under the guise of charming love letters, con man Harry F. Powers lured them into a sinister web of deceit. When correspondence evolved into promises of romance, and then face-to-face meetings, these women would mysteriously vanish. As the number of missing women grew, the authorities finally took notice. Investigators unearthed a murder garage with a custom-made concealed dungeon, revealing the appalling evidence of multiple murders. The horror of Powers' crimes gained statewide notoriety, and shook the community to its core. Local author Angela Fielder tells a riveting tale of one of history's most cunning serial killers.
    Show book
  • Arm of Eve - Investigating the Thames Torso Killer - cover

    Arm of Eve - Investigating the...

    Sarah Bax Horton

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    WINNER OF RBAM BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024 AWARD
    'Overshadowed by the hunt for Jack the Ripper, the 'Thames Torso murderer' stalked the docks and quayside of the nation's capital, dismembering his victims at will. Now, the author of a new book believes she has identified the prime suspect.' - Daily Express
    Jack the Ripper is often called the world's most notorious unidentified killer, but he was not the first modern serial killer on the streets of London. Before him was another murderer who hunted from the River Thames – one arguably more sadistic and mercurial.
    The Thames Torso Killer has always lurked in the Ripper's shadow, despite the fact he murdered and dismembered at least four people over two years. He started to kill in 1887, over a year before the Ripper, and his last murder was in 1889, almost ten months after the death of Mary Jane Kelly, the Ripper's last victim.
    In Arm of Eve, Sarah Bax Horton conducts her own investigation and uses modern criminal profiling to come up with her own suspect – a known criminal who knew the Thames like the back of his hand.
    As featured in The Independent, the Daily Mail and The Times, and on BBC2's Lucy Worsley's Victorian Murder Club
    Show book