Contents

Introduction

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1 An Unkind Man: Mary Newell, 1858

Chapter 2 The Reading Baby-farmer: Amelia Elizabeth Dyer, 1896

Chapter 3 Executions at Reading

Chapter 4 A New Life: Ada Jane Cook, 1918

Chapter 5 Avoiding the Noose: Edith Agnes Loader, 1919

Chapter 6 A Gentleman of the Theatre: The Murder of Alfred Oliver, 1929

Chapter 7 Too Good to Live: Queenie Pennington, 1929

Chapter 8 Behind Closed Doors: Ernest Hutchinson, 1932

Chapter 9 The Airman: Eric Stanley Pocock, 1946

Chapter 10 A Blue Silk Scarf: George Russell, 1948

Chapter 11 Fire! Donald Zombie Batholomew Walton, 1963

Chapter 12 Fingerprints: Benjamin Frank Achilles Comas, 1966

Chapter 13 The Red Mini Murder: Raymond Sidney Cook, Eric Jones, Valerie Dorothy Newell, 1967

Chapter 14 The Gravel Pit Murders: David Burgess, 1967

Chapter 15 The Elvis Fan: Barbara Frances Browne: 1966/67

Chapter 16 Sacrifice: Olton Goring and Eileen Goring, 1971