dawnyoung

The Goatfell Murder

by Calum Smith

Synopsis

This is the true story of an infamous murder in the Scottish mountains. Taking place in 1898, the year Jack the Ripper committed the last of his murders, the murder of an English tourist, Edwin Rose, on Goatfell, in the Isle of Arran, was a sensation of the time.

July 1889, and Jack the Ripper has just committed the last of the Whitechapel murders. The Scottish press, however, are more interested in a sensational local case. The body of an English tourist, 32-year-old Edwin Rose, has been found battered and bloody and hidden beneath a boulder on the slopes of Goatfell, a mountain on the Isle of Arran. This is the story of the Goatfell tragedy of 1889 – the only murder, if it was a murder, ever committed on the Scottish mountains- including hitherto unpublished letters from John Watson Laurie, subsequently convicted for the crime, who became the longest serving prisoner in Scotland.

The Lost British Serial Killer: Closing the Case on Peter Tobin and Bible John

by Paul Harrison, David Wilson

Synopsis

The definitive and explosive account of a harrowing murder case that has shocked Britain

Peter Tobin was already serving a life sentence for murder when he was charged with the murder of two young women – Vicky Hamilton and Dina McNichol, in November 2007. Both girls went missing in 1991. Their bodies were discovered by police in 50 Irvine Drive, Margate – where Tobin once lived.

In their new true crime investigation, Paul Harrison and Professor David Wilson examine this shocking case, including full details of Tobin’s trial. But perhaps even more importantly, they look into other similar cases around the country. With developments in DNA testing, the police are coming closer and closer to solving a range of terrible and high profile murders. There have been at least five major arrests in recent months, with further arrests sure to follow.

Harrison and Wilson investigate these cases, and ask how new DNA tests will change police investigations. But they also ask whether this will be enough to stop murderers in the future, and whether there are larger forces at work in society that need to be addressed before we can stop people from killing again and again.

The Face of Bible John: The search for a Scottish Serial Killer

by Steve MacGregor

Synopsis

In the late 1960s, dance halls were still popular in Glasgow. At the Barrowland Ballroom in the Bridgeton area of the city, queues were long on Friday and Saturday nights and anything up to two thousand people would spend the evening dancing to music provided by the resident band.

Then, in February 1968, a woman who had spent the evening at the Barrowland Ballroom was found murdered. It seemed that she had met her killer while dancing but police were unable to find any clue as to his identity. In August 1969, another woman went dancing at the same ballroom and was seen leaving with a tall, slim, handsome young man. Her body was discovered the following day. The circumstances of the two murders were very similar and police began looking for a single killer. They even commissioned a local artist to produce a painting of the murderer based on witness descriptions.

In October 1969, it happened again. Another woman was murdered after meeting her killer at the Barrowland Ballroom. But this time, the killer was seen by a number of witnesses and one even shared a taxi with him and his victim. Surely, it was only a matter of time before this murderer, who newspapers had started calling Bible John, was caught?

Fifty years later, we still don’t know the identity of this serial killer. There have been many theories and a number of potential suspects. Police cold-case reviews have used new technologies in the search for Bible John and several promising new leads have been identified. None have led to an arrest.

How can this be? How can a murderer select and spend time with his victims in a crowded public place where he was seen by large numbers of people and yet escape detection? The artist’s depiction of the killer was also said to be a very good likeness, so we even know what he looked like.

This book is a fresh look at this fascinating case and an attempt to understand how Bible John managed to escape detection and has continued to elude investigators for fifty years.

Chasing Killers: Three Decades of Cracking Crime in the UK’s Murder Capital

by Joe Jackson

Synopsis

Glasgow is known as the murder capital of Britain and no one understands why better than Joe Jackson. For over 30 years, Jackson worked the crime beat, first as a uniformed cop then as a seasoned murder squad detective. In this hard-hitting memoir of his most memorable cases, he reveals the reality behind chasing killers and other crooks in ‘No Mean City’.

As a young cop, Jackson was threatened by Glasgow’s most ruthless gangster, Arthur Thomson, and, as a fresh detective, he took part in the hunt for Bible John, Glasgow’s most shadowy serial killer. He locked up more than his fair share of paedophiles and sex beasts along the way and, as a veteran Senior Investigating Officer, he cracked the hardest homicide nut there is: a murder without a body. Jackson’s investigations have grabbed headlines, while his ‘collars’ have filled jails.

Chasing Killers will shock readers with its behind-the-scenes look at how murder probes are run. Every case is related with candour and humour, and is laced with the kind of detail that only an expert can provide.

Joe Jackson has been called the real-life Taggart, but this is no TV fantasy – this is real city police work: concrete hard, soot black and blood red.