|
The Wench Is Dead
''The Wench Is Dead'' is a historical crime novel by Colin Dexter, the eighth novel in the Inspector Morse series. The novel received the Gold Dagger Award in 1989. Plot summary In 1859, the body of a young woman was found floating in the Oxford Canal; her death led to a sensational murder trial, and two men were eventually hanged for the murder. In 1989, Inspector Morse is recovering from a bleeding ulcer in Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital. Morse is given a book by the wife of a recently deceased patient at the hospital. The little book called ''Murder on the Oxford Canal'' tells the story of the murder of Joanna Franks aboard the canal boat ''Barbara Bray''. Morse is soon convinced that the two men hanged for the crime were innocent and sets out to prove it from the confines of his bed. Explanation of the title The title of the novel comes from Christopher Marlowe's play ''The Jew of Malta''; the following quotation serves as the epigraph to the novel: :FRIAR BARNARDINE ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colin Dexter
Norman Colin Dexter (29 September 1930 – 21 March 2017) was an English crime writer known for his ''Inspector Morse'' series of novels, which were written between 1975 and 1999 and adapted as an ITV (TV network), ITV television series, ''Inspector Morse (TV series), Inspector Morse'', from 1987 to 2000. His characters have spawned a sequel series, ''Lewis (TV series), Lewis'', from 2006 to 2015, and a prequel series, ''Endeavour (TV series), Endeavour'', from 2012 to 2023. Early life and career Dexter was born in Stamford, Lincolnshire, to Alfred and Dorothy Dexter. He had an elder brother, John, a fellow classicist, who taught Classics at The King's (The Cathedral) School, The King's School, Peterborough, and a sister, Avril. Alfred ran a small garage and taxi company from premises in Scotgate, Stamford. Dexter was educated at St John's Infants School and Bluecoat Junior School, from which he gained a scholarship to Stamford School, a boys' grammar school, where a younger conte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rugeley
Rugeley ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Cannock Chase District, in Staffordshire, England. It lies on the north-eastern edge of Cannock Chase next to the River Trent; it is north of Lichfield, southeast of Stafford, northeast of Hednesford and southwest of Uttoxeter. At the 2021 Census, the population was 26,156. Rugeley is twinned with Western Springs, Illinois and, in July 1962, both towns made telephone history on national television when the chairman of Rugeley Urban District Council made the first telephone call via the new Telstar satellite to the mayor of Western Springs. It was also featured in an article about workers' rights and town transformation in the 21st century. History The town, historically known as Rudgeley or Ridgeley, is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086. This name is thought to be derived from 'Ridge lee', or 'the hill over the field'. In the mediaeval period, it thrived on iron workings and was also a site of glass manufacturing. Dur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Daughter Of Time
''The Daughter of Time'' is a 1951 detective novel by Josephine Tey, concerning a modern police officer's investigation into the alleged crimes of King Richard III of England. It was the last book Tey published in her lifetime, shortly before her death. In 1990 it was voted number one in ''The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time'' list compiled by the British Crime Writers' Association (CWA). Plot summary Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant (a character who also appears in five other novels by the same author) is feeling bored while confined to bed in hospital with a broken leg. Marta Hallard, an actress friend of his, suggests he should amuse himself by researching a historical mystery. She brings him some pictures of historical characters, aware of Grant's interest in human faces. He becomes intrigued by a portrait of King Richard III. He prides himself on being able to read a person's character from his appearance, and King Richard seems to him a gentle, kind and wise man. Why ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Josephine Tey
Elizabeth MacKintosh (25 July 1896 – 13 February 1952), known by the pen name Josephine Tey, was a Scottish author. Her 1951 novel '' The Daughter of Time'', a detective work investigating the death of the Princes in the Tower, was chosen by the Crime Writers' Association in 1990 as the greatest crime novel of all time. Her first play '' Richard of Bordeaux'', written under another pseudonym, Gordon Daviot, starred John Gielgud in its successful West End run. Life and work MacKintosh was born in Inverness, the oldest of three daughters of Colin MacKintosh, a fruiterer, and Josephine (''née'' Horne). She attended Inverness Royal Academy and then, in 1914, Anstey Physical Training College in Erdington, a suburb of Birmingham. She taught physical training at various schools in England and Scotland and during her vacations worked at a convalescent home in Inverness as a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse. A youthful romance ended with her soldier friend's death in the Somme battles ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stafford
Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, England. It is located about south of Stoke-on-Trent, north of Wolverhampton, and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 71,673 at the 2021–2022 United Kingdom censuses, 2021 census, and is the main settlement within the larger Borough of Stafford, which had a population of 136,837 in 2021. Stafford has Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon roots, being founded in 913, when Æthelflæd, List of monarchs of Mercia, Lady of the Mercians founded a defensive burh, it became the county town of Staffordshire soon after. Stafford became an important market town in the Middle Ages, and later grew into an important industrial town due to the proliferation of shoemaking, engineering and electrical industries. History Ancient Prehistoric finds suggest scattered settlements in the area, whilst south-west of the town lies an British Iron Age, Iron Age hill fort at Berry Ring. There is also evidence of Roman Brit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Salt Library
The William Salt Library is a library and archive, in Stafford, Staffordshire, England. Supported by Staffordshire County Council, it is a registered charity, administered by an independent trust in conjunction with the Staffordshire & Stoke-on-Trent Archive Service, which also operates the county archives from an adjacent building. The core of the library is the large collection of printed books, pamphlets, manuscripts, drawings, watercolours, and transcripts built up by William Salt (1808–1863), a London banker. After his death, Helen, his widow donated the collection to Staffordshire and the library opened in 1872. In 1918 moved to its present home in Eastgate Street, a Grade II* listed house completed in 1735. The library continues to collect and preserve printed material relating to Staffordshire and represents a major source for local and family history in Staffordshire. The library's holdings are available for consultation by the public free of charge. The library ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Circumstantial Evidence
Circumstantial evidence is evidence that relies on an inference to connect it to a conclusion of fact, such as a fingerprint at the scene of a crime. By contrast, direct evidence supports the truth of an assertion directly, i.e., without need for any additional evidence or inference. Overview On its own, circumstantial evidence allows for more than one explanation. Different pieces of circumstantial evidence may be required, so that each corroborates the conclusions drawn from the others. Together, they may more strongly support one particular inference over another. An explanation involving circumstantial evidence becomes more likely once alternative explanations have been ruled out. Circumstantial evidence allows a trier of fact to infer that a fact exists. In criminal law, the inference is made by the trier of fact to support the truth of an assertion (of guilt or absence of guilt). Reasonable doubt is tied into circumstantial evidence as that evidence relies on inference ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cabin Boy
A cabin boy or ship's boy is a boy or young man who waits on the officers and passengers of a ship, especially running errands for the captain. The modern merchant navy successor to the cabin boy is the steward's assistant. Duties Cabin boys were usually 13–16 years old, but sometimes as young as 8, and also helped the cook in the ship's kitchen and carried buckets of food from the ship's kitchen to the forecastle where the ordinary seamen ate. They would have to scramble up the rigging into the yards whenever the sails had to be trimmed. They would occasionally stand watch like other crewmen or act as helmsman in good weather, holding the wheel to keep the ship steady on her course. They could be found on pirate ships sometimes. Royal Navy officers Several prominent British Royal Navy officers began their career as cabin boys. The list includes officers that achieved an admiralty rank before 1801. * Admiral of the Fleet Sir William Parker, 1st Baronet of Shenstone * Admi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Penal Transportation
Penal transportation (or simply transportation) was the relocation of convicted criminals, or other persons regarded as undesirable, to a distant place, often a colony, for a specified term; later, specifically established penal colonies became their destination. While the prisoners may have been released once the sentences were served, they generally did not have the resources to return home. Origin and implementation Banishment or forced exile from a polity or society has been used as a punishment since at least the 5th century BCE in Ancient Greece. The practice of penal transportation reached its height in the British Empire during the 18th and 19th centuries. Transportation removed the offender from society, mostly permanently, but was seen as more merciful than capital punishment. This method was used for criminals, debtors, military prisoners, and political prisoners. Penal transportation was also used as a method of colonization. For example, from the earliest day ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Smith (executioner)
George Smith (1805–1874), popularly known as Throttler Smith, was an English hangman from 1840 until 1872. He was born in Rowley Regis in the English West Midlands, where he performed the majority of his executions. Although from a good family he became involved with gangs and petty crime in his early life. He was himself arrested and was imprisoned in Stafford Gaol on several occasions for theft. Career as a hangman, 1840–1872 Smith learned his trade as an assistant to William Calcraft. His first engagement as Calcraft's assistant was the public execution of James Owen and George Thomas outside Stafford Gaol. Smith was a prisoner at Stafford at the time of Owen and Thomas' execution, and Calcraft appointed Smith for the task because his regular assistant had turned up drunk. In addition, he assisted Calcraft at the first two private hangings in England, of Thomas Wells and Alexander Mackay in 1868. He later obtained the post of public executioner for Staffordshire although he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Calcraft
William Calcraft (11 October 1800 – 13 December 1879) was a 19th-century English hangman, one of the most prolific of British executioners. It is estimated in his 45-year career he carried out 450 executions. A cobbler by trade, Calcraft was initially recruited to flog juvenile offenders held in Newgate Prison. While selling meat pies on streets around the prison, Calcraft met the City of London's hangman, John Foxton. After Foxton's death in 1829 the government appointed Calcraft the official Executioner for the City of London and Middlesex. Following this, his executioner services were in great demand throughout England. Nevertheless, some considered Calcraft incompetent, in particular for his controversial use of the short-drop hanging method in which the condemned were slowly strangled to death, instead of having their necks broken. Because with Calcraft's methods the condemned took several minutes to die, to hasten death Calcraft would sometimes dramatica ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hanging
Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerous countries and regions. The first known account of execution by hanging is in Homer's ''Odyssey''. Hanging is also a Suicide by hanging, method of suicide. Methods of judicial hanging There are numerous methods of hanging in execution that instigate death either by cervical fracture or by Strangling, strangulation. Short drop The short drop is a method of hanging in which the condemned prisoner stands on a raised support, such as a stool, ladder, cart, horse, or other vehicle, with the noose around the neck. The support is then moved away, leaving the person dangling from the rope. Suspended by the neck, the weight of the body tightens the noose around the neck, effecting strangulation and death. Loss of consciousness is typically rapid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
