If I did it....I don't remember

[frogg moody]

'If I did it.... I don't remember' is the new book by Frogg Moody & Bruce S. Purvis. Investigated by Inspector Dew of Jack the Ripper & Dr. Crippen fame, the book tells the story of a young boy murdered, a mother suspected and a case that made headlines in every newpaper in England....

[anna]

Congratulations on your new book,Frogg Moody!


It sounds very interesting!

Best Regards

ANNA.

[frogg moody]

Cheers Anna,
This newspaper article might be of interest regarding the book...
Frogg.

West historians shed light on century-old murder mystery

IF I DID IT....I DON'T REMEBER OR WHO KILLED TEDDY HASKELL?

He was a cheerful, spirited lad despite losing a leg to TB and had been saving for an artificial replacement when his throat was slashed in a murder that outraged the nation.
Now, exactly 100 years after Teddy Haskell was slain in bed at his terrace home in Wiltshire, Jeremy Moody and Bruce Purvis, of Salisbury, are publishing a book on what they describe as "the ultimate whodunit". Teddy was just 12 when he became the victim of a desperate killer who was apparently after the few pounds he had been saving for a false limb.
His widowed mother Flora Fanny Haskell was twice tried for killing the crippled boy in what has become Salisbury's great unsolved murder mystery.
Scotland Yard sent one of its finest detectives to investigate – Chief Inspector Walter Dew, who had hunted Jack the Ripper.
Local historian Mr Moody, who co-wrote If I did it... I don't remember: Salisbury's Edwardian Murder Mystery said: "It's a mystery which can really get to you. You go over the evidence and think 'it has to be his mother – she is the only one who could have done it'. Then you consider further evidence and think 'it couldn't possibly have been her'."
The book is published on Friday – a century to the day after Teddy's cold-blooded murder on October 31, 1908. On Friday night there will be a mock re-trial at Salisbury's Guildhall when the audience will hear the key evidence and decide for themselves 'who killed Teddy'.
Mr Moody has been researching Teddy's murder for about a decade. He said: "It's an extremely tragic story which caused a lot of shock and anger at the time. It remains a mystery today."
Edwin 'Teddy' Haskell was a popular, well-known boy from Salisbury's Fisherton area, who, at six, contracted tuberculosis, which resulted in a leg being amputated above the knee.
Everyone admired the pluck of youngster who gamely got around on his crutches and often played in goal when a game of football broke out.
His mother had tucked him up in bed at their Meadow Road home at 10pm on October 31, 1908. Thirty minutes later the murderer brutally cut Teddy's throat and stole some of his money. His mother reported hearing footsteps clattering down the stairs and said a figure threw a blood-stained kitchen knife at her.
However, her statements contradicted those of other witnesses and when the eminent Mr Dew of the Yard arrived, he was convinced she was the culprit. Her blood-stained clothing and bewildered denials were subjected to intensive scrutiny at two murder trials in Devizes.
She escaped the noose as both juries found there was insufficient evidence. Never returning to Salisbury, she died in London – ironically – of TB.
Mr Dew went onto to become one of the country's most esteemed policemen, nabbing notorious wife- murderer Dr Crippen in Canada two years' later.
But Mr Moody said he airbrushed his failure to clear up of Teddy's murder from his memoirs.
During his research Mr Moody uncovered a treasure trove of photos relating to the murder from the grandson of Salisbury's chief of police in 1908, which lavishly illustrate the book.
The book's title was taken from Flora Haskell's own words, as spoken to a prison warden.

[Archaic]

Wow, how bizarre! I'm an American and have never heard of this sad case.

Interesting that Flora's words are so like OJ's : "IF I did it... here's how ...but, umm, I actually don't remember the crucial bit... please send money."

[mostfoul]

Looks interesting! Haven't heard of this case either...

[stevenb]

I'll look this one up - it was outlined in Tom Tullet's book on Scotland Yard cases - very unusual story, not often someone is tried twice in the uk.

[Mayerling]

I'll look this one up - it was outlined in Tom Tullet's book on Scotland Yard cases - very unusual story, not often someone is tried twice in the uk.

I can only think of two cases (both in THE NOTABLE BRITISH TRIAL series like that: The two trials (and acquittals) of William Gardiner in the 1903 Peasanhall Murder, and (more odd) the two trials in the middle 1930s of Frederick Nodder - the first for kidnapping a little girl (who had not been found), and the second, after her remains were found, for the murder of the little girl. Nodder was found guilty both times - the only man in British jurisdction (at least up to the 1930s) who was twice for the same criminal circumstances, if not the same crime. Nodder was hanged.

Jeff