Murder. Mystery and My Family

[Busy Beaver]

Some of the points in the cases of this programme can be applied to the Ripper. Particularly with times of death and blood splattering. Seems like nothing changes in the world of good old murder even after 130 years.

[RodCrosby]

It has been said if you delve long enough into your genealogy you will definitely find "illegitimacy, criminality or insanity." Just look at the Royal Family, for instance...

Or as the Scouser said: "Dat's rite, dah... All mine are mad, thieving bastards..." [I'm a Scouser so am entitled to make such jokes!]

[Graham]

It is an interesting concept, if you can find people willing to admit their ancestors were criminals.

Hi Pat,

I once shared an office with a fellow who was heavily into genealogy, in the days before computers and the internet. He went to great lengths to delve into the history of, I believe, his father's family. However, it all came to a sudden end when one day, to his huge surprise and embarrassment, he discovered that an ancestor of his had been hanged for murder some time during the 19th century. He couldn't handle this! Had it been someone in my family, I'd have been rivetted!

Graham

[Herlock Sholmes]

YouTube now has a notice at this link that the account has been "deactivated due to multiple third-party notifications of copyright infringement", so I guess we Americans will need to see if they make a version for us.

It is an interesting concept, if you can find people willing to admit their ancestors were criminals. Though I guess Mr. Mudgett doesn't have a problem with that.

I wonder why Pat? $$$

[caz]

It is an interesting concept, if you can find people willing to admit their ancestors were criminals. Though I guess Mr. Mudgett doesn't have a problem with that.

Or willing to accuse them outright, without a shred of evidence. A couple of other ripper 'suspects' in that predicament spring to mind, Pat.

The theme of Murder, Mystery & My Family, now sadly at an end unless they do another series, overwhelmingly concerned the relatives of the convicted person hoping new evidence could be found for their innocence, or at least to make the original verdict unsafe.

Love,

Caz
X

[Pcdunn]

Hi AS,

I’ve just checked and the 4 episodes screened so far are available to watch on YouTube. This is the first one:

[url]https://youtu.be/p6gN93hJxVE

YouTube now has a notice at this link that the account has been "deactivated due to multiple third-party notifications of copyright infringement", so I guess we Americans will need to see if they make a version for us.

It is an interesting concept, if you can find people willing to admit their ancestors were criminals. Though I guess Mr. Mudgett doesn't have a problem with that.

[Robert]

Thank you Joshua. I don't understand how a woman can have a baby rattling round inside her and not know it, but as Mr Spock says, it simply exists.

[Joshua Rogan]

Is it possible for a woman to be three months pregnant and not suspect it?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-4325...uring-999-call

[Robert]

You would have thought so, Graham.

[Graham]

Plus of course the Law did not permit the execution of a pregnant woman, so you'd have thought that if she was pregnant and knew it, she'd have used that to get herself off the hook.

Graham

[Robert]

By my calculations, Edith would have been entering her fourth month of pregnancy when executed (assuming she was pregnant, and assuming she hadn't been 'got at' while in custody). Is it possible for a woman to be three months pregnant and not suspect it? With execution looming for both her and her child, she would hardly have kept quiet about it.

[Graham]

Hi Miss Marple,

you're correct of course in suggesting that 'toffs' who could afford the best briefs had a better chance of getting away with murder than 'ordinary' people such as Edith Thompson. But not always, as a quick study of 20th century UK capital cases which resulted in death sentences will reveal.

On the other hand, sometimes it worked the opposite way: another of my 'favourite' cases is that of Tony Mancini of one of the Brighton Trunk Murders fame (there were two). Mancini was a thug and sometime gangster without two pennies to rub together, but he was incredibly lucky that the State appointed the services of Norman Birkett, ultimately one of the greatest advocates in English legal history. Birkett's defence of Mancini was little short of brilliant, and Mancini was acquitted, only years later to confess to the crime.

It was the hangman John Ellis who committed suicide, supposedly as a result of Edith Thompson's execution. It was rumoured that she was actually pregnant at the time.

Graham

[AmericanSherlock]

Hi AS,

I was surprised it hadn't been closed much sooner. It seemed to me that site rules were being broken all over the place with practically every new post. And not just by one individual.

In my experience it's always wiser not to rise to the bait and add to the risk of having a really interesting thread like our Wallace one closed - or worse, having one's posting privileges for all topics cut off in their prime.

Love,

Caz
X

Caz,

I'm sorry but I feel despite whatever rules were broken from reactive, frustrated posts, and I was certainly guilty of that myself, that the root cause was a particular poster. And whenever that poster contributed en masse, it essentially shut down the conversation and made it impossible to not reply, since there would always be others who did reply, so you would be ignoring most of the posts.

The same pattern played itself out about a year ago and basically destroyed the fabric of the thread until the poster temporarily left, regardless of whether other poster took the bait or not. This time, I didn't hold back in terms of reactivity since the ignoring tactic did not seem to work in the past.

I think it's unfair that everyone be punished be for the actions of 1 person, when the thread was just fine without them.

[caz]

Does anyone know why the William Herbert Wallace thread was closed?

Hi AS,

I was surprised it hadn't been closed much sooner. It seemed to me that site rules were being broken all over the place with practically every new post. And not just by one individual.

In my experience it's always wiser not to rise to the bait and add to the risk of having a really interesting thread like our Wallace one closed - or worse, having one's posting privileges for all topics cut off in their prime.

Love,

Caz
X

[miss marple]

No way should Thompson have been hanged, She was punished for committing adultery, she did not murder her husband, the judge made a moral judgement on her,also she was possibly pregnant, she was carried to her execution, which by accounts was horrific, I believe one of the wardresses who witnessed her execution committed suicide later.
Compare her treatment to that of an aristocratic woman, Elvira Barney, who shot and killed her lover in 1932, she was treated with a lot more compassion that the' lower class ' Edith. Barney was lucky to have the great advocate Patrick Hastings defending her. She was found not guilty of murder and manslaughter.
Mystery murder and family is an interesting concept, I have watched all of them and have tended to agree with the judge's conclusions. The programme is not long enough to go into detail. For instance there is a lot more circumstantial evidence linking Dickman to the murder of Nisbit than came out in the programme. He had a motive for stealing the money. Dickman was in debt, betting badly on the horses and had borrowed twenty pounds off a money lender with an interest rate of 60%. His wife had no housekeeping money, they had four pounds in the bank. Dickman had a separate address at a shop where he collected mail under the name of Black. The last thing Dickman collected from the shop was a parcel containing a revolver. He also lied about not knowing the location of the Isabella pit where the abandoned money bag was found. There is a lot more. On the whole he appears to have been guilty. Money troubles can make people desperate.


Miss Marple