Bath Murders and Misdemeanours

The ancient city of Bath has always attracted visitors. The city flourished the Georgian era, becoming home for the fashionable and wealthy, and the city was rebuilt to reflect its new grand status. Although areas were devastated by aerial attacks in the Second World War, the city was rebuilt and today is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the country. However, behind the façade of Bath, crime and misdeeds have always flourished.In Bath Murders and Mysteries authors Mick Davis, David Lassman and Terence James have delved into local records to reveal the dark side of life in Bath through since the 18th century, including tales of highway robbery, social scandal, domestic violence, gang-leaders, man-made disasters and vicious murder.The stories include a gang of highway robbers who operated stark naked, the trial and imprisonment of Jane Austen’s aunt for shoplifting, the brutal murder of a serving maid that was initially portrayed as a robbery that had gone wrong, deaths by poisoning, a Victorian religious sex cult led by a local vicar, an alleged suicide pact where the wife died but the husband remained very much alive, the national campaign to reprieve a black American GI in the Second World accused of rape and sentenced to death, and much more.This collection of true life crime stories gives a vivid insight into life in Bath in previous centuries. This book will fascinate anyone with an interest in the history of crime as well as those who want to know more about the history of Bath and the South West of England.