The banner painting is that of Margaret Theresa of Spain, born on 12 July 1651 who at the age of 15, by her marriage to Leopold I, became the Holy Roman Empress, German Queen, Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia. She was the daughter of King Philip IV of Spain and the […]
“I wanted to open the doors of this trial last September so that society can see what was happening. I have confidence in our capacity, collectively, to find a better future, in which men and women alike can live harmlessly together with mutual respect.” This statement of 72-year-old Madame Gisèle Pelicot, delivered at the end […]
Throughout history, familicide is a crime considered most heinous in any society and it draws media fascination almost to the scale that a serial killer trial does. Many cannot decide which is worst – a stranger killing innocent strangers, or a parent killing their child, or children killing their parents. During the last quarter of […]
Before man invaded, a vast stretch of land along the southern coast of Africa, was once a lush green forest, now called the Knysna Forest. This mystical, magical forest was once home to great herds of Knysna elephants, who existed peacefully in this green sanctuary for hundreds of years. Everything changed by 1763, when the […]
During the late 1800’s Whitechapel and neighbouring Spitalfields in East-End London was a terrible place to live. It seems as if all of society’s outcasts; the beggars, thieves, unemployed immigrants, prostitutes, orphans, mentally ill and crippled washed out into this gigantic slum, where crime, vice, violence and drunkenness were almost Endemic. A French visitor described […]
In 1998 at a serial killer conference hosted by Liverpool University, I met author Shirley Harrison, author of The Jack the Ripper Diary, Chilling Confessions of James Maybrick, and not only did she sign my copy, she also allowed me to hold the original Diary in my hands. What better way to kick off December […]
Two authors, Patricia Cornwall and Shirley Harrison, tried to unmask Jack the Ripper. Ms Harrison’s candidate is James Maybrick and Ms Cornwall’s candidate is Walter Sickert, whom she also linked to the Thames Torso Murders, a contemporary of Jack’s Whitechapel murders in London in the late 1800’s. A person can be profiled by analysing the […]
Divided by 30 years, two brutal men held a city and a town ransom during a reign of terror. One went undetected by the police for two years yet hid in plain sight, whilst the other committed murder for three years in full sight of the police. One was a low-life White man, whilst the […]