Book description
Surrey Murders is an examination of some of the county's most notorious
and shocking cases. They include the 'Wigwam Girl', Joan Wolfe, who
lived in a tent built by a Cree Indian Soldier before being brutally
slaughtered; the infamous stabbing of Frederick Gold by 'the Serpent',
Percy Lefroy Mapleton; the poisoning of the entire Beck family with a
bottle of oatmeal stout, laced with cyanide; and the sailore butchered
at the Devil's Punch Bowl, later immortalised in Charles Dickens'
Nicholas Nickleby. John Van der Kiste's carefully researched,
well-illustrated and enthralling text will appeal to all those
interested in the darker side of Surrey's history.
John Van der Kiste has published over 20 historical biographies
and has also written at length on local history, including Devon
Murders and Cornish Murders. He has contributed reviews to national
and local publications and to the Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography, and was consultant for the BBC documentary The King, the
Kaiser and the Tsar.