One Hundred Years of Medical Murder [antikvár]

(1824-1856)There was a time when the phrase 'criminal classes' was frequently heard in any discussion of social problems. It conjured up a vision of a degenerate section of the community, poor, dirty, and ill-housed, even with a cast of countenance popularly supposed to be indicative of criminal tendencies. Today we hear the expression far less, for experience has shown that there is no such thing as 'a criminal class' and that felons and wrong-doers come from every section of the community. Indeed, the history of major crime, and of murder in particular, indicates that it is frequently the more affluent who resort to ingenious methods of ridding themselves of unwanted friends or relatives.Three of the most successful multiple murderers in history were not only medical practitioners, but also wealthy ones. In France during the Second World War, Dr Marcel Petiot, already a substantial property-owner, was convicted of organizing a bogus 'escape route' for rich Jews, killing them and retaining their money and possessions. In late Victorian London Dr Neill Cream murdered a number of prostitutes, apparently with no motive other than the simple enjoyment of killing. He, too, was a well-educated man with plenty of money, proud of his expertise and glorying in the fact that he could remain one jump ahead of the police despite the clues he gave them. In the early years of Queen Victoria's reign there was the extraordinary case of Dr William Palmer, of Rugeley, near Stafford. Initially posses-7