This history brings together numerous murderous tales that shocked not only the county but also made headlines. They include the cases of Elizabeth and Betty Branch, a mother and daughter who beat a young servant girl to death in Hemington in 1740; 13-year-old Betty Trump, whose throat was cut while walking home at Buckland St Mary in 1823; factory worker Joan Turner, battered to death in Chard in 1829; George Watkins, killed in a bare knuckle fight outside the Running Horse pub in Yeovil in 1843; Mary Fisher, stabbed to death by her husband in Weston-super-Mare in 1844; and an elderly landlady, Mrs. Emily Bowers, strangled in her bed in Middlezoy in 1947. This carefully researched, well-illustrated, and enthralling text will appeal to anyone interested in the shady side of Somerset's history.
