Oshkosh Public Library

The lady in the cellar, murder, scandal and insanity in Victorian Bloomsbury, Sinclair McKay

eng

Includes bibliographical references (p. 297-301)

illustrationsplates

no index present

non fiction

The lady in the cellar

1021806900

Sinclair McKay

murder, scandal and insanity in Victorian Bloomsbury

Standing four stories tall in an elegant Bloomsbury terrace, number 4, Euston Square was a well-kept, respectable boarding house, whose tenants felt themselves to be on the rise in Victorian London. But beneath this genteel veneer lay a murderous darkness. For on 9th May 1879, the body of a former resident, Matilda Hacker, was discovered by chance in the coal cellar. The ensuing investigation stripped bare the dark side of Victorian domesticity, revealing violence, sex and scandal, and became the first celebrity case of the early tabloids. Someone must have had full knowledge of what had happened to Matilda Hacker. For someone in that house had killed her. So how could the murderer prove so elusive?

1. The Day Before -- 2. ̀There Is Something in the Cellar' -- 3. The Man from X Division -- 4. A City of Disappearances -- 5. ̀I Am Not a Judge of Human Bones' -- 6. Superior Apartments in a Quiet Home -- 7. A Mass of Light-Coloured Ringlets' -- 8. The Canterbury Dolls -- 9. The Book of Dreams -- 10. ̀No, Not Me' -- 11. The Brothers Bastendorff -- 12. The New Age of Light -- 13. He Kept Company with Her -- 14. The Boiling Bones -- 15. ̀Everything Was Sweet' -- 16. ̀It Was Not My Place' -- 17. ̀Working Women Like Herself' -- 18. Avowed Admirers -- 19. ̀The Expected Child' -- 20. ̀Oh God! What a Sight Met My Gaze!' -- 21. She Had No Character -- 22. ̀I Have Disgraced You Before all the Country' -- 23. ̀I Depend Upon My Character' -- 24.̀Such a Strange Brotherly Part' -- 25. Disintegration -- 26. A Length of Washing Line -- 27. The Stain That Would Not Go1.The Day Before -- 2.`There Is Something in the Cellar' -- 3.The Man from X Division -- 4.A City of Disappearances -- 5.`I Am Not a Judge of Human Bones' -- 6.Superior Apartments in a Quiet Home -- 7.A Mass of Light-Coloured Ringlets' -- 8.The Canterbury Dolls -- 9.The Book of Dreams -- 10.`No, Not Me' -- 11.The Brothers Bastendorff -- 12.The New Age of Light -- 13.He Kept Company with Her -- 14.The Boiling Bones -- 15.`Everything Was Sweet' -- 16.`It Was Not My Place' -- 17.`Working Women Like Herself' -- 18.Avowed Admirers -- 19.`The Expected Child' -- 20.`Oh God! What a Sight Met My Gaze!' -- 21.She Had No Character -- 22.`I Have Disgraced You Before all the Country' -- 23.`I Depend Upon My Character' -- 24.`Such a Strange Brotherly Part' -- 25.Disintegration -- 26.A Length of Washing Line -- 27.The Stain That Would Not Go