Murder Most Local (The Law Killers: True Crime from Dundee - Alexander McGregor)

Member Name: Templar19

Product:	The Law Killers: True Crime from Dundee - Alexander McGregor
Date:	02/06/08 (173 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A fascinating, thought-provoking and beautifully-written book

Disadvantages: Not a book for the faint-hearted

It's not as easy being a fan of true-crime as it used to be. Back in Victorian times, murder, however depraved, was a human act to be savoured at arms length in front of a roaring fire while sipping a glass of Madeira (or absinthe, for those of a more bohemian persuasion). Those old-fashioned connoisseurs of crime were able to detach themselves from the swirl of emotion and anguish that inevitably clung to each case and examine methods, motives and consequences calmly and with cosy fascination. There was nothing unseemly about such an interest because the Victorians didn't confuse an interest in murder with an interest in murdering.

Nowadays, however, the great beast of 24-Hour-News means that heinous acts demand our attention almost as soon as they happen, and when we direct our gaze towards them they are still cocooned inside a seething ball of emotions: the shock; the horror; the reactions from family and friends; the inevitable tearful press-conferences (often sheer exploitation of the vulnerable by the media, in my view). We hyper-emotional modern citizens are more inclined to fixate on (to consume?) newsworthy anguish, and to see murder solely in terms of its emotional impact, than seriously examine why it happens and what, if anything, we can do to lessen its frequency. Which is a shame, because murder is a fascinating subject. Murder is the language of the beast within. Murder reminds us that beneath this thin veneer of civilisation the 'killer ape' still lurks, an ape still capable of wanton savagery and blood lust. That is an inconvenient truth for many, too inconvenient for some.

Yet true crime at its most gory has always fascinated me. From the casual and industrial savagery of the ancients (however civilised) to the gaslight 'rippers', lurkers and poisoners of Victorian London, I have enjoyed reading about it all, its weirdness and its occasional banality; and, you'll be pleased to know, without any great effect on my nature: I'm almost as gentle and benign a soul as it's possible to be (sorry, Whitehousians!) So with that in mind, you can understand my delight when I came across a book not just about murder, but about murder in my home city. Murder most local indeed.

'The Law Killers', by Alexander McGregor, is a book that describes some of the more interesting murders that have taken place in the grand old city of Dundee over the last century or so. Written by a veteran reporter on the city's daily newspaper, The Courier, the book delves into the murky back catalogue of Dundee life to reveal a series of human tragedies that engulfed ordinary people and were, more often than not, perpetrated by (seemingly) ordinary people. It is of particular interest to me because I grew up just north of the city, a city where my forefathers had lived for several generations, and so the locations described are instantly familiar, as indeed are some of the more recent murders. (The title of the book, by the way, is a pun on the name of the hill, the Law, that overlooks the city.)

The book is not a dry psychological study of motives nor is it a lurid wallow in gore. It is a measured and beautifully-readable collection of tales, written in the spare prose of a practiced journalistic hand of forty years' standing. Each chapter describes a different case, chosen to highlight a specific facet of what is our worst human act. The cases date from the 19th century almost up to the present and are shocking, baffling and poignant in equal measure. Those involved include children, teenagers, men and women, young and old, rich and poor, sane and insane; in other words, the whole gamut of society. There are crimes of passion and revenge; and there are crimes involving those old staples: lust, greed and jealousy. There are also stranger cases that had no obvious motive at all, and a couple that seemed to be simple acts of random and terrifying savagery where the victims just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

What is interesting (and unsettling) about the cases presented is how they offer no concrete or reassuring explanations for why some people are driven to commit murder. Some cases were clearly just arguments or enmities that went too far, often fuelled by drink or drugs, resulting in broken lives and broken hearts. There are others, though, that are shocking not just because of the violence displayed but because of the seeming randomness of the acts: What, for example, possessed a teenage boy to brutally violate and bludgeon to death a young woman on a city street in broad daylight? The victim just happened to be passing by and the perpetrator, captured easily within hours, offered no explanation or remorse. There is another case where a young girl was killed by a neighbour, an act equally motiveless and equally baffling.

The book also contains a couple of interesting 'period pieces'. One is the case of the mysterious Londoner, William Bury, who arrived in the city in 1888 accompanied by his lady companion, only to be arrested soon after and charged with her murder. Her body had been found in a trunk in the room the pair had rented and it showed signs of genital mutilation. Bury was a skilled "horse butcher" and a distinctly odd character. He was found guilty of murder and hanged soon afterwards (he was the last man to be hanged in Dundee). What makes the case interesting is the suspicion the Dundee police had that Bury may in fact have been the same man who had terrorised the East End of London that year, the infamous 'Jack the Ripper'. Bury was skilful with a knife; he clearly showed violent tendencies towards women; and he had sexually mutilated his Dundee victim. He had also left London just weeks after the last of the Whitechapel murders. And why, as a Londoner, did he choose Dundee of all places? Was it because of the city's distance from London? We will probably never know the truth but the facts of the case are fascinating.

The saddest cases are undoubtedly the ones involving young people and indeed children. There were the two teenage boys who became obsessed with planning the perfect murder (simply through boredom, it seems); and the notorious case of the young soldier who in the 1960s held a class of schoolgirls hostage and then shot their teacher. The latter case was compounded years later when the young man's father murdered three women in the city because he had become jealous of his son's notoriety and had wanted to 'outdo' him! The saddest case is undoubtedly the one involving the brutal killing of a toddler by the thirteen-year-old girl who had been babysitting her. The girl had been a quiet and gentle little thing and the police officers investigating the case were baffled as to why she had committed such a brutal act. She remained mute during her interviews. The account of her sitting in court, bewildered and clutching the hand of a policewoman is moving. What had possessed her? Something had clearly snapped.

'The Law Killers' is no academic work; it doesn't reach for conclusions or offer pat explanations. What its author does do is present each case clearly and carefully and allow the reader to arrive at their own conclusions. Chief among these is undoubtedly that murder is a complex and, at times, bewildering business, no less in Dundee than anywhere else. Another striking feature of the book is that many of the murderers appeared to be, until their fatal actions, ordinary and seemingly well-adjusted members of society. We can perhaps reach the unsettling conclusion that given the 'right' circumstances most of us are capable of violent acts of varying degree, perhaps even murder. That is NOT a comfortable thought to end on! Better by far to end with the thought that murder is, however we might like to think differently, still a relatively rare occurrence.

'The Law Killers' is not for everyone. It can at times be a grim read and not all of us want to be reminded of humanity at its worst. Yet sometimes we need to turn our faces to the unpleasantness of the world if we are to have any hope of understanding it. This book is an excellent work because although it presents us with grim pictures it does so in such a way as to allow us to go beyond mere reactionary cries of 'Evil' and 'Depraved'. Perhaps the perpetrators of the acts chronicled in the book were both these things but to simply describe them as such and walk on is only to make ourselves feel better (we are not like them) and to fail to get to grips with the crucial question: why DO people murder? Any book that can at least make us think about the question is to be recommended, and I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

***

The Law Killers: True Crime from Dundee - Alexander McGregor

Paperback: 256 pages

Publisher: Black and White Publishing (24 Jan 2006)

ISBN-10: 1845020553

ISBN-13: 978-1845020552

£6.99 at Amazon.co.uk

(A slightly different version of this review appears on Ciao under the name 'Volta120'.)

Summary: A sober and well-judged chronicle of depravity