Southampton Murder Victims

Southampton Murder Victims is the result of painstaking 

research by the author, who had unrivalled access to police 

and other archive files normally unavailable to the general 

public. It has resulted in fascinating accounts of over 

seventy murders committed in Southampton between 1783 and 2009, including some that took place on the high seas and subsequently investigated by Southampton police under the Merchant Shipping Acts. 

Brown has also outlined the changes in legislation relating to what was, for many years, a mandatory death sentence and the alterations to the court systems over the period. The accounts are arranged in strict chronological order, allowing the reader to dip into the period of their choice, the earlier cases arousing nostalgia for parts of the city that have long since vanished. 

Included in the accounts are Brown’s recollections of investigations in which he was personally involved as a 

member of the murder squad, and these provide a unique and fascinating insight into the methods employed by the police in the 1950s and 60s. 

The book contains many illustrations, some of them official police photos showing the scene of the crime and published for the first time, making Southampton Murder Victims a must-read for the bloodthirsty, the historians and the just plain curious.