The Awful Killing of Sarah Watts

A true crime account of a murdered teen in Victorian-era England, the Scotland Yard sergeant sent to investigate, and the gripping events that followed.

Before Road there was Frome . . . before Whicher there was Smith . . . before the heartless slaughter of four-year-old Saville Kent, there was the brutal rape and murder of fourteen-year-old Sarah Watts.

Taking place nine years earlier than the Road Hill case, made famous by the bestselling book The Suspicions of Mr Whicher and a subsequent television adaptation, The Awful Killing of Sarah Watts recounts the shocking details of this 1851 murder on an isolated farm near Frome and the incredible events that transpired from it.

On Wednesday 24th September 1851, with her parents at market, Sarah Watts was alone at Battle Farm. Sometime during the afternoon, an intruder battered, raped and brutally murdered her.

As the case gripped the nation, a London Detective was sent to investigate. The result was three local men—all notorious felons with previous convictions—were arrested and charged; but with a huge reward on offer, were they really guilty or just hapless victims of others’ greed?

When they did stand trial, it set in motion a series of riveting events that culminated a decade later in a sensational confession; but was this confessor’s sanity to be questioned and were they even in the country at the time of the murder?

For the very first time, this sensational story is told in full-length book form, with the authors having meticulously researched newspaper accounts, court transcripts, prison records and eyewitness accounts.

Praise for The Awful Killing of Sarah Watts

“A fascinating account of the murder and the subsequent arrest of three men who might not have had anything to do with the crimes against the little girl; this is a cold case that deserves this attention, and the authors have done the little girl proud!” —Books Monthly