History, Politics & Society
Between 1844 and 1868, three women were tried and found guilty of the brutal murder of members of their family by poison at the Lincoln Assizes. Two of them, Eliza Joyce and Priscilla Biggadike, were hanged; the third, Mary Ann Milner, committed suicide in her cell, hours before she was due to be executed.
Drawing upon archive sources and the many divergent accounts in the popular press at the time, Attired in Deepest Mourning is the first comprehensive study of all three cases. It analyses in forensic detail the information, misinformation and fake news which defined the lives and deaths of three Lincolnshire women, both at the time, and subsequently. In addition, it presents hitherto unpublished material which takes the reader beyond the hackneyed narrative of the monstrous female poisoner to a more sympathetic understanding of the pressures and circumstances in which the women lived and died.
Attired in Deepest Mourning is a local study which provides a valuable contribution to a full understanding of crime and punishment in mid-Victorian Britain.
Here's what readers have to say about this book....
A must for any true crime reader. This second book by local Lincolnshire author provides a detailed analysis of three 19 century murder cases. Justice is swift, but the three lady murderers, all have a different journeys to their ultimate demise. Malcolm has pulled together material from the time and reports from Local and National press to give the reader an image of what happened. In the final case of the trilogy of murders, the question is posed whether this was Justice, or a miscarriage of justice. A highly recommend book.
In the provocative and slightly enigmatic Preface to his latest book, Malcolm Moyes puts his cards on the table: Attired in Deepest Mourning is no more and no less than a bringing back to life of three women who were sentenced to death in the nineteenth-century. At the very least, the author wants to give Eliza Joyce, Mary Ann Milner and Priscilla Biggadike the decent burial which was denied them at the end of their short lives.' If the professed intention is to recreate flesh and blood human beings, who engage our sympathies without losing sight of the horror of their alleged crimes, the book succeeds. As with his previous book, By Force of Circumstances: the Lefley Case Reopened, the meticulous research and sharp analysis of previous accounts which previously defined the women engages the reader throughout. The book is captivating from the beginning with its time-line of events, and then only develops more fascination in the reader as the background is explored. Truly, when I read Attired in Deepest Mourning, I felt transported back in time by the descriptions of the historical characters, their situations, the proceedings through which they went and the reports of the events. The descriptions not only of the women themselves but of others involved, whether significant characters such as the judges or minor characters that come in and out of these life-stories, including examples of other judged persons, help to envisage and understand the people, the society and the ideas of justice of the time. It may be that this new book by Malcolm Moyes will stimulate further interest and research into the cases of Eliza Joyce, Mary Ann Milner and Priscilla Biggadike; but as with his book on Mary Lefley, it would take a very brave writer to attempt a more detailed and comprehensive study of small individuals caught up in an unforgiving judicial system.
