The Battered Body Beneath the Flagstones, and Other Victorian Scandals

By: Michelle Morgan

Narrated by: Anne Dover

Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's Summary

A grisly book dedicated to the crimes, perversions and outrages of Victorian England, covering high-profile offences - such as the murder of actor William Terriss, whose stabbing at the stage door of the Adelphi Theatre in 1897 filled the front pages for many weeks - as well as lesser-known transgressions that scandalised the Victorian era. 

The tales include murders and violent crimes but also feature scandals that merely amused the Victorians. These include the story of a teenage man who married an actress, only to be shipped off to Australia by his disgusted parents; and the Italian ice-cream man who meant only to buy his sweetheart a hat but ended up proposing marriage instead. When he broke it off, his fiancée's father sued him, and the story was dubbed the 'Amusing Aberdeen Breach of Promise Case'. Also present is the gruesome story of the murder of Patrick O Connor, who was shot in the head and buried under the kitchen flagstones by his lover, Maria Manning, and her husband, Frederick. The couple's subsequent trial caused a sensation, and even author Charles Dickens attended the grisly public hanging. 

Drawing on a range of sources from university records and Old Bailey transcripts to national and regional newspaper archives, Michelle Morgan's research sheds new light on well-known stories as well as unearthing previously unknown incidents. 

©2018 Michelle Morgan (P)2018 Little, Brown Book Group

Doesn’t question it’s sources enough

On the surface, this is a delightful collection of pearl-clutching Victorian scandals, which titillate today just as they did over 100 years ago. The author writes in a way that mimics, to a degree, the breathlessness of Victorian scandal journalism, including the language that often condemned victims of domestic abuse as the authors of their own destruction. Story after story describe female homicide victims as having been promiscuous, or nags, or possibly insane, based (apparently) on the surviving testimony of their murderers (most often their husbands, boyfriends, or former such).

It ended up becoming rather tedious to listen to tale after tale of women horribly abused, presented in gossip magazine style, with little to no analysis of what any of it meant to contemporaries, nor what it means today.

On their own, each tale could easily be a bit of ghoulish fun, being so far removed from our own time. So perhaps reading a chapter here and a chapter there would be a good way to experience this book, but I can't really recommend listening to it cover to cover, as I did.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Excellent storyline

Absolutely loved this audio book
Great little stories with great detail to events
The storytelling is fantastic
I can't recommend this book highly enough
BRILLIANT

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Very average

It is quite interesting to read (hear?) about the stories of a (fervently hoped) bygone age.
However given that the premise of the book - judging by the title - is that these stories would be some of the better known 'scandals' and it misses it's mark. A lot of the stories described are not what could be described as 'scandalous' - merely very sad, and in a lot of cases, reflective of a much more uncaring and brutal era. In the worst cases the 'story' isn't really worth inclusion - just seemingly filler fluff.
The real take-away (hateful phrase!) is that unless you were from a 'good' family, well connected or wealthy, God help you if had *any* brushes with authority. The laws, and their practice, were used to decidedly keep you in your place - definitely one law for the rich and another for the poor (a particular example would be the case of Contance Kent& Jack Whicher).
The reader is not bad, but please stop trying to do accents unless you are a really good actor - it's jarring and off-putting and not done well.

5 of 9 people found this review helpful

A fascinating collection of gory stories

Aside from Jack the Ripper, grisly murders don’t usually spring to mind when we think of the Victorian era, but hundreds of downright horrible crimes regularly hit the headlines at the time. While most of these have sunk without trace, Michelle Morgan has delved into dozens of long-forgotten murders, mysteries, kidnappings, disappearances and good-old-fashioned sex-scandals to paint an enthralling picture of crime in the days of old Queen Vicky.

As well as a whole bunch of murders and throat-slashing jilted lovers, there are a surprising number of accounts centred on that well-known source of killers - the stage actor. One of the most intriguing is the story of popular thespian William Terriss and his (somewhat unhinged) fellow actor Richard Prince, who stabbed the former to death at the stage door of the Adelphi Theatre.

The inclination of a lot of killers to cut their victim’s throats left me feeling a bit woozy at times, and the sheer number of people who inflicted horrifying pain upon their victims (who, shortly before, they had intended marrying) is mind-boggling. It certainly puts twenty-first century domestic abuse statistics into perspective.

I did occasionally feel the text might have benefited from another good edit, but otherwise Ms Morgan tells a good tale. All in all, a fascinating collection of gory stories (and I do mean gory!)

interesting new tales.

very good. lots of stories I had not heard before. very good entertainment. liked the narration too.

Oh god the accents

The stories are great but this narrator should leave the accents alone. In one of the stories based in Scotland the characters vary from Irish to Cornish to Scouser to Scots in the space of a couple of sentences. It’s painful and ruined the book for me.