Author: Dean Jobb

Publisher: Algonquin Books

ISBN: 978 1-61620-689-5

Enter the mind of a psychopathic serial killer who within his own twisted mind justifies his actions and defends within himself why these victims had to be killed. Thomas Neill Cream sought out his victims, new where they lived, befriended them in odd and suspect ways and yet managed to use his extensive resources and connections to poison them in creative and undetectable ways.

His targets prostitutes and finding unique ways to gain their trust and convince them that they needed the pills he provided for an ailment he told them was necessary. No remorse, lack of compassion and a man of many disguises. He’d buy poisons as doctors could in substantial amounts without raising suspicions since many practitioners formulate their own medications, druggists err used to supplying them with toxins like strychnine and arsenic.

Doctors knew how much to administer and the side effects. Reading the accounts of each murder is bone chilling as I share some of the names of the victims and how Cream managed coy manipulate them and then blackmailed others and posted blame on others for the murders stumping the police, discounting forensic evidence and even not realizing innocent men were accused of these murders and the author even introduces us to other killers who prided themselves using poisons as a weapon for murder as some were undetectable and often allowed a killer to go free . Added in the research into these poisons and how the coroner must proceed with the autopsy and the tests on the contents of the stomach of the victims are not for the faint of heart.

Throughout the novel the author shares the many ways that Dr. Cream managed to elude detection, arrest and the ways he murdered many women because of their plight in life. Prostitutes, unmarried vulnerable girls, and even those downtrodden were his prey. Poison was his method, and he was do diabolical and clever that when handing out his pills, his medicines the victims never saw it coming and the result was even the ME and the coroner, and the police were stumped along with the evidence that did point to strychnine or arsenic. During this period when the murders occurred Murder was considered something to be enjoyed in person. People would flock to crime scenes hoping to wee where a murder was committed and what made it special and delightful: IT WAS TRUE!

Doctor turned writer, Arthur Conan Doyle created the iconic character of Sherlock Holmes and Thomas Neill Creame arrived in London for a serious of short stories published in the Strand Magazine. What is depicted in these stories will help guide you to what happens throughout this disturbing time. Ellen Donworth was a victim, and a tall dark cross eye man gave her something to drink she told her aunt. Why take something from someone you don’t really know, and the bottle contained some white pills, and she took them. Strychnine poisoning. So many crimes and done in a way that the killer dared the police to catch him and yet they had so much trouble, so much time and workforce devoted and yet could not track down this murderous killer. Cream managed to earn a medical degree and unbelievably was considered a respected member of his London society.

Why did they release him from Joliet as we learn in the first scene of this book? Why did his family not get him mental health care and wend him to London? Cream had an affair with a woman whose body was found near his office and the victim was poisoned with Chloroform. So how did he manage to get away and yet in Chicago he became a person of interest in many deaths and finally as the author related convicted of positioning a patient in 1881 so why did they commute his life sentence after ten years? Going to English where he targeted prostitutes in London the author shares the many murders that this sick and remorseless man committed.

With Scotland Yard stumped, many investigators not able to get a conviction, using extortion to point the guilt on someone else, he manages to get away with so many murders and because of their inability to get him he was free to kill at will.

The closing chapter encompasses it all : AN Elizabethan Tragedy of Horrors! The true of historian of the latter part of this 19th century, the British Journal prediction in an editorial on the Lambeth poisonings, as they were referred to, “Cannot fail to note the president epidemic of homicide. The author includes the murders of Ripper that terrorized Whitechapel. In Fall Rivers, Cream awaited trial and Lizzie Borden was charged with hacking her father and mother to death.

The conviction of Fredrick Deeming in Australian made the headlines int eh world> the world was fixed on murder, greed and sex and Cream was guilty of it all. As you read about him, hear his voice, his motives hidden and revealed the magnitude of his crimes will never really be know with certainty and in a span of 15 year she was convicted of two murders and stool trial for a third.

What about the rest? However, the surviving court records author Dean Jobb reports and comments that he killed more than ten people by poisoning and guilty of at least ten homicides. Read what Louisa Harvey did and how she managed to trick him when he tried to kill her. Extortion, forgery, arsonist, abortionist, and graduated to murder This man’s infamy was assured in 1923 when the transcript of Old Bailey and the proceeding were published in a volume in Notable British Trial Series a collection of sensational cases that included two Victorian doctors turned poisoners. Cream was insane so maybe one note and yet he was finally convicted and hanged.

This review will help you remember the suspected victims: Flora Eliza Brooks, Matilda Clover, Ellen Donworth, Mary Ann Matilda Faulkner, Catherine Hutchinson Gardner, Alice Marsh, Sarah Alice Montgomery, Emma Shrivel, Ellen Stack and Daniel Stott. And the many targets of attempted and suspected poisoning.