A murderous atmosphere pervaded nineteenth-century America and lurid murders dominated newspaper headlines.

The Bloody Century retells the stories of Americans, driven by desperation, greed, jealousy, or an irrational bloodlust, to take the life of someone around them. It presents 50 of the most intriguing murder cases from the archives of American crime including:

The Famous

• Lizzie Borden
• H H Holmes
• The Bloody Benders

The Sensational

• Jesse Pomeroy - 14-year-old serial killer
• Adolph Luetgert-dissolved his wife in a vat of lye
• Lydia Sherman-poisoned her husband and nine others

The Unsolved

• Rose Ambler - found stabbed in a field near her home
• Benjamin Nathan-beaten to death in his bedroom

and many others.

Richly illustrated with scenes and portraits from the time of the murders, and including songs and poems written to commemorate the crimes, The Bloody Century invokes a fitting atmosphere for Victorian homicide.

The days of America's distant past, the time of gaslights and horse-drawn carriages, are often viewed as quaint and sentimental, but a closer look reveals passions, fears, and motives that are timeless and universal, and a population inured to violence, capable of monstrous acts. A visit to The Bloody Century may well give us insight into our own.