Author Description

'Guy Bailey' was the pseudonym of a distinguished 'Home Office pathologist' who was engaged with the police in hundreds of investigations during the previous 30yrs. His notebook contained firsthand details of some of the most notorious criminals and crimes of the period - Heath, Haigh, Timothy Evans, the Epping Forest abortion burial, the death of the Siamese King, Ananda VIII. By isolating the thread of chance, 'that great arbiter of fate', in these and other cases in the book, and by bringing to bear all his 'inside' knowledge of pathology, police work and the law, the author places each crime in a fascinating new light. A blocked drainpipe in an army guardroom led to the discovery of the famous 'beak-nosed' knife that sealed the fate of Sangret in the Godalming 'wigwam' murder; a greasy finger-print that somehow remained on a post-office withdrawal slip after handling by a score of postal clerks convicted Stoneley, the Southampton 'taxi' murderer. The great detectives who figure so prominently in this book, like Greeno, Chapman and Jones, never relied on chance evidence - but if it came their way they would test it and exploit it to the full. They knew only too well that the success of a crime investigation might in the end depend on the handling of a single, potentially 'fatal' chance. Also includes: a dyer's tag in a dustbin - the Luton Sack Murder; chance encounter at Waterloo - The 'John Barleycorn' Murder; Ford 8 '101' - The Chalkpit Case; the separation order that turned sour - The Seconal Capsule Murder; the £10,000 accident - The Trist Case in Portugal; maggots for bait - Murder at Lydney.