The Killing of Lord George
A Tale of Murder and Deceit in Edwardian England
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- $20.99
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- $20.99
Publisher Description
'A riveting read ... a dark story of murder and deceit with verve and insight' John Woolf, author of The Wonders
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A 19TH-CENTURY CIRCUS LEGEND
On 28 November 1911 a retired showman died violently at his home in North London. Known to the world as Lord George Sanger, he was once the biggest name in show business, and was venerated as a national institution.
The death of Britain's wealthiest showman read like a popular crime thriller: a merciless killer; a famous victim; sensational media headlines; a desperate manhunt laced with police incompetencies and a dramatic denouement few could have anticipated. But for over a century, questions have persisted about the murder.
Weaving in the story of George's rise to fame and the history of Britain's entertainment industry, The Killing of Lord George uses previously unpublished archive material to reconstruct the events leading up to the death and reveal the true story behind the brutal crime that shocked Edwardian England.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Was an innocent man falsely suspected of a 1911 murder? Journalist Shaw (The First Showman: The Extraordinary Mr. Astley, The Englishman Who Invented the Modern Circus) convincingly maintains that 26-year-old Herbert Cooper did not kill "Lord" George Sanger, who, for more than 50 years, "was Britain's most popular and most successful entertainer." Through detailed analysis of records that were sealed for more than a century, Shaw brings the crime to life. Cooper had served as Sanger's personal attendant for years but had fallen out of favor with his employer for an unknown reason. On Nov. 28, 1911, the police were summoned to the Sanger residence in London's Finchley district, where Arthur Jackson, who had partially replaced Cooper, accused Cooper of killing Sanger with an axe. The coroner ruled that the 85-year-old Sanger died from being "battered to death with a hatchet." Cooper's guilt was universally accepted after he died by suicide. The evidence Shaw uncovered casts serious doubt on almost every aspect of the official verdict, including Sanger's cause of death. Shaw alternates sections about the murder inquiry with ones about Sanger's life, both creating sympathy for him and heightening tension. This brilliant reconstruction of a cause célèbre will fascinate true crime buffs.
