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Chargement... The Italian Boy: Murder and Grave-Robbery in 1830s London (original 2004; édition 2004)par Sarah Wise (Auteur)
Information sur l'oeuvreThe Italian Boy: A Tale of Murder and Body Snatching in 1830s London par Sarah Wise (2004)
True Crime (146) Chargement...
Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. The Italian Boy is the story of a little-known 19th century murder. The story begins in 1832 with the delivery of the body of an "Italian boy" to one of London's many private medical schools. In the 19th century, medical schools acquired subjects to practice on from London's many pauper's graves; the body of the body was fresher than one might expect, and lacked burial marks. What followed was an investigation into the murder of an Italian boy, never fully identified by contemporaries. The search for the boy's murderers led to the infamous trial of his suppliers--John Bishop, James May, and Thomas Williams. The murders echoed those of Burke and Hare, two famous resurrectionists after whom the term "burking" was coined. I liked this book, sort of. Although the author goes off on tangents (she talks in general about poverty in the early 19th century, Italian politics, and the Smithfield meat market, which seemed to me to be "filler" for the book, almost like a newspaper article extended to a 300-page book), she presents to her reader a compelling murder story with a bit of a mystery--who was the Italian boy that Bishp, May and Williams supplied to Kings College? On the other hand, I felt as though the author failed to draw any conclusions about the murder, murderers, or to connect various pieces of the puzzle. The book is accompanied by nice engraving reproductions. aucune critique | ajouter une critique
Legislation which marked the end of body-snatching in 1830s Britain was the result of investigations in The Italian Boy case in which examples for dissection were supplied to anatomy schools. This title examines this episode in history and the lives of lower-class Londoners of the period. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)364.152309421Social sciences Social problems and services; associations Criminology Crimes and Offenses Offenses against persons Homicide Murder History, geographic treatment, biography Europe England & Wales LondonClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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Wise takes you down to the criminal underbelly of London. Wise examines how a unforgiving civil government allowed the poor and desperate to be taken advantage of. You learn about the underground tunnels and passages connecting various pubs that acted as guild halls. How resurrectionist wives would pretend to be a relative of a dying pauper to obtain their body for their husbands. How a body could go to an anatomist, but the teeth and scalp might go to a dentist or wigmaker. Through the subsequent trial, Wise then demonstrates just how elaborate this system was and every notable surgeon was in on it. Sir Astley Cooper, King's College, Guy's Hospital, all of them.
I'm glad Wise decided to focus on Carlo, because he was also a victim of rampant child-trafficking in Italy at that time, and it's a rare thing for historians to dive into that. The "padroni" would buy children from peasants in northern Italy and use the child to beg for them. And thankfully, the result of this trial led to legislation dictating the rights of a corpse and the eventual downfall of the resurrectionist trade. ( )