Extraordinary People who love Extraordinary Crimes

I continue to be amazed by the outpouring of help from people interested in the life of Mary Eleanor. It seems in even death she has many suitors.

I recently received this email:

I have noticed on the Web that you have an interest in M.E.W.Pearcey
and her 1890 trial. I was going to go carefully in believing the
father-daughter murderers story, but I see you already know about that.

I am going to Mexico tomorrow until Jan. 16th, otherwise I would send
you some photocopies of the birth certificate and her real father's
death cert. If you send me a mailing address I will do it when I get
back. I can also send a reproduction of the famous insertion in the
Madrid newspaper.

In the meantime you might try to get a hold of the following books,
all of which have reasonably accurate accounts of the events.

"Thou Shalt Do No Murder" by Arthur Lambton,
"Murders of the Black Museum" by Gordon Honeycombe, 1982
"Murder and its Motives" by F. Tennyson Jesse, 1924
"Lady Killers" by J.H.H. Gaute and Robin Odell, 1980
"Rope, Knife and Chair" by Guy B. H. Logan, 1930?
"Extraordinary Crimes" by J. Laurence, 1931
"Should Women Hang?" by Bernard O'Donnell

The Lambton has a photograph of the newspaper insertion in the Madrid
paper. The case is an interesting one. I wish you good luck in your project
to fictionalize it.

If you have trouble obtaining the books I could photocopy the
"Pearcey" sections and send them to you, after my return from Mexico.

The note is from Chuck Forbes. Thanks Chuck.

I researched the books and found that FSU carries Thou Shalt Do No Murder and so I'm off this afternoon to dig it out of the archives.

In the meantime, I will likely begin posting the first chapter of the novel soon. I also have some newspaper clippings that have never found the light of day and will post those shortly as well. Thanks again for reading. I hope there are others like Chuck out there willing to fill in more pieces to the puzzle. My wish for 2008 is to find someone who is either related to or can help with the Hogg or Styles family genealogy.

Phoebe Styles married Frank Hogg and together they conceived Tiggie Hogg (also called Phoebe Hanslope Hogg). Of course, the baby died, but I don't know much about the Styles family or the Hogg family. I know the Style family lived in Chorley Wood around the time of Phoebe's death and the Hogg family had owned a grocery store at 83 King Street in London two years before the murders.

Any help is appreciated.