Acid Bath Murders

The Trials and Liquidations of John George Haigh

John George Haigh found the way to commit the perfect murder—five of them in fact—by dissolving his wealthy victims in sulfuric acid to avoid detection on a "no body, no murder" principle, before taking their property to fund his luxury lifestyle. But victim number six presented a problem. When a guest in Haigh's own hotel disappeared, the police found half dissolved body parts carelessly thrown into the yard outside his secluded workshop. But was the urbane Mr. Haigh, the man brought up by strict Plymouth Brethren parents in Yorkshire and dressed like a city stockbroker, really the monster he said he was—the killer of six innocent people with the sole motive of drinking their blood? Benefiting from unpublished archive papers, including recently released letters Haigh wrote from prison while awaiting execution, author Gordon Lowe sheds light on whether this was a cynical ploy for a ticket into Broadmoor Hospital, or if he was in fact a psychopathic vampire with a penchant for disposing of his victims in acid