- Hardcover: 352 pages
- Publisher: Profile Books (24 Jun 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1861973543
- ISBN-13: 978-1861973542
- Product Dimensions: 23.9 x 16 x 4.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 745,078 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
Ludovic Kennedy, famous TV presenter and best-selling author, has had a lifelong obsession with miscarriages of justice, and has often played a significant role in their re-examination. His new book looks again at a number of these and reaches some controversial conclusions. The 36 murders are those for which convicted men were either executed or served long terms of imprisonment for crimes which they were later found not to have committed. Two of the convicted men are Timothy Evans and Derek Bentley - both wrongly executed by the state. Twenty-one of the murders represent those killed in the Birmingham Six pub bombings. The 2 Immoral Earnings refers to the case of Stephen Ward of Profumo fame. In a final section Ludovic Kennedy asks what lessons are to be learned and concludes: "As the theme of all my cases is police corruption and judicial complacency, I will be asked what the remedies are. The cause, I will say, of all miscarriages with which I have dealt is our antiquated [adversarial] system of criminal justice, which is an invitation to the police to commit perjury, which they frequently do (here and in the US which follows the same system). I think the inquisitorial system of some European countries is infinitely preferable."
About the Author
Ludovic Kennedy has made his name as newscaster, television presenter and interviewer, as maker of documentaries, as the author of naval books and travel anthologies, and in particular of a number of works on miscarriages of justice.
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Customer Reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A must for anyone interested in crime and innocence,
By K (UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: 36 Murders And 2 Immoral Earnings (Hardcover)
I bought this book because it featured a chapter on a poor soul named Iain Hay Gordon, whom I was writing a dissertation on. The Gordon chapter captivated me, and I ended up reading the rest of the book really quickly.I can't give the book five stars as Kennedy got it wrong about James Hanratty, but save for that (admittedly fundamental) error, the book is excellent. It sympathetically and passionately deals with the stories of those of miscarriages of justice, and extensively details all the evidential issues in question. Even if it's not for use in an academic context, as it originally was for me, the book provides a highly entertaining and inspiring read.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Shame about chapter one . . . but the rest is good,
By A Customer
This review is from: 36 Murders And 2 Immoral Earnings (Hardcover)
It's a shame that Ludovic Kennedy uses his opening chapter for what amounts to a personal attack on Lord Goddard. Even that would be fine if it were restricted to his summing-up in the Craig and Bentley case, but Kennedy digs old and tired material wholly discredited by Fenton Bresler's biography (1977, George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd.). In particular, the sexual allegations - made on the basis of hearsay in a largely unread book - are highly distasteful and (with unconscious irony) asks the reader to convict Goddard on the kind of evidence Kennedy (rightly) decries as forensically untenable. The rest of the book is an excellent and disquieting look at the English criminal justice system, police corruption and judicial naivety: it would have merited five stars but for being (arguably) undermined by the nasty and rather cowardly attack on a dead man. I note in passing that Hanratty, so long a poster-boy for critics of the justice system, is not mentioned presumably due to DNA evidence confirming his long-debated guilt, but there is plenty of food for thought here for people in all camps.
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