The Invention of Murder

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The Invention of Murder by Judith Flanders: 4. Adelaide Bartlett

4. Adelaide Bartlett

The Invention of Murder by Judith Flanders

BBC Radio 4 Extra - The Invention of Murder by Judith Flanders, 4. Adelaide Bartlett

A poisoning case shakes public faith in expert witnesses. Robert Glenister reads.

A sensational case of murder by poisoning puts medical science in the dock. Robert Glenister reads Judith Flanders' book.

Over the course of the nineteenth century, murder - in reality a rarity - became ubiquitous: transformed into novels, into broadsides and ballads, into theatre and melodrama. "The Invention of Murder" explores the Victorian fascination with deadly violence by relating some of the century's most gripping and gruesome cases and the ways in which they were commercially exploited.

As the century progressed, so did advances in medical knowledge and expert witnesses were soon playing a major part in criminal trials. This episode looks at the sensational case of Adelaide Bartlett, who was accused of murdering her husband with chloroform in 1886. Newspapers and magazines pored over lurid details of the Bartletts' marriage and the case was responsible for inspiring a rash of fiction.

By Judith Flanders.

Read by Robert Glenister.
Abridged by David Jackson Young.
Produced by Kirsteen Cameron.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2011.

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Robert Glenister reads Judith Flanders' book on the Victorian obsession with violent crime

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