23 SEPTEMBER 1960, Page 38

It's A Crime

of British murders, murderers and murder to of this century, with a few counsel and ludicii given an air of some sort of scholarship by be„th arranged dictionary-wise, alphabetically, t,'1, cross-references and an imposing bibliograPP0 But the prose is clotted with such clich65.0 'remembered in the halls of infamy,' and a'flor feeble facetiousness (of John George Haigh, ,e; instance: 'Being a killer who notched up corP,ne with terrifying facility, he was liable to men down in a bath of sulphuric acid, if one posse any loose capital . . .'), and the scholarship d'r, not stretch so far as to spell 'aircraftman. c°(.5 rectly, or to give the name of Jeannie 133slefoi protector, who was so important in her trial, murder, or to include Ronald True.