Edinburgh exhibition is rogues gallery of yesteryear Scotland
THESE are the faces of people on the wrong side of the law in Victorian and Edwardian Scotland.
Striking mugshots from 1870 to 1917 go on display for the first time tomorrow
Striking mugshots from 1870 to 1917 go on display for the first time tomorrow.
The rogues gallery includes killers, fraudsters, embezzlers and petty thieves.
Among the case files on show are the documents relating to famous Victorian poisoner Eugene Marie Chantrelle, who inspired Robert Louis Stevenson’s monstrous tale of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
The Frenchman was a tutor at the private Newington Academy in Edinburgh when he started a relationship with one of his pupils, Elizabeth Davy.
Robert Trotter
Our archivists have created a compelling portrait of Scotland’s developing criminal justice system
He married her after she turned 16.
just two months before the first of their four children was born.
However, a decade into the abusive marriage she was discovered unconscious in her bed and later died.
It later emerged he had taken out a £1,000 life insurance policy against her accidental death. Suspicion grew and he was arrested following her funeral.
Bridget Duffy
His conviction rested largely on the fact opium was found in vomit on her nightgown.
Chantrelle – whom the author had met at the home of Stevenson’s old French master, Victor Richon – was hanged at the age of 44 still protesting his innocence.
The files cover the case of Oscar Slater, convicted of killing an 83-year-old Glasgow spinster in 1908.
The conviction was later quashed and he got £6,000 – around £350,000 in today’s money – in compensation.
Fanny Parker being escorted from Ayr Sheriff Court
In one picture, suffragette Fanny Parker, alias Janet Arthur, is seen being escorted from Ayr Sheriff Court by police.
The niece of Lord Kitchener was accused of trying to burn down Robert Burns’ cottage in Alloway in 1914.
The free exhibition runs until December 1 at the National Records of Scotland in Princes Street, Edinburgh.
Tim Ellis of NRS, said: “Our archivists have created a compelling portrait of Scotland’s developing criminal justice system.”