The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream
Book Feature - The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream by Dean Jobb
HBL Note: This story is too crazy not to share. Dr. Thomas Neill Cream was a doctor in the late 1800s who used his knowledge of poisons, and the trust of unsuspecting female patients, to murder as many as ten people across three countries. If you enjoyed reading Sarah Penner’s THE LOST APOTHECARY, then you’ll be intrigued and horrified to read this real-life account of Dr. Cream’s life and how he was able to get away with murder time and time again. Scroll down to read more.
Book Feature - The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream by Dean Jobb
From the publisher:
“When a doctor does go wrong he is the first of criminals,” Sherlock Holmes observed during one of his most baffling investigations. “He has nerve and he has knowledge.” Incredibly, at the time these words appeared in print, a real-life Victorian era doctor was well on his way to becoming one of the most prolific serial killers of his time. Dr. Cream had been a suspect in the deaths of two women in Canada and had killed as many as four people in Chicago, where he spent time in Joliet Prison but was released, arriving in London in 1891. There, he began using his signature method, pills laced with strychnine, to stalk and kill women. Jobb transports readers to the late nineteenth century as Scotland Yard tracks Dr. Cream’s movements through Canada and Chicago and finally to London, where new investigative tools called forensics were just coming into use and most investigators could hardly imagine that serial killers existed—the term was unknown. As the Chicago Tribune wrote, Dr. Cream’s crimes marked the emergence of a new breed of killer: one who operated without motive or remorse, who “murdered simply for the sake of murder.”
