The Goatfell Murder: Near the summit of Goatfell, the body of Edwin Robert Rose was found stuffed under a granite boulder on 28 July 1889. He was a 32-year-old builder’s clerk from London who had last been seen alive on the mountain a fortnight before. His head and face had been brutally smashed, probably by rocks. The last person seen in his company, a 26-year-old engineering worker known as John Annandale, was nowhere to be found. Annandale’s real name was John Watson Laurie, a pattern maker for a Glasgow locomotive firm. He was caught by police two months later and at the end of a two-day trial under an impatient judge he was found guilty of murder, despite the lack of forensic evidence or any witnesses to the deed. But was there a miscarriage of justice?
The Ardlamont Mystery: Alfred John Monson began working as a gentleman’s tutor for the Hambrough family in 1891. In 1893 he took the lease on the Ardlamont estate in Argyll for the shooting season. On 10 August he took Windsor Dudley Cecil Hambrough, his 20-year-old pupil, for a day’s hunting in an area of woodland. A third man joined them, Edward Scott, a friend of Monson. Estate workers heard a shot, then saw Monson and Scott running to Ardlamont House carrying the guns. Monson alleged that Hambrough had shot himself in the head by accident while climbing a fence. But with very large insurance policies having been taken out less than a week before…
John Donald Merrett: He was tried for the murder of his mother, Bertha Merrett. It was at first believed that she had committed suicide – but it was discovered that Merrett had been defrauding her. His defence was skilful and the Jury returned a verdict of “Not Proven”. Not proven – but was he innocent?
The Portencross Murder: Mary Gunn, her sister Jessie McLaren and her sister’s husband Alex McLaren were enjoying a quiet evening at an isolated cottage when six shoots were fired. Jessie and Alex were wounded – but Mary was dead. The family lived quietly; and were considered to be ‘well-off’ in the locality. The only clues were six footprints, a few spent bullets and evidence that a stranger had been asking the way to Portencross…
