num_pages: 432
description: 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.In the span of fifteen years Dr. Thomas Neill Cream poisoned at least ten people in the United States Britain and Canada a death toll with almost no precedents. Structured around Creams London murder trial in 1892 when he was finally brought to justice The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream exposes the blind trust given to medical practitioners as well as the flawed detection methods bungled investigations corrupt officials and stifling morality of Victorian society that allowed Cream to prey on vulnerable and desperate women many of whom had turned to him for medical help.Dean Jobb vividly re-creates this largely forgotten historical account against the backdrop of the birth of modern policing and newly adopted forensic methods though most police departments still scoffed at using science to solve crimes. But then most police departments could hardly imagine that serial killers existedthe term was unknown at the time. As the Chicago Tribune wrote then Creams 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. 
language: English
title: The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream: The Hunt for a Victorian Era Serial Killer
publisher: Algonquin Books