Investigating the countless crimes that have bedeviled Islington throughout its history, this book explores the area’s transformation from idyllic village and middle-class pleasure ground, to unfashionable region of urban poverty, before its renaissance after the ravages of the Second World War. Here are the exploits of legendary highwayman Dick Turpin in Holloway, "Brides in the Bath" killer George Joseph Smith, wife-murderer Dr. Crippen, and the crime gangs of Clerkenwell. Brimming with tales of street robbery, bigamy, fraud, martyrdom, and terrorism, other less famous crimes are also included: the shooting of a policeman in the line of duty in Highbury; the Islington baby-farming scandal; the shocking murder of a mother and her four children in Pentonville; and a body in the cellar at Islington Green. The fashionable face of Islington today masks a sinister history of crime and murder that is sure to fascinate, captivate, and horrify everyone interested in the criminal history of this part of London.