A prescription for murder : the Victorian serial killings of Dr. Thomas Neill Cream /

In the late 1800s, Dr. Thomas Neill Cream murdered seven women--some of them prostitutes, some seeking abortions. Plying his evil craft in both North America and London, Cream used strychnine in gelatin capsules to kill the women. Author McLaren, in an extensively footnoted explication, first details the murders and then establishes the social climate, suggesting in the process that Cream may have been responding to the general mood of the time, not just to his own insane impulses. During this era, women were attempting to control their fertility, and independence of thought and action were deemed a felony worthy of punishment by death. McLaren doesn't always define his terminology, which is frustrating, but he provides a fascinating, telling portrait of a time of shifting values and desires, a time when women, along with "idiots and children," were considered legal minors. (Reviewed Feb 15, 1993)0226560678Eloise Kinney

This perspective study by a professor of history at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, is less a true-crime story than a sociological analysis. Cream, imprisoned for murder in the U.S., emigrated to England on his release and there fatally poisoned at least four prostitutes in 1891 and 1892 with strychnine, for which he was hanged. McLaren views Cream as partly a madman and partly a product of the culture of his day, a society in which independent women began to demand rights. Their rebellion changed attitudes toward abortion and prostitution, but above all increased feelings of misogyny. The book provides a searching look at a murderer, London society of the 1890s, the demimonde and the police. Illustrations not seen by PW. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Everyone is familiar with the case of Jack the Ripper, who, in 1888, gained notoriety (and legendary status) through his horrific murders. Why have we never heard of Dr. Cream, who only a few years later committed the same crimes, and many more of them? McLaren (history, Univ. of Victoria, British Columbia) offers a strictly factual rundown of Cream's use of strychnine on his patients, prostitutes, and possibly even his wife during a 16-year period. Our interest in the case is then developed and deepened by the second part of the book, in which McLaren investigates the societal backdrop against which the murders took place. McLaren outlines the position of women, and specifically prostitutes, at the time and gives an excellent chapter on illegal abortion that sheds light on what women endured to end pregnancies (some of Cream's victims came to him for abortion purposes). This is an excellent addition to academic and larger public collections.-- Linda Smith, Mobil Corp. Lib., Fairfax, Va. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.