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Sir Bernard Spilsbury was tall, strikingly handsome, and always immaculately tailored. He was adored by judges, policemen, and prosecuting barristers. Cabinet ministers consulted him. In the 1920s and ‘30s his name was a household word, up there with Greta Garbo, Franklin Roosevelt, and Mussolini. The 1910 Crippen trial led on to Brides in the Bath, Bywaters and Thompson, Major Armstrong, the Blazing Car, and Brighton Trunk murders. Spilsbury’s extraordinary career also took in investigations into the R101 airship disaster and a major role in Operation Mincemeat, the “Man Who Never Was” deception, which saved thousands of Allied lives in World War II. Yet a few years later, he would commit suicide in bizarre circumstances. Just a handful of people attended his bleak cremation in 1947.
Spilsbury is still widely regarded as the father of modern pathology. In 2004, a Blue Plaque was put up in London to celebrate “the most brilliant scientific detective of all time.” Andrew Rose has uncovered the reality behind a carefully-crafted myth. Spilsbury did much to bring forensic medicine to the heart of the trial process, but this “prima donna, increasingly thought of as a bit of a rogue” created a reputation of infallibility. In murder cases, he almost invariably appeared for the prosecution. His evidence could – quite literally – be lethal.
Using previously untapped sources, Andrew Rose has secured the release of official files originally closed for 100 years. New information starkly undermines several controversial murder verdicts, some of which led to execution. Light has also been thrown on Spilsbury’s background and his uneven relationship with the Establishment. Rose has sought out people who knew Spilsbury, who had studied under him, and who had heard him testify in court. He has explored obscure newspaper reportage and hunted down unpublished material, gaining access to letters, diaries, and other rare Spilsbury memorabilia. In Lethal Witness, Andrew Rose tells the story of this strange, enigmatic, but ultimately remarkable personality
book reviews
- Spectator
"Highly readable." - Independent
“this accomplished biography… Lethal Witness will be a guilty pleasure for aficionados of the era in which body parts were wrapped up in paper and string, of Dr Crippen and the Brighton Trunk Murders. It is more than period drama, though. It is an impressive exploration of a chapter in a longer story, of courtroom science as a drama of authority, that is far from over.” - Law Gazette
“...a fine job, not only with Spilsbury’s court appearances but with what passed as his personal life… the thoroughly entertaining Lethal Witness should be compulsory reading for anyone who still believes in the infallibility of the expert.” - Daily Telegraph
“…this splendidly well-written and constructed book….”
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