Julia Agrippina, also referred to as Agrippina the Younger, was Roman empress from AD 49 to 54, the fourth wife and niece of emperor Claudius, and the mother of Nero.
Sir Thomas Overbury was an English poet and essayist, also known for being the victim of a murder which led to a scandalous trial. His poem A Wife, which depicted the virtues that a young man should demand of a woman, played a large role in the events that precipitated his murder.
Graham Frederick Young, also known as the Teacup Poisoner, was an English serial killer who murdered his victims via poison.
Anthony Berkeley Cox was an English crime writer. He wrote under several pen-names, including Francis Iles, Anthony Berkeley and A. Monmouth Platts.
Scribonia was the second wife of Octavian, later the Roman Emperor Augustus, and the mother of his only biological child, Julia the Elder. Through this daughter, she was the mother-in-law of the Emperor Tiberius, great-grandmother of the Emperor Caligula and Empress Agrippina the Younger, and great-great-grandmother of the Emperor Nero.
Thomas Neill Cream, also known as the Lambeth Poisoner, was a Scottish-Canadian medical doctor and serial killer who poisoned his victims with strychnine. Cream murdered up to ten people in three countries, targeting mostly lower-class women, sex workers and pregnant women seeking abortions. He was convicted and sentenced to death, and was hanged on 15 November 1892.
The 12.30 from Croydon is a detective novel by Freeman Wills Crofts first published in 1934. It is about a murder which is committed during a flight over the English Channel. The identity of the killer is revealed quite early in the book, and the reader can watch the preparations for the crime and how the murderer tries to cover up his tracks. The final chapters of the novel are set in a courtroom and during a private function at a hotel, where a résumé of the whole case is given in front of a small group of police detectives, solicitors, and barristers.
Madeleine Hamilton Smith was a 19th-century Glasgow socialite who was the accused in a sensational murder trial in Scotland in 1857.
A Murder Is Announced is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in June 1950 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in the same month. The UK edition sold for eight shillings and sixpence (8/6) and the US edition at $2.50.
Malice aforethought is the "premeditation" or "predetermination" required as an element of some crimes in some jurisdictions and a unique element for first-degree or aggravated murder in a few. Insofar as the term is still in use, it has a technical meaning that has changed substantially over time.
The Law and the Lady is a detective story, and sensation novel published in 1875 by Wilkie Collins. It is not quite as sensational in style as The Moonstone and The Woman in White.
Daisy Louisa C. de Melker, simply known as Daisy de Melker, was a South African nurse who was accused of poisoning two husbands with strychnine for their life insurance money; all she was found guilty of, however, was poisoning her only son with arsenic for reasons which are still unclear. De Melker is the second woman to have been hanged in South African criminal history.
Madeleine is a 1950 British period film noir directed by David Lean, based on a true story of Madeleine Smith, a young Glasgow woman from a wealthy family who was tried in 1857 for the murder of her lover, Emile L'Angelier. The trial was much publicised in the newspapers of the day and labelled "the trial of the century". Lean's adaptation of the story starred his wife, Ann Todd, with Ivan Desny as her character's French lover. Norman Wooland played the respectable suitor and Leslie Banks the authoritarian father, both of whom are unaware of Madeleine's secret life. Lean made the film primarily as a "wedding present" to Todd, who had previously played the role onstage. He was never satisfied with the film and cited it as his least favourite feature-length movie.
Jeg elsket Tiberius is a 1959 romance novel by Elisabeth Dored. It was first translated into English by Naomi Walford in Great Britain by Methuen and United States by Pantheon Books in 1963 under the name I Loved Tiberius. The novel was written as a careful reappraisal of the contemporary sources, placing Julia and Tiberius in a more positive light. The novel is set in 1st century BC Rome, centred on Julia the Elder, the daughter of Augustus and her life right up until her death. The novel begins with Julia's birth and her mother being forbidden to see her. The plot is mainly focused on Julia's love life, notably her relationship with her stepbrother, Tiberius.
Malice Aforethought is a 2005 ITV drama based on Anthony Berkeley Cox’s 1931 novel of the same name, made by Granada Television. There was an earlier BBC television adaptation of this novel in 1979.
Christiana Edmunds was an English murderer, popularly known as the "Chocolate Cream Killer", who carried out a series of poisonings in Brighton during the early 1870s. Edmunds purchased confectionery from a local shop and laced the sweets with strychnine before returning them to be sold to unsuspecting members of the public. Her actions resulted in several people becoming seriously ill, and at least one death. Arrested and put on trial, Edmunds was initially sentenced to death. However, this was later commuted to life imprisonment. She spent the rest of her life at the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, dying there in 1907.
Mrs. Anne Turner, known as Mistress Anne Turner, was the widow of a respectable London doctor who was hanged at Tyburn for her role in the famous 1613 poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury referenced in the plays A New Trick to Cheat the Devil, The Widow, The World Tossed at Tennis and The City Nightcap.
Madeleine Férat is an 1868 novel by the French writer Émile Zola. It was Zola's fourth novel, written immediately after Thérèse Raquin, which had been Zola's first commercial and artistic success. It was published in 1868, first under the title La Honte in serial form, then in volume under the title Madeleine Férat by Albert Lacroix, with a dedication to the painter Manet. It is the fictionalised version of a play which had not been accepted.
The Chianti Flask is a 1934 mystery romance novel by the British writer Marie Belloc Lowndes. It was originally published by Heinemann in London and Longman in New York. It was In 2021 it was republished as part of the British Library's Crime Classics series. It was one of several novel in which she realistically depicted trials along with The Terriford Mystery and Letty Lynton.
Malice Aforethought is a 1979 BBC TV adaptation of the novel of the same name. It is a four-part serial It later aired in 1981 when it was featured in the US PBS series, Mystery!, introduced by Vincent Price. It was praised as a faithful adaptation, which retained the atmosphere and 1920s setting of the book. Cheryl Campbell was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Actress for her role as Madeleine Cranmere, along with her performance in Testament of Youth, winning for the latter at the 1980 Baftas.
