Author: Joseph O’Neill
ISBN No: 978-1-903854-7
Review date: 16/12/2025
No of pages: 271
Publisher: Milo Books
Year of publication: 11/09/2012
Brief:
A tale of a city of knife-carrying gangs, swindles and drunken violence.
Every city gets the criminals it deserves. Manchester in the second half of the 19th century was no exception. So begins Crime City by Joseph O’Neill. It’s a grim yet fascinating tour of a squalid under-world of pubs and pawnshops, conmen and economic migrants (the Irish, in this case), and uniformed officers and detectives, and polite society, trying to keep a lid on it all. O’Neill draws parallels with today. It’s a myth that the Victorian courts and prisons (like the then ultra-modern Strangeways) were harsh; magistrates seemed to regard assaults on police as an ‘occupational hazard’. There truly appears nothing new under the sun – burglars (known as cracksmen) robbed homes and lock-up shops, thanks to inside information from servants and tradesmen. An ideal and entertaining read if you are on a train for a couple of hours … to Manchester?!
