Close and Deadly

In 1923, Philip Murray went to the gallows for a brutal murder in Jamaica Street, thanks to a local prostitute turning King's evidence. oIn the late 1970s, two girls went missing from the World's End pub never to be seen alive again -case unsolved. oIn the late 1990s a young woman met a terrifying end in South Clerk Street - case unsolved. These horrendous crimes have one thing in common. They all happened in Edinburgh. Edinburgh has a famously blood thirsty history. In centuries past the High Street ran with gore as clansmen battled to the death, and criminals were gruesomely hung, drawn and quartered at the Tolbooth. Lesser known, however, are the terrible crimes that have been committed in the last century. In 1954 Donald Merrett walked free after cold-bloodedly murdering his mother, only to return in the 1970s under an assumed name and kill again. A grim pattern followed by Donald Forbes who, acquitted of a terrible murder in 1958, returned to Edinburgh 40 years later to continue his rein of terror in another death. Edinburgh's Murder Mile offers a fascinating selection of the most notorious murders of the last century within a mile radius of Edinburgh's famous Princes Street. Alanna Knight - one of Edinburgh's favourite crime authors - revisits the crime scenes and unravels the fascinating details of the police investigations, posing new questions and offering a new perspective on famous and lesser known cases. Join her on a chilling, unforgettable trip through the damp, shadowy secrets of Edinburgh's streets.