New Scotland Yard, the headquarters of London's Metropolitan Police, also houses the Black Museum, a unique collection of exhibits, photographs and other items connected with some of the most famous crimes and criminals of the last century. 24 of those crimes, committed between 1835 and 1985, deal with murder, and these are the murders that are described in this book. Their case histories, fully detailed herein, present a terrible but compelling picture not only of the crimes themselves and of the criminals and their punishments, but also of changing social conditions and police advances in the detection of crime. Although the Black Museum is closed to the public, Gordon Honeycombe was given privileged access to its records and its secrets. This book, which includes murders, manslaughters and murderers not described in his previous book, Murders of the Black Museum, contains detailed and factual accounts of the crimes and characters of such notorious murderers as William Palmer, Charles Pearce, John Lee, George Chapman, Ruth Ellis, Donald Neilson (the Black Panther) and Dennis Nilsen.