Broadmoor Revealed: Victorian Crime and the Lunatic Asylum

by Mark Stevens

Overview

“A fascinating insight into the country’s most famous asylum for criminals” which reveals Victorian England’s care and management of the mentally ill (Your Family Tree).

On 27 May 1863, three coaches pulled up at the gates of a new asylum, built amongst the tall, dense pines of Windsor Forest. Broadmoor’s first patients had arrived.

In Broadmoor Revealed, Mark Stevens writes about what life was like for the criminally insane, over one hundred years ago. From fresh research into the Broadmoor archives, Mark has uncovered the lost lives of patients whose mental illnesses led them to become involved in crime.

Discover the five women who went on to become mothers in Broadmoor, giving birth to new life when three of them had previously taken it. Find out how several Victorian immigrants ended their hopeful journeys to England in madness and disaster. And follow the numerous escapes, actual and attempted, as the first doctors tried to assert control over the residents.

As well as bringing the lives of forgotten patients to light, this thrilling book reveals new perspectives on some of the hospital’s most famous Victorian residents: Edward Oxford, the bar boy who shot at Queen Victoria. Richard Dadd, the brilliant artist and murderer of his own father. William Chester Minor, veteran of the American Civil War who went on to play a key part in the first Oxford English Dictionary. Christiana Edmunds, The Chocolate Cream Poisoner and frustrated lover from Brighton.

“Detailed and thoughtful.” —Times Literary Supplement

“It challenges preconceptions about mental illness and public reaction to shocking crimes.” —Bracknell Forest Standard

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781783462360
Publisher:	Pen & Sword Books Limited
Publication date:	01/24/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	363,749
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Mark Stevens is Senior Archivist at Berkshire Record Office, responsible for looking after the Broadmoor Asylum archives.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements vi

Preface viii

1 Broadmoor Hospital: By Way of Introduction 1

2 Edward Oxford: Shooting at Royalty 26

3 Richard Dadd: Artist of Repute 36

4 William Chester Minor: Man of Words and Letters 50

5 Broadmoor's International Brigade 64

6 Christiana Edmunds: The Venus of Broadmoor 93

7 Broadmoor Babies 108

8 Escape from Broadmoor 128

9 Only Passing Through 161

10 Sources 168

Index 174