Bloody Scotland: Crimes that Shaped 19th-Century Scotland

In the nineteenth century, Scotland was celebrated as a land of misty glens, engineering brilliance, and inventive genius—but it was also a place of brutal murders, terrifying riots, child cruelty, bank robberies, and acid attacks.

Men and women alike were capable of shocking violence, and crime could strike anywhere: at home, on the road, or even at sea. Edinburgh, famed for its refined civility, saw poisonings and savage assaults; the dark alleys of industrial Glasgow and Dundee teemed wit...