Book excerpt: Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in and Around Durham spans four centuries, with over fifty terrible tales of man's inhumanity to man, which are related in the pages of this book. In the early centuries superstition and ignorance were often the means by which justice was meted out. If it was believed that a crime had taken place, a person could be tried, condemned and hanged by the side of the road on nothing more than the statement of a neighbor. The nineteenth century saw the development of the coal industry. This brought thousands of impoverished men looking for work. Sadly , the wages were often spent on alcohol and women were often nothing more than punching bags for the drunken abusive husbands as is the case of Dorothy Wilthew who was murdered at Jarrow by her husband after years of abuse. Other cases include; Joseph Hutchinson who murdered his brother and father at Sedgefield later he was found to be insane, a child was kidnapped and later murdered by Isabella Thompson at Bishop Auckland and Maria Fitzmmons was found stabbed to death in Sunderland in 1869 it was to be 13 years before her killer, Thomas Fury, was convicted of the crime . Take a journey into the darker and unknown side of your area as you read Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in and Around Durham.