Norman Adams – författare

Hangman''s Brae is a vividly written account of the blood-curdling crimes and brutal forms of punishment of north-east Scotland. The book explores the area''s underworld and features the grave-robbers, jail-breakers, rioters and other lawbreakers whose crimes led them to premature deaths at the end of a rope or at the not so delicate hands of The Maiden, a gruesome decapitating device predating the French guillotine. The stories of the men who enforced the law and meted out sentences to the ne''er-do-wells who broke it can be just as interesting and memorable as those of the criminals and Norman Adams introduces the reader to some of them. Here you''ll find some real characters such as the Aberdeenshire sheriff and criminal officer who always got his man - once spending two chilling nights chained to a brutal murderer and rapist. And it wasn''t just hangings that these men had to perform - their grisly work also involved execution by beheading and drowning, often with some witch-burning for good measure. The many true-crime cases in this book shed new light on just how violent and bloody the north-east of Scotland''s past was.

Blood and Granite is a chronicle of the most notorious homicides committed in Aberdeen over the last hundred years. Written by Norman Adams, a journalist who reported on many of the chilling crimes he now recalls so vividly, it is compelling reading for those who are too young to remember - and those who cannot forget. All are human tragedies from the dark side of life, including: • The grudge that ended in death in an East End pub when butcher James Harrow brutally stabbed two workmates in 1901. • The grisly discovery of a woman''s arm on the Torry shore in 1945 that signalled the start of a mystery which to this day remains unsolved. • The tragic love affair that led to the gallows in 1963 - the first hanging in Aberdeen for 106 years. • The double life of brilliant scientist Dr Brenda Page of Aberdeen University, battered to death in her flat in 1978. Her murder remains unsolved. • The bar