A GRIM catalogue of killings and suspicious deaths that have darkened 130 years of Southport history is laid bare in a new book.
From a fatal brawl outside The Shakespeare Hotel in 1870 to the horrific murder of two men in Derby Road in 2002, author Geoff Wright explores 10 infamous episodes in Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths Around Southport.
Together these represent part of the "darker side of the 'sleepy' holiday resort", writes the local historian and former member of the Southport Visiter editorial team.

'Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths Around Southport' has been written by former 'Southport Visiter' editorial staff member Geoff Wright

While his case studies are united by a common thread of violence, Mr Wright draws out the unique human stories lying within each.
And although some of the murders recounted in the book are mainly of local infamy, others have captivated a national and even international media audience.
Firmly in the latter category is the 1947 case of the suave Dr Robert Clements, who murdered his fourth wife, Amy Victoria, before committing suicide.
This was highlighted by a past author as representing "one of the classic examples of murder by poison".
While never actually brought to trial, Dr Clements was found by a Southport inquest jury to have murdered Amy Victoria at their luxury Promenade flat.

The jurors outside Southport Magistrates' Court in the infamous Dr Clements murder case of 1947

The doctor and socialite, who had been regularly photographed for the pages of the Visiter during the war years, also allegedly poisoned his previous three, wealthy wives, recounts Mr Wright.
A half-century after the Clements case, it was the death of another Southport woman at the hands of her husband that stands as what Mr Wright describes as "the most horrific crime to hit the resort".
That was the murder of 21- year-old mother-of-two Lynsey Quy by her then 24-year-old unemployed husband Mitchell Quy in December, 1998.
Mitchell claimed Lynsey had run away from their home in Stamford Road, Birkdale, on Christmas Day.
Detectives honed in on the former croupier as their prime suspect, yet during a period of more than a year he managed to evade being charged with her murder.

Mitchell Quy, who eventually pleaded guilty to Lynsey's murder, photographed making a false appeal for her return

He was even able to make a chilling on-screen denial of the crime in an interview with presenters Richard Madeley and Judy Finnegan on ITV's This Morning. Finally, in June 2000, Mitchell was charged with murder and, days later, Lynsey's devastated parents were told of the discovery of her dismembered body.

Lynsey Quy, a former Ainsdale High student who was murdered in 1998

Mitchell was eventually sentenced to life imprisonment - and was branded "evil" by trial judge Mr Justice Brian Leveson for how he had told Lynsey's children their mother had abandoned them.
Packed with painstaking archival research and a wealth of photographs, Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths Around Southport provides a fascinating read - although a sometimes deeply unsettling one.
A further volume of Foul Deeds, featuring more 19th century murders, is set to appear next year.
Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths Around Southport is available now, priced £10.99.

PARTLY due to the passage of time, not all of the incidents covered by Geoff Wright are now so widely remembered as the murder of Lynsey Quy.
One such case was the killing of 69- year-old Maura McAndrew in her Derby Road bedsit in 1971, by her then 25-year-old neighbour, Brendan Leech.
During Leech's murder trial, prosecuting counsel Mr Michael Maguire stated that a "religious war of words" had escalated to the point that Leech strangled Miss McAndrew with the flex of her electric kettle.
While Leech and Mitchell Quy ended up behind bars, Southport has seen macabre cases in which justice has not been served.
The brutal 1986 murder of Nigel Bostock in his home in Abram's Fold, Banks, is described by Mr Wright as "probably the most baffling murder mystery in Southport's history".

Nigel Bostock, whose 1986 murder remains unsolved

The owner of a Wesley Street shoe store, Mr Bostock was found dead in his bathtub after being strangled and stabbed following his hosting of a Christmas party.
Despite more than 5,000 people being interviewed and more than 2,000 lines of enquiry, the case today remains unsolved.
As recently as March 2005 a man was arrested after he failed to volunteer a DNA sample being taken as part of the investigation into Mr Bostock's death.

• Post to:
•  del.icio.us
•  Digg
•  Newsvine
•  Nowpublic
•  Reddit