The True Story of a Murderous Quaker in The Peculiar Case of the Electric Constable
John Tawell was a troubled Quaker who ended up being kicked out of the church when he was caught in a forgery scheme. Usually a forger would end up hanged, but John was lucky because instead he was sent to Australia where he made a fortune. Years later, he returned a rich man to England, but his days of breaking the law were not over.A woman is murdered and witnesses identified a Quaker as the last person leaving the victim’s home. He boarded a train that left before he could be stopped. In an earlier time the suspect’s trail would have been lost, but in 1845 new technologies were emerging and one of them was the telegraph. The authorities wired ahead and were able to continue following the Quaker after he reached his destination and identified him. It was John.
The Peculiar Case of the Electric Constable: A True Tale of Passion, Poison & Pursuit by Carol Baxter is the twisted true tale of a John who was a man of contrasts from his religious beliefs to a killer of a young woman. Who was John- cold blooded killer or just a fallen man? This a story of many firsts from the type of poison used to telegraphs, but it is still about lies, lust, and opportunity.
