Crimes That Changed the World

 Crimes That Changed the World

Reviewed By  Nan van Dissel       January 12, 2017

 

Author  Alan Whiticker

Distributor:      New Holland Publishers
ISBN:                 
Publisher:         New Holland Publishers
Release Date:   November 2016  

   Website:   http:/www.newhollandpublishers.com

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Every hour of everyday a crime is committed somewhere in the world which impacts not only on the community in which it is perpetrated, but on the world at large. Some of these grave offenses have resulted in political, environmental or social change, while others have caused new laws to be enacted or old ones to be amended. But in all cases, life for the victims and their communities will never be the same!

True crime writer of note, Alan Whiticker has selected 100 of these crimes which have been committed over the last 100 years to include in his latest book, ‘Crimes that Changed the World’; beginning with the assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914 and concluding with the Paris Attacks in 2015. This book explores a wide range of crimes in every region of the world; kidnappings, bombings, suicides, hijackings, massacres, conspiracy to defraud and murders. He has selected crimes, which have generally received worldwide recognition in News broadcasts, films (TV miniseries) or books; thus remembered today for their social and cultural impact. This work also tracks the development of crime detection and perpetrator identification with the development of computer and DNA technology along with improved policing methods.

Almost all of the crimes included in this book have been dissected and explored in greater detail in other works; particularly on the internet’s YouTube. However, this book has the advantage that it is well structured in an easy to read chronological format.  Each of the crimes is illustrated by relevant photos related in three pages with a ‘Fact File’, ‘References’ and generally has a ‘Historical and Social Significance’ section, guiding the reader to the nub of the offence and its impact on others. By organizing the crimes sequentially, the reader is provided with a variety of offences rather than having a diet of one genre of crime before moving onto another. To aid the reader’s selection of crimes of interest rather than reading the book from cover to cover, the author has included an excellent chronological index at the front of this volume. 

Avid true crime readers may question why certain crimes were included and others omitted; e.g. why several USA mass murderers were included but the Tiananmen Square Massacre and Boston Marathon Bombing were not. The author has justified his selection by explaining that ‘those selected should be remembered, so that we can, in some small way, understand and learn from them’. Each of the crimes selected certainly does this!

This is a must read for all True Crime readers as it also provides a reference to many significant events of the last 100 years. It offers an easy guide for further investigation and understating as to ‘why’ they occurred. This excellent collection provides many hours of thought provoking reading.

Crime, Fiction, Non Fiction