Crimes of Passion: An Unblinking Look at Murderous Love

Louis A. Knafla is a professor of history at the University of Calgary,
the co-editor of Law, Society, and the State: Essays in Modern Legal
History, and the author of Lords of the Western Bench.

In his second major work of nonfiction, the author of the Benny
Cooperman mysteries explores 25 infamous and unsolved crimes of passion
that took place in the 19th and 20th centuries in countries ranging from
England and France to Canada, the United States, and New Zealand. The
book is organized into 12 chapters, with 11 cases presented in the last
two chapters. Receiving extended treatment are Yvonne Chevallier’s
shooting of her war-hero husband Dr. Pierre in Orléans in 1951 and
Henriette Caillaux’s shooting of the editor of Le Figaro in Paris in
1914. The more famous case studies include Lizzie Borden, Dr. Hawley
Crippen, Lorena Bobbitt, O.J. Simpson, and Ruth Ellis (the last woman to
be hanged in Britain).

The author’s perspective is that of a social historian. How people
behave in exceptional circumstances, he believes, tells us much about
the larger society. Gender is a major factor in the selection of cases,
and Engel is concerned with how male and female accused were treated
differently in the criminal prosecutions. He concludes that whatever
their gender, these perpetrators were are not ordinary criminals, but
rather individuals wrapped up in “familial love.” Two other
conclusions: the doctrine of provocation should be abolished in murder
cases; and there is continuing unfairness in criminal justice systems.
Engel’s engrossing book is nicely illustrated and punctuated with
witticisms.