The Murder of Bessie Sheppard
A new local history book
By Dave Marshall
Some forty years ago an interest I had in the story of Bessie Sheppard blew up into a full fledged obsession. it's finally culminated in a new book just published via Amazon.co.uk this week.
My intentions were threefold.
Firstly I wanted to make public as much information as there was on the event as, initially, despite her relative notoriety, there was a dearth of fact.
Secondly, it bothered me that no-one ever presented a defence for the man hanged in Nottingham for the deed, one Charles Rotherham. There was sufficient data available, together with reconstructions of the journeys of the main participants, to construct a perfectly valid defence.
Thirdly, Bess, the girl, had been forgotten. She belonged to nobody. I wanted to trace whomever I could down the years following her murder and hand her story over to a family that would cherish her for ever. This search proved successful and took me to locations I could never have dreamed of.
Finally, my research led me to believe there was an alternate explanation for her death, one not found in any of the available existing literature.
If you read the book, I hope you enjoy it and Bess can be returned to her real place in history, a young girl no longer just forgotten.