David James Smith

A sensitive and definitive account, The Sleep of Reason achieves a unique understanding of the James Bulger case, and comes as close as may ever be possible to explaining how two ten-year-olds could kill.

Some people, even today, think that Dr. Crippen was wrongly convicted and should never have been hanged for the murder of his wife, Belle Elmore. The incomplete remains found in the basement of 39 Hilldrop Crescent on Wednesday 13th July, 1910 were not enough for an absolute identification, although given that Crippen along with his lover, Ethel Le Neve, had apparently fled by boat to Canada,...

Nelson Mandela is well-known throughout the world as a heroic leader who symbolizes freedom and moral authority. He is fixed in the public mind as the world's elder statesman--the gray-haired man with a kindly smile who spent 27 years in prison before becoming the first black president in South Africa....

Friday, February 12, 1993. Two outwardly unremarkable ten-year-old boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, began their day playing truant and ended it running an errand for a local video shop. In between they abducted and killed the toddler James Bulger.