The Bag
Murder on the Mersey
Amazing news: my degree has been conferred. I am OFFICIALLY Dr Sophie Michell and my thesis is available to read. You know, if you want to. I will be writing a book… I’ll keep you informed…
Yesterday, I had a great day at the Society for the Social History of Medicine’s annual conference. I put together a panel on managing unwanted pregnancy with CRIME THROUGH TIME and Dr Rachel Dixon and we depressed everyone with stories of abortion and infanticide in the nineteenth century. My paper came out of many rants about the long shadow of the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act and I am really pleased that the Crime and Policing Act - which only came into effect two months ago - has decriminalised abortion. However, the abortion clauses of the 1861 Act have not been repealed. This is not “old news”.
My next Friday Murder, on 17th July, will be FREE TO READ as an end of term treat, and it’s all about managing illegitimacy in the nineteenth century.
This week’s story concerns the murder of a legitimate child, for no clear reason at all. It is unbearably horrible, and took place in Liverpool in 1891. Content warning for child murder.
If you can’t afford to subscribe, get in touch. If you don’t want to give Substack money, an abbreviated version of this story is available on my bluesky profile.
