The Killing of Lord George

Starred review from January 16, 2023
Was an innocent man falsely suspected of a 1911 murder? Journalist Shaw (The First Showman: The Extraordinary Mr. Astley, The Englishman Who Invented the Modern Circus) convincingly maintains that 26-year-old Herbert Cooper did not kill “Lord” George Sanger, who, for more than 50 years, “was Britain’s most popular and most successful entertainer.” Through detailed analysis of records that were sealed for more than a century, Shaw brings the crime to life. Cooper had served as Sanger’s personal attendant for years but had fallen out of favor with his employer for an unknown reason. On Nov. 28, 1911, the police were summoned to the Sanger residence in London’s Finchley district, where Arthur Jackson, who had partially replaced Cooper, accused Cooper of killing Sanger with an axe. The coroner ruled that the 85-year-old Sanger died from being “battered to death with a hatchet.” Cooper’s guilt was universally accepted after he died by suicide. The evidence Shaw uncovered casts serious doubt on almost every aspect of the official verdict, including Sanger’s cause of death. Shaw alternates sections about the murder inquiry with ones about Sanger’s life, both creating sympathy for him and heightening tension. This brilliant reconstruction of a cause célèbre will fascinate true crime buffs.