The Tragic and Transgendered World of Margaret Allen

The reason the transgendered man, Margaret 'Bill' Allen became a murderer has confounded criminologists. Since his execution at Strangeways Prison in January 1949 for the brutal murder of the eccentric Nancy Ellen Chadwick, sociologists (particularly those working in the sociology of deviance) and those in the behavioural sciences, such as psychologists and psychiatrists as well as lay authors have attempted to understand why. In this short book, a transgendered woman herself, Molly Cutpurse attempts to cast some new and personal light on what has become known as a tragic and misunderstood case. Of Bill's guilt, there is no doubt. But upon examining the details of his life, there remains a degree of shame over the way he was treated at his trial and after in prison, and of the lack of mercy afforded to him.