Annal:1995 Gold Dagger Award for Nonfiction
From AwardAnnals
Results of the Dagger Award in the year 1995. For a ranked list of books, try an honor roll:
- Gold Dagger Award for Nonfiction
- Nonfiction books
- Nonfiction authors
- Mystery/Suspense books
- Mystery/Suspense authors.
Hay Poisoner: Herbert R. Armstrong (Dead Not Buried)
- 1995 Dagger-Nonfiction winner
- Score: 10.45
“Dead not buried” tells the true story surrounding the case of Major Herbert Rowse Armstrong who, the author believes, was hanged for a murder he did not commit. Major Armstrong was accused of attempting to poison a rival solicitor, Oswald Martin, by handing him a scone containing arsenic. When Mrs Armstrong died her body was found to contain arsenic and it was on the basis of this circumstantial evidence that Major Armstrong was tried for her murder. In 1922 he was executed, protesting his innocence.
His guilt was accepted by all except those of his friends in the town of Hay-on-Wye who knew him as a decent man. Until now, every publication about the case has been based on the assumption that he was guilty and deserved the supreme penalty inflicted upon him. The Crown case was presented by the Attorney General who prosecuted dishonestly. The DPP had influenced his medical team, led by Sir William Willcox and Dr Bernard Spilsbury, and the trial was conducted by Justice Darling, who as a hanging judge, was a disgrace to the High Court bench.
Martin Beales presents evidence which…
