Drawing on a wide selection of sources and illustrated with more than sixty photographs, this collection of grisly tales explores the darker side of the Lake District's past. It features the tale of the 'Keswick Imposter', who seduced and bigamously married a young lady of Buttermere before being hanged at Castile for fraud, a story which was the inspiration for Melvyn Bragg's The Maid of Buttermere. Also included is the account of an eighteenth-century gang who repeatedly tried to kidnap a wealthy (but alcoholic) landowner and marry him to a prostitute in order to lay their hands on his fortune. With murders, hangings, kidnap and violence, Murder & Crime in the Lake District is sure to captivate and horrify anyone interested in the criminal history of the area.