FROM crimes of passion in leafy suburbs to police slayings in quiet country lanes, Essex has a long history of murder and iniquity.

Writer Linda Stratmann, 63, is fascinated by the county’s criminal past and has just released her second book on the subject, More Essex Murders.

The book ranges across Essex, exploring the violent crimes that made headlines in previous centuries and continue to intrigue and perplex to this day.

Two of the book's most intriguing cases take place in Highams Park and Stapleford Abbots.

Mrs Stratmann, who lives in Hatherley Road, Walthamstow, said she first became intrigued by the darker side of human nature after watching crime series with her mother growing up.

This inspired her to study psychology at university and after a career in the civil service devoted herself to exploring Essex's grisly past.

Mrs Stratmann said: “I am fascinated by crime because it provides an insight in to human nature, in to why people do things.

“I am particularly interested in crimes where there is a twist and there are so many of them in Essex, there are just so many strange and intriguing cases."

Before writing the book Mrs Stratmann spent months looking through dusty archives to find those cases with the element of mystery and the unexpected that intrigue her most.

She said: “Sometimes when I am looking through the National Archives at material from old cases there is a real sense of excitement as I know that I am the first person to look at the material for decades.”

“At first the Highams park case started off looking like a quite ordinary murder. In 1922 a well to-do-man, Mr George Stanley Grimshaw, had been violently attacked in the park and robbed.

“It was then revealed though that he had been seeing a woman half his age, Elsie Yeldham, who police discovered living in a barn with a man she had married.

“This respectable man had a second life, unknown to his wife and family and the woman he was having an affair with had lured Mr Grimshaw in to Highams Park where her soon-to-be husband killed him and stole his watch and money.

“I actually managed to find where Mr Grimshaw was buried in Walthamstow Cemetery."

The second case, in which a police officer was shot dead by armed robbers in Stapleford Abbot, continues to baffle experts.

“In 1927, in a quiet country lane, PC George Gutteridge, was found shot dead”, said Mrs Stratmann.

Frederick Guy Browne and William Henry Kennedy, both hardened criminals, were arrested. They were found guilty of having stolen a car and killed PC Gutteridge when he stopped them. Both were hung.

However, controversy still remains over the guilt of Browne.

“Browne actually denied he was there, police found the gun that was used in his home but he said he was given it by Kennedy after the murder. Kennedy admitted he was there but there is no firm evidence linking Browne to the scene.”

Mrs Stratmann has now turned to fiction, with her Victorian crime mystery The Poisonous Seed, recently published.

But Essex's past continues to be an inspiration: “There is so much in the area's criminal history that still takes me by surprise”, she said.

More Essex Murders is published by The History Press and costs £14.99. Click here to follow the Epping Forest Guardian on Twitter