by Rick Wilson
Helpful reading on Deacon Brodie:
Traditions of Edinburgh, Robert Chalmers (Chambers, 1940)
Kay’s Edinburgh Portraits, James Paterson (Hamilton, Adams, 1885)
The Strange Case of Deacon Brodie, Forbes Bramble (Hamish Hamilton, 1975)
Deacon Brodie: Father to Jekyll and Hyde, John S Gibson (Paul Harris, 1977)
The Trial of Deacon Brodie, William Roughead (various, 1906)
Stevenson, Jekyll, Hyde and all the Deacon Brodies, Owen Dudley Edwards (NLS, 2000)
Robert Louis Stevenson, James Pope Hennessy (Jonathan Cape, 1974)
The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson, Thomas Graham Balfour (Methuen, 1901)
The RL Stevenson Originals, E B Simpson (T.N. Foulis, 1912)
The Fabulous Originals, Irving Wallace (Longmans, Green, 1955)
PLATES
‘Doomed to death’ … William Brodie (right) and his co-accused, George Smith.
How it looked back then: the head of Brodie’s Close in the Lawnmarket, sketched by Bruce J. Home.
The foot of the close, by the same artist.
The Old Excise Office, Chessel’s Court, Canongate, in a sketch by Bruce J. Home. This was the site of Brodie’s failed armed raid of 1788 that led to his downfall.
A cock-fighting match in Edinburgh, attended by Deacon Brodie.
The Brodie-crafted cabinet that stood in the young Robert Louis Stevenson’s bedroom and inspired him to created Jekyll and Hyde.
Brodie’s lantern and some of ‘his’ keys are now kept in the Bank of Scotland’s Museum on the Mound.
Brodie was arrested in Amsterdam under the name John Dixon and held in what is now the Dam Square royal palace … where, intriguingly, four cast-iron lamp posts bear the name Dixon. (Picture: Norman MacDonald)
The popular Deacon Brodie’s Tavern on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile …
… where the exterior name boards depict the contrasting two sides of the original’s character.
Deacon’s House Cafe now occupies the site of Brodie’s one-time home and workshop.
Hanged: George Smith.
‘Bulldog’ hanging judge, Lord Braxfield.
Not quite gone. The human-sized effigy of Deacon Brodie that stands outside Brodie’s Close today.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rick Wilson has been a magazine editor in London, Amsterdam and Edinburgh, where he now lives with his wife Alison. He has three children and five grandchildren. This is his seventh published book. Previous titles by Rick Wilson:
The Amsterdam Silver
Scotland’s Unsolved Mysteries
The Press Gang
Scots Who Made America
The Gemini Enigma
The Man Who Was Robinson Crusoe
COPYRIGHT
First published in 2015
The History Press
The Mill, Brimscombe Port
Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG
www.thehistorypress.co.uk
This ebook edition first published in 2015
All rights reserved
© Rick Wilson, 2015
The right of Rick Wilson to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
EPUB ISBN 978 0 7509 6356 5
Original typesetting by The History Press
Ebook compilation by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk
