Dean W. JobbReseñas

Very well researched and told with enough Detail to read like a story. The way the Dr. repeatedly gets away with things due to his superior social and economic status versus the status of his victims and witnesses would seem like an indictment of England, Canada and the US in Victorian times, if anything had changed since then. Instead, it’s a reminder of problems that still exist

Intersting story of a very successful con man. Well researched and fairly comprehensive. The only thing I wished for was more insight into what Leo really thought as he went through the whole process. Reminiscent of music man, at times

The protagonist is a very interesting figure. Alleged doctor by trade, inexplicably Cream devoted his efforts towards poisoning various prostitutes and lower income women (and one man) for reasons never entirely clear. Perhaps he simply enjoyed the sufferings of others. At least with his male victim, it appears he was attempting to profit along with the victim's wife in the death. So too with his various amateurish extortion attempts. Writing letters that accuse others of crimes is one thing. Containing information within those letters that could only be known by the perpetrator is simply foolish.

While the character is interesting, the book itself felt a bit disjointed and could be difficult to follow. What could have been a very compelling read simply wasn't.

I listened to this as an audiobook in my car. The narrator, whether deliberate or not, had a tone that seemed aloof.

It's set in a time when it was easier to change one's identity, easier to disappear to a different area--and apparently easier to get a medical license without the new jurisdiction checking why you moved from your former location.

Due to many aliases, I lost track of what Dr. Cream's real name actually was.

Running around at the same time as Jack the Ripper, the lesser known Thomas Neill Cream was also attracted to women of the "lower classes", preferring to use his knowledge of pharmacopoeia to overtake and subdue women instead of his more violent counterpart's use of a knife. Leaving a trail of dead women wherever he went, embarrassing Scotland Yard, and causing local law enforcement to scratch their heads, Cream's past finally catches up to him in a tantalizing trial that packed the gallery.

Jobb has a gift of bringing all these characters back to life and creating a compelling retelling of this intriguing case.

An advanced copy of this book was sent to me by the publisher. The opinions are my own.

Loved this book. The author did a lot of research into the case and brought the reader into history. There were so many people involved in this case that it was hard to keep track but thankfully Jobb added a list for easy reference. This was well researched and brought a forgotten case back to light. Very well done.

An account of a truly audacious financial swindle of the 1920s, the Bayano oil/timber Ponzi-type scheme orchestrated by Leo Koretz. In fact, the author makes the well-taken point that but for an accident of history, we might be referring to Koretz Schemes instead of Ponzi Schemes, since the Chicago-based Koretz's run as a swindler covered much more in time, and in losses, than the Boston-based Ponzi did. There's also an interesting sidelight, in that the man that prosecuted Koretz had once worked in the same firm with him, and had his own ethical issues. Very fluently written, and with a number of interesting illustrations (including, I was happy to see, one editorial cartoon, by Ted Brown of the Chicago Daily News). An interesting read alongside "City of Scoundrels," which covers some of the same ground.

Just the facts one after another, including forensics. Lacking suspense.

This is a wonderful to read if you are into crime, true crime or the science of crime. The books is weak researched and contains 72 pages of sources used in the book.
The story moves from Canada to London to Chicago as Dr. Cream has his own way to provide abortions to lower class women. He is finally caught and hanged for his crimes.
The author also updates the story in the final two chapters as to the science used now but not available in the late 1800's
Recommended for adult readers., public and university libraries.

Excellent book. Page turner in every sense. Meticulously researched.

Did not finish. The plot was too meandering and I wasn’t getting into it. The story picked up after Dr. Cream left prison the first time, and then jumped a bit chronologically and had several asides such as one about Jack the Ripper and London in the era. It felt like the author was trying to flesh out the book because of a lack of info.

The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream: The Hunt for a Victorian Era Serial Killer by Dean Jobb is a 2021 Algonquin Books publication.

Dr. Thomas Neill Cream- cold- bloodedly poisoned at least ten people and attempted to kill several more- that we know about, in three different countries, during the Victorian era.

This case, as the blurb states, was mostly forgotten about, so I was completely unaware of it before reading this book.

Dubbed the “Lambeth poisoner", Cream preyed on prostitutes, giving them capsules which contained poison. Naturally, their deaths were hideously agonizing.

Cream held a medical license which gave him ready access to certain drugs and chemicals- a fact he did little to hide.

He also attempted to extort money from wealthy men by accusing them of committing his crimes- this didn’t work- but the attempt was incredibly bold- and just plain nuts!

Ironically, his blackmail schemes were what got him in trouble, initially, along with his reputation as an abortionist.

While he was continuously under suspicion, he managed to skirt the law for a long time- but eventually, his luck did run out.

Once he was finally brought to trial, the failures and prejudices of Scotland Yard were exposed for all to see. The class and sex of the victims played no small role this, obviously.

“The real mystery is why it took Scotland Yard so long to realize the Lambeth Poisoner was hiding in plain sight- a drug-addicted doctor who consorted with prostitutes, had access to strychnine, and knew far too much about the gruesome deaths of four women.”

Overall, this is an incredible true crime case. The author did a good job with organizing the material, and provides photographs, letters, documents and illustrations throughout, as well.

Dr. Cream is a chilling figure, and an enigma in some ways.The author doesn’t attempt to explore the psychology behind the crimes, or his choice in victims, in depth, sticking instead to more of a journalistic approach, allowing the reader to come to those obvious conclusions organically.

This book sheds light on the doctor's crimes, his methods, his boldness, and the investigations that allowed him to continue his murderous career far longer than he should have-

4 stars

“Crime and murder were obsessions in the nineteenth century,” Dean Jobb notes. Crime stories filled the newspapers, and novelists churned out horrid tales. The detective genre was basically invented by Edgar Allan Poe and was perfected by Arthur Conan Doyle in Sherlock Holmes. Charles Dickens and his friend Wilkie Collins wrote novels centered around crime and Scotland Yard’s detectives.

Holmes told Watson that “when a doctor goes wrong, he is the first of criminals.” And in Dr. Thomas Neill Cream, we discover the ‘first’ of criminals, a serial killer of unfortunate women, a man who faced the bar and walked out to kill again. And again, before a Scotland Yard detective crossed two continents to chase down Cream’s history and finally brought him to justice.

Cream was a model youth and young man: a Sunday School teacher who had memorized the Gospel of Matthew; a wealthy man who dressed well; a graduate of the esteemed Royal College of Edinburgh University. While a student he picked up the vile habits of smoking, drink, drugs, and women.

He was an abortionist, setting up practice in the poorer neighborhoods among women reduced to prostitution. His crimes precipitated from arson for insurance fraud and broken engagements to the abandonment of the wife he was forced to marry after he aborted their baby. He perfected his craft of murder with poison, obtaining the drugs by posing as a salesman to pharmacists.

As scandal surrounded him, Cream relocated across Canada, the United States, and Britain, setting up his practice and grooming his next victim. Who knows how many more he would have poisoned had not Scotland Yard Inspector Frederick Smith Jarvis followed Cream’s trail across continents.

Cream’s convoluted career raises questions: How did a privileged, educated, and religious man become so vicious? Did he believe he was ridding the world of fallen women? Was he a sociopath who hid under a conventional façade until free to act out his perverse desires?

True Crime aficionados and mystery lovers will enjoy this book. Also, readers of Victorian Age history.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

Thank you to Algonquin Books and Netgalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Victorian true crime is one of my favorite literary niches, and those who love it should be completely engrossed by The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream. Non-linear narratives almost never work for me, but the way that this true crime saga unfolded was quite clever, and I was never lost or confused. I think if the book had began when Cream was born, I would have become bored before he even made it to medical school.

The research for this book that Dean Jobb conducted in three countries is very impressive and detailed enough to flesh out the book well. I was endlessly horrified, not by the poisonings themselves (which were gruesome) but by how the good doctor kept getting away with it for so many years as the bodies piled up. Also deeply satisfying: the ideas that Jobb teases from the historical evidence about Dr. Cream's mental state, religious upbringing, and other factors that may have contributed to turning him into a serial killer. The reader is invited to psychoanalyze Cream at her leisure, and armchair psychology of serial killers can be entertaining (at least it is for me). The state of medicine during the 19th century, with the doctor as a sort of all-powerful godlike figure definitely had a part to play in Cream's murderous mayhem, as did lax drug regulations and the ugly male takeover of midwifery (many of his victims, the evidence indicates, may have been seeking abortions when they consulted this evil doctor).

I was waving the book in the air more than once saying "listen to the women! Why don't they listen to the women!" but of course doctors still disregard the claims of women even today. What if he had gone around poisoning men, regardless of social standing and reputation? He'd have never gotten out of prison for Serial Killings Round Two.

Number one on Hadassah magazine’s list of non-fiction and an Amazon “Best Book”, Jobb has written a “rollicking story of greed, financial corruption, dirty politics, over-the-top and under –the-radar deceit, illicit sex, and a brilliant and wildly charming con man who kept a Ponzi scheme alive perhaps for longer than anyone in history”. Set in Chicago at the dawn of the Roaring Twenties, it was a time of unregulated madness. Speakeasies thrived, gang war shootings announced Al Capone’s rise to underworld domination, Chicago’s corrupt political leaders fraternized with gangsters, and the frenzy of stock market gambling was rampant. Enter Leo Koretz who enticed hundreds of people to invest as much as $30 million in phantom timberland and nonexistent oil wells in Panama. When Leo’s scheme finally collapsed in 1923, he vanished. An international manhunt, led by Chicago’s state attorney, found Leo living a life of luxury in Nova Scotia under the assumed identity of a book dealer and literary critic.
Empire of Deception is not only an incredibly rich and detailed account of a man and an era, it is a fascinating look at the methods of swindlers throughout history. Leo Koretz was the Bernie Madoff of his day. Jobb shows us that the dream of easy wealth is a timeless commodity.

Leo Koretz was a Chicago crook who fits snugly among the ranks of Charles Ponzi and Bernie Madoff with the inauspicious status of coming first. Like his fellow fraudsters, he even lied to friends and family in a scheme that robbed Peter to pay Paul in an elaborate pyramid structure.

He began to commit fraud by selling mortgages to properties that did not actually exist. Then he moved on to selling bogus rice stocks. His big take, though, was selling fake stock in a timber venture in Panama. As if this was not enough, he claimed to have struck oil along the Bayano River. With this lie, he had more people begging to invest than ever.

In true low-life fashion, he did not just target the rich. He also allowed his own friends and family to invest in these fake stocks. He saw the writing on the wall after several years of perpetuating this swindle. After cashing in everything he could (as well as stealing some jewelry), he fled Chicago to New York where he bought a book store and changed his name. Eventually, he moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia where he purchased a huge house, throwing lavish parties.

He was finally found out when a tailor found his real name stitched into a piece of clothing. The police moved in and captured him. Evading punishment until the end, it is claimed that he killed himself in prison by eating an entire box of chocolates while being sick with diabetes. He only served 34 days of his sentence.

"Empire of Deception" is hardly a profound piece of writing: there are no psychoanalytical speculations about the motivations of a typical swindler or of a typical mark. But it's fun and readable and tells a worthwhile story well. It's also very well-researched: while the Bayano fraud scandal has more or less faded from memory, it seems to have gotten a lot of ink in the newspapers of the time, and Jobb, to his credit, seems to have tracked just about all of this material down and gone through it thoroughly. The mechanics of the fraud were simple enough and, post-Madoff and Ponzi, will be familiar to most readers. What's most interesting about "Empire of Deception," perhaps, is the time and place in which it took place. Jobb describes Chicago in the early twentieth century as a seedy, violent, and glamorous place filled both with commercial vigor and unbridled greed. If that's so, he captures the atmosphere and moral tone of the place pretty well. "Empire of Deception" is a reminder that the American Midwest might have been a pretty wild place not too long ago. Recommended to fans of the period, residents of the region, and those who like to see villains get away with it, at least for a while.

This was a very good crime true story. At first I really felt bad for Koretz. The author helped me sympathize with him but then over time as Koretz's selfishness just grew and grew I did not feel that way any more. Instead I feel for his family. His family behaved in a noble way that cost them so much but in the end was right. The research is good with notes to add more information or for study if you want. Jobb does good world building with 1920's America. He helps the reader is to see that world as it was. Jobb also gives information about the men who would hunt Koretz. The story is about Koretz but it is also about the men who would catch him. We get to see the whole picture, I think. I really felt that I could see as much as the whole story as was possible.

I give this book a Five out of Five stars.

Serviceable nonfiction pop history about a not-as-famous-as-he-could-have-been early 20th century American con artist - some of the chapters are a little padded out with not-really-pertinent info so things dragged a bit at times, but the story itself was quite interesting and laid out clearly and without too much of an agenda (that I could tell).