Luton author's chilling new book reveals the numbers behind some grisly murders...

James Moore, 45, who was born in Luton, is proud to present his new work ‘Murder By Numbers’, which details the most horrid historical crimes, examining how figures and digits have played a curious role in the grisliest of cases.

The book describes real-life murders from the notorious tales of Jack the Ripper and The Black Dahlia to little known yet intriguing crimes which could have taken place on the reader’s back doorstep!

James said: “I’ve been writing about true crime for a while, being the author of Murder at the Inn and the Tudor Murder Files, as well as a journalist for national newspapers.

“I noticed that numbers seem to run through everything to do with crime and thought it was an original way of exploring the history of homicide back to our earliest ancestors.

“Numbers reveal everything from the worst serial killers to everything about criminal investigations including the techniques used by forensic scientists and cunning detective work.”

James’s new book even reveals how one Luton crime was solved using a laundry ticket marked ‘2,247’.

In 1943 a mysterious sack was pulled out of the River Lea by some workmen who would make a gruesome discovery.

The sack contained the naked and badly beaten body of a woman in her 30s who had been strangled just 24 hours earlier.

However, the murderer had tried to destroy any clue as to who she was, so a search was ordered around the rubbish dumps of the area to find a trace of the woman’s missing clothes. And when a ripped black coat was found to contain a laundry ticket, the detectives were closer to finding the killer...

A History Press spokesman, said: “What’s the connection between the number 13 and Jack the Ripper?

“Why is the number 23 of note in the assassination of Julius Caesar?

“The answers to all these questions and more are revealed in this unique, number crunching history of crime!”