The Cock Lane ghost : murder, sex and haunting in Dr Johnson's London

A joke's a very serious thing - Charles Churchill, Ghost, 1762/3. Cock Lane Ghost is the true story of a series of events that took place in London in the 1760s. Businessman, William Kent fell foul of a powerful Norfolk family when he eloped with their daughter, Frances Lynes. The couple fled to London and took lodging in Cock Lane. When Frances died, a mysterious ghostly conspiracy against Kent began, gathering so much momentum that it almost led to him being hung for murder. At the heart of the affair was a story of sexual infatuation, conspiracy, accusations of murder and rape and the alleged return of the victim from beyond the grave to point out her killer. The case aroused huge popular curiosity, was subject to the insatiable spinning of London's early newspaper industry and ultimately involved figures such as Dr Samuel Johnson. Paul Chambers brings to life the story of the Cock Lane ghost - a scandal whose effect on society was such that the term Cock Lane was still synonymous with folly, superstition and corruption 150 years later.