'We never needed to lock our doors in the past ...our door was always open, even if we were out ...you could walk the streets safely in those days ...Nobody bothered you.' This is what Laurie Curry's grandmother used to say when she was comparing her times to modern times. But how true was it? Laurie started to research into these good old days by trawling through the archives of the local history section of the Central Library in South Shields. He also looked through back copies of the Shields Gazette. He was looking for the ordinary Shields person, not the rich and famous, and what he found confirmed his thoughts. It was not all good old days, there were quite a lot of bad old days too. His research drew his curiosity to the criminal element in the town's past and here are the results of his research. Read about the South Shields Cannibal, Death by Dirt, Battered to Death and Murder on Board.