Few Edinburgh court cases in the past 100 years have generated such widespread public interest as the murder trial of trainee accountant William Laurie King.

Charged with the murder of his mother and attempted murder of his father, the 22-year-old's case gripped the nation throughout the summer of 1924 and made headlines as far afield as Australia.

King's alleged murder 'weapon' was not a blade or firearm, but a humble cheese sandwich - that happened to be laced with enough arsenic to kill his mother three times over.

The accused lived with his parents and younger brother in a large detached Victorian villa in the capital's well-to-do Murrayfield district, and had been in training to follow in his father's footsteps.

Mr James Rae King was a successful and well-respected Edinburgh chart

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