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David Wilson

David Wilson

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Shining a light on a fake admiral and the world of delusional disorders

Leading criminologist David Wilson delves into the world of a fake admiral, a Madeleine McCann imposter and a notorious US rapist The arrest and...

06.01.2026 8

Herald Scotland

David Wilson

The disturbing legacy of Netflix's Ed Gein

From Netflix to lecture halls, the question remains the same: why do people commit horrific crimes? David Wilson unpacks our obsession with the...

06.11.2025 5

Herald Scotland

David Wilson

What do readers expect from something sold to them as the truth?

I’m currently reading Oliver Basciano’s Outcast: A History of Leprosy, Humanity and the Modern World, which includes the extraordinary story of...

07.10.2025 3

Herald Scotland

David Wilson

The Stone of Destiny secret hidden inside a Ford Anglia

In the early hours of Christmas Day 1950, a patrolling police officer found Kay Matheson and Ian Hamilton, two students from Glasgow University,...

29.07.2025 3

Herald Scotland

David Wilson

I couldn't believe what I saw that man doing in the street in broad daylight

Scottish criminologist David Wilson was shocked by what he saw on a daytime stroll through one of England's biggest cities. Here, he shares the...

24.06.2025 2

Herald Scotland

David Wilson

Committing a crime is bad enough but filming it takes a special kind of stupid

Why do offenders film themselves committing crime, then share that film with friends, or upload it onto social media platforms?  It seems...

26.05.2025 5

Herald Scotland

David Wilson

David Wilson: Social media is teaching our boys how to hate

Misogyny is not innate but learned behaviour and increasingly boys and young men are learning how to hate from social media. Perhaps we’ve all...

23.04.2025 5

Herald Scotland

David Wilson

David Wilson: Accept that Lucy Letby is a killer, no matter how 'nice' she seems

I’ve long accepted that the role of rational thought in human existence has been greatly exaggerated. We believe our team is going to win, despite...

26.03.2025 9

Herald Scotland

David Wilson

David Wilson: Accept that Lucy Letby is a killer, no matter how 'nice' she seems

I’ve long accepted that the role of rational thought in human existence has been greatly exaggerated. We believe our team is going to win, despite...

25.03.2025 10

Herald Scotland

David Wilson

Should Netflix's new true crime drama be allowed to play with the truth?

Can your diet cure cancer? The simple, and unequivocal answer to this question is it that it can’t cure cancer and to make such a claim to sell a...

05.03.2025 10

Herald Scotland

David Wilson

Prof David Wilson: Luke Mitchell should never have been charged, let alone convicted

Convicted murderer Luke Mitchell has failed to win a legal battle at Scotland’s highest civil court over a parole board decision to deny him his...

20.02.2025 20

Herald Scotland

David Wilson

David Wilson: The war on drugs is over. It's right to try something different

The opening yesterday of The Thistle in Glasgow, a Safer Drug Consumption Facility (SDCF), funded by the Scottish Government, is merely the latest...

15.01.2025 20

Herald Scotland

David Wilson

David Wilson: Why do good people do evil?

The two most iconic investigations in the entire history of social psychology are Stanley Milgram’s “obedience to authority” experiments conducted...

11.12.2024 5

Herald Scotland

David Wilson

'Nothing can disguise the smell of death' - Slow Horses and a killer hoarder I’m on tour at the moment with the novelist Marcel Theroux, who surprised and delighted me the other day by commenting in our shared dressing room “oh, you smell nice” and then asking “what’s your cologne?” Let’s leave aside the cultural changes that have occurred over time to allow one man to ask another about what aftershave they might be using and instead think about smell more generally, and how it might specifically relate to crime.

I’ve been on a book tour recently with the novelist Marcel Theroux, who surprised and delighted me the other day by commenting in our shared...

01.10.2024 3

Herald Scotland

David Wilson