Books: Bedside Crime

THE CONCISE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CRIME AND CRIMINALS (351 pp.)—Edited by Sir Harold Scott—Hawthorn ($ 15).

In France, the judge may retire with the jury. In Britain not long ago, a man grew marijuana from birdseed. Cocaine was known during the Stone Age. High treason was so called to distinguish it from petty treason, i.e., a wife killing her husband.

Such bits are themselves the birdseed scattered through The Concise Encyclopedia of Crime and Criminals, the agreeable useless information that spices its usefulness. For the layman—though the specialist, whether on the bench or behind bars,...