Murder mystery

1. Thursday, 08 June 2023
LESSON TITLE: Murder Mystery
1
2
1. What do you
think is happening
in this picture?
2. What can you
infer from these
picture sources?
infer means what
something shows
or suggests

2. Murder Mystery
Mastering
Explain why it affected more than one
person.
Securing Describe how the people were murdered.
Developing Identify who murdered the people.

3. What on earth has happened?
• A couple have been found dead in their house!!
• No one can explain the cause of death.
• Your task is to solve the
mystery and present
your case to the Mayor
of the city.

4. What you need to do…
You will need to think about the following for
each source and fill in your table (slide 5).
You will only have 5 minutes to fill in the evidence file
for each piece of evidence!
• What can we see?
• What can we learn from the evidence?
• What does this tell us about the cause of
death?

5. Piece of evidence What can we see?
What can we learn from the
evidence?
What does this tell us about the
cause of death?
Number 1
Number 2
Number 3
Number 4
Number 5

6. Evidence 1
Information about the evidence
These are the bodies of the victims. Their names are Elizabeth and John. They
have five children. No one has dared to go near the bodies as we are unsure of
what has caused their illness.
Things to consider in your analysis
 Can you make any assumptions so far?
 What is the man in the background doing? Why?

7. Evidence 2
Information about the evidence
This is an account from Giovanni Boccaccio, Italian writer who visited England in 1348. He had seen
other diseases in Asia, but this was a very different type of disease. He said that there were
similarities between the speed of death, however the symptoms were different.
Things to consider in your analysis
•Why do you think the victims looked so horrendous?
•Do you think the information about the black and purple spots is important? Explain your answer.
•Does this link with any of the other sources?
The symptoms were not the same as in the East…but it began both in men and women with
certain swellings in the groin or under the armpit. They grew to the size of a small apple or an
egg, more or less, and were vulgarly called tumours. In a short space of time these tumours
spread…named all over the body. Soon after this the symptoms changed and black or purple
spots appeared on the arms or thighs or any other part of the body, sometimes a few large ones,
sometimes many little ones. These spots were a certain sign of death, just as the original tumour
had been and still remained.
The violence of this disease was such that the sick communicated it to the healthy who came
near them, just as a fire catches anything dry or oily near it. And it even went further. To speak
to or go near the sick brought infection and a common death to the living; and moreover, to
touch the clothes or anything else the sick had touched or worn gave the disease to the person
touching.
Giovanni
Boccaccio,
Italian
writer from
Florence
wrote this
description
of the
disease in
1348

8. Evidence 3
More
information
on the next
slide!!

9. Evidence 3
Information about the evidence
Thought to have started in China, it travelled along the Silk Road and had
reached the Crimea by 1346. From there probably carried by Oriental rat fleas
residing on the black rats that were regular passengers on merchant ships, it
spread throughout the Mediterranean and Europe.
Black Death was to kill 1.5 million people out of an estimated total of 4 million
people in England between 1348 and 1350. It killed between 30-50% of the
European population.
Things to consider in your analysis
• How do you think the disease spread from country to country?
• How did it get passed from human to human? Explain your answer?
• How would you react if a family member got the disease?

10. Evidence 4 Information about the evidence.
A diagram of a Plague Doctor. The Plague Doctor was
a special doctor who treated those who had the
plague. They were not normally professionally trained
doctors. They wore a special costume. The mask had
glass openings for the eyes and a curved beak shaped
like that of a bird. Straps held the beak in front of
the doctor's nose. The mask had two small nose holes
and contained nice smelling items. The beak could
hold dried flowers (including roses and carnations),
herbs (including mint) and spices. The purpose of the
mask was to keep away bad smells, which were
thought to be the cause of the disease. Doctors
believed the herbs would counter the "evil" smells of
the plague and prevent them from becoming infected.
Things to consider in your analysis
•What does this show you about the spread of the
disease?
•What is this piece of evidence suggesting is likely to
be the cause of all these deaths?
•How can you tell this?

11. Evidence 5
Information about the evidence
This is a plaque that is displayed in Weymouth. The Black Death was a plague causing an
estimated 20 million deaths in Europe. In some places there was even no-one left to bury
the dead let alone record the effects. In some places, e.g. the villages of West Thickley in
County Durham and Leake in North Yorkshire, it killed everybody. The death-rate was
especially bad in monasteries, where the monks stayed together and cared for each other.
Things to consider in your analysis
•Why did some villages die out?
•How did it affect the population overall?

12. Solving the mystery…
•You need to produce a brief
summary of your findings in a
report.
I think that the cause of death was…
I think this because…

13. Using the
information from
this lesson…
Can you explain
what this source
is showing?