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Research dossier · General Reference

Murder of Cynthia Bolshaw

1983 murder in England

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 9, 2025
Entity authorityQ122332895 ↗
Source-derived summary

Cynthia Bolshaw was a British woman who was murdered in 1983 in a crime known as the "Beauty in the Bath" murder. Her murderer, John Taft, was caught 16 years later following breakthroughs in DNA evidence. He later attempted to overturn the conviction.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Murder of Cynthia Bolshaw” as 1983 murder in England. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Murder, Cynthia and Bolshaw.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1983—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Murder, Cynthia and Bolshaw providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Murder of Cynthia Bolshaw”, the useful work is to connect “1983 murder in England” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 9, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q122332895. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1983.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Murder of Cynthia Bolshaw”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Murder of Cynthia Bolshaw primary sources, Murder of Cynthia Bolshaw archive and Murder research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Murder of Cynthia Bolshaw”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Murder of Cynthia Bolshaw” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.