In the National Library of Wales is a manuscript confession, written while awaiting execution in 1747 , of Cardigan’s William Owen. He details his misdeeds and murders, and his confession is set against the lawlessness of the times in the coastal areas of Wales, Ireland, Man and Scotland. ‘The writing of this book became a detective story. It began as a straightforward modernised transcription of a condemned murderer's confession and trial, but contradictions had to be explored.’…‘The survival of so much documentation about Owen is unusual… painstaking research by the author. Owen is shown to be a sociopath, fearing no one and nothing, and his acquittal for a double murder was a sensation.’ ‘…all in all this is a history book which is both informative and exciting.’ Most of the research was carried out in the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, using the original manuscript of Owen’s confession, the trial transcripts, port entries etc.