May 25, 1803

Eugene Aram (1704 to August 6, 1759) was the inspiration for a novel by Edward Bulwer-Lytton (May 25, 1803 to January 18, 1873). This scholar cum murderer inspired more than one literary attempt to grasp such a situation. I quote murderpedia.

'...[Eugene Aram] travelled through parts of England, acting as usher in a number of schools, and settled eventually at the Grammar School at King's Lynn, in Norfolk. During his travels he had amassed considerable materials for a work he had projected on etymology, entitled A Comparative Lexicon of the English, Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Celtic Languages. He was undoubtedly an original philologist, who realized, what was then not yet admitted by scholars, the affinity of the Celtic language to the other languages in Europe, and could dispute the then accepted belief that Latin was derived from Greek.

'Aram's writings show that he had grasped the right idea on the subject of the Indo-European character of the Celtic language, which was not established until JC Prichard published his book, Eastern Origin of the Celtic Traditions, in 1831. But he was not destined to live in history as a pioneer of a new philology.'

Eugene Aram, (1832) was not the only novel Bulwer-Lytton modeled on a contemporary crime. But it is his only one wherein the eponymous hero has a cat named Jacobina, said to be "a match for 50 robbers." All these mysteries to be unraveled when you read Eugene Aram.