From his early experiments, splicing together dozens of still photographs to create the effect of movement, Kingston motion picture pioneer Eadweard Muybridge has been hailed as the father of cinema. When he died in 1904 he left all his movie equipment and all his glass negatives to the corporation of Kingston, forming the principal collection in the town's museum in Wheatfield Way, which was under construction at the time.

But this former Kingston Grammar schoolboy, who adopted California as his home during the Gold Rush, had a darker side. Locked up after shooting dead his wife's lover, Muybridge was sensationally cleared by a jury in what law lecturers still cite as one of the worst miscarriages of justice.

Tim Harrison explores his life, his bizarre death, and his legacy to try to reach a conclusion about this remarkable and controversial Kingstonian.