Monday, March 27, 2006

Murder Most Foul

Confessions and execution of the pirates Gibbs & Wansley: on Ellis' Island in the harbour of New-York on 22d April 1831, under the direction of Thos. Morris, Esq. U. States Marshal. An interesting account of their lives will be found within, but the individual crime which brought them to the gallows was the murder of the captain and mate of the brig Vineyard at sea bound from New Orleans to New-York.
[confessions, African Americans, Blacks, sailors, cooks, pirates]

Horrid brutish and bloody murder: trial & sentence of James Ransom for the murder of his wife, Who was executed on the 7th of January 1932.
[uxoricide, trial report, dagger, slit throat, alcoholism, wife abuse]

"This Plate represents the described Position in which Mrs Budge was found, also the extent and character of the Wound in her Neck....The Position of the Stains of Blood about Bed and Body" in A review of the case:The people agt. Rev. Henry Budge, indicted for the murder of his wife Priscilla Budge..
1862 [uxoricide, trial report, minister, priest, clergy, wife abuse, pathology, knife]

Hunter-Armstrong tragedy: the great trial; conviction of Benj. F. Hunter for the murder of John M. Armstrong; Hunter secures insurance policies on the life of Armstrong amounting to $26,000 and lays a plot to murder him...this book contains the only likenesses of Hunter, Graham, and Armstrong.
1878 [trial report, insurance policy, greed, music publisher, ax, hatchet]

The poison fiend: life, crimes & conviction of Lydia Sherman., (the modern Lucretia Borgia), recently tried in New Haven, Conn, for poisoning three husbands and eight of her children; her life in full!
1878 [biography, trial report, mass murder, serial killer, spouse abuse, child abuse, insanity, poison, arsenic]

The beautiful victim of the Elm City: being a full, fair, and impartial narrative of all that is known of the terrible fate of the trusting and unfortunate Jennie E. Crammer, giving all the evidence that led the jury to hold Jamey Malley, Jr. as her murderer and to denouce Walter E. Malley and Blanche Douglass as aiders and abettors in the terrible social tragedy.
1881 [sensationalism, drugs, drowning]

Narrative of the pious death of the penitent Henry Mills...
1817 [biography, confession, execution sermon, child abuse, alcoholism, fiction]

Man or Monster - Merchandising Murder in the Nineteenth Century American Popular Press from the New York State Historical Association.
Direct link to the thumbnails .
[the bracketed words above are the library classifications]
Some things never change.
Addit: See also misteraitch's fascinating post on Gallows Literature.

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