Title: Most Horrible and Shocking Murders

Source/Sponsoring Agency: National Library of Medicine

URL: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/murderpamphlets/

Date Checked: 11/10/2010      Status: Active

Date Annotated: 11/10/2010

Topics: Criminal Law; Law and Medicine; Legal History

Other keywords: Medicine; Murder

Contents: Most Horrible and Shocking Murders is a digital collection of the National Library of Medicine (NLM). The library makes available to researchers one of the largest collections of “materials that document the history of medicine, health, and disease in all time periods and cultures.” The “Most Horrible” collection has a legal angle as it presents “True Crime” murder pamphlets. Tales of murder, or “true crime,” have been popular for hundreds of years and still grab attention in the broadcast media. As the site says, “[f]or more than five centuries, murder pamphlets have been hawked on street corners, town squares, taverns, coffeehouses, news stands, and bookshops.” Historically, these pamphlets were made by local printers and included a narrative, a trial transcript, and sometimes a written confession of the accused. The site, in four parts, explains the history of murder pamphlets and their style and features. The NLM collection consists mostly of 19th century pamphlets, many of which deal with forensic medicine or cases in which medical doctors were either the victim or the defendant. Pamphlets from close to two dozen cases are highlighted with individual pages available as color images. The cases are, of course, sensational. In a 1765 case from London, a midwife was convicted of murdering an apprentice. The midwife confessed her guilt on the hanging scaffold and her body was then dissected and her skeleton put on display in the Surgeon’s Hall. An interesting American case from 1832 involved a Methodist minister, Ephraim Avery, who was accused of murdering a young pregnant girl after the victim left behind letters implicating the minister and implying she was pregnant with his child. The defense put several doctors on the stand testifying that Avery could not have been the father and Avery was acquitted. The verdict was very unpopular. Avery was burned in effigy and was forced to leave his home in Rhode Island and move to Ohio. For accounts of other fascinating cases, researchers will want to visit the site.

Author of Annotation: M. Morrison