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Most horrible and Shocking Murders banner.

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Titlepage from The Last Words of a Dying Penitent.Titlepage of The Beautiful Victim of the Elm City Tragedy featuring an illustration of the head and shoulders, left pose, full face of Jennie E. Cramer in the center. Frontispiece and titlepage of The Trial of John Bellingham for the wilful murder of the Right Hon. Spencer Perceval. The frontispiece features John Bellingham, head and shoulders, right profile, age 40 as he appeared on his trial at the bar of the Old Bailey.

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SOME MURDER PAMPHLETS WERE WRITTEN IN
a sober tone and set in a sober type-face. Others were sensationalist, with extravagant language and eye-catching headlines. Some provided nothing more than a bare trial transcript. Others featured novelistic descriptions purporting to tell the details of the case, with portraits of victims and suspects, and lurid engravings of the crime. Some murder pamphlets took on some of the characteristics of the murder mystery genre, and presented the case as a puzzle. Others confidently asserted from the outset the identity of victim and murderer. Very often, several different pamphlets would comment on a single case, either independently or disputing each other. Pamphlets varied in length, from eight pages to over two hundred, were printed on cheap paper, and usually sold for a low price.

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'True Crime' Murder Pamphlets in the Collection of the National Library of Medicine banner.