The Illustrated Police News Law Courts and Weekly Record For the week ending Saturday, October 5, 1878
Published by The Police News 4 Alden Street, Boston, Massachusetts Oct. 5, 1878
First Edition Newspaper Quite large : 11 3/8" x 16 1/2" ( almost 23" wide when opened ) 16 pages.
145+ years old.
Original 1878 issue of The Illustrated Police News , a weekly periodical published in Boston, Massachusetts , from the mid 1800s until 1904. It featured sensational reports of crime and legal proceedings in the United States ( and Canada ), with numerous illustrations of murders , crimes and criminals and their victims.
Fascinating reading, with many large illustrations. ( see below for some of the Contents of this issue )
It should be noted that issues of this periodical, especially early issues, are very scarce. Not many have survived, and those that have don't come up for sale very often.
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Condition. Worn at the edges, with some loss of paper at the upper-outside corner of the first two pages. ( see the photos ) Some small tears at the edges. One page has a large horizontal tear toward the upper margin. The paper is still quite flexible. Considering its age and its newspaper format, decent condition overall.
Very Scarce.
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The Contents of this issue includes :
Lover's Revenge - Bride poisoned at a Juanita , California wedding by her rejected suitor [ murder- suicide ] ( see the illustration on the front page )
Murder : " Beautiful Woman and her Infant Child Brutally Butchered " ( Sept. 22, 1878 , near at Eagle Creek , two miles west of Indianapolis , Indiana ) [ gruesome details of discovered corpses , etc. ] " One of the most damnable crimes on record. "
Murder - Suicide : Frederick Zeak and Carrie Meyers , Muscatine , Iowa ( with portraits )
The Rival of Brigham Young , Adolph Hoffman , and the " women galore " whom he married. " Astonishing marital exploits of a middle-aged adventurer ." " Polygamist and swindler attacked by his victims in court ." " The most married man in the United States since Brigham Young 's death ..." ( with illustration )
Seduction , Adultery and Murder : the body of Thomas Ward discovered , arrests made ( with gruesome details of the state of the corpse , discovered in a meadow in New Brunswick )
Murder : the killing of Elevated Railroad Detective Ed. Malloy ( with portrait )
Sensation : a Pastor driven from the pulpit of a Texas Church at the point of a knife ( Mount Baird Church , 5 miles north of Dallas , Texas , later followed by gunfire at the home of the knife wielding man ) [ with illustration ]
Prison Escape : with fatal result , Jackson , Michigan [ with illustration ]
Charles Miller , " The Kid " who murdered a City Marshall Enoch T. Hopkins of Morris , Illinois ( The " Kid ", 25 years old, 5' 3" , and left-handed , wanted for the crime , with a $500 reward for arrest and delivery ) [ with portrait ]
Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage visits New York Dens of Iniquity ( " inspection " of gambling houses , dance houses and disreputable resorts )
" Itemized Iniquities from various parts pf the Country " ( numerous brief accounts of crimes and criminals throughout America )
Murder : " Hoosier Tragedy " " The most cold-blooded , atrocious and cowardly murder ever perpetrated in the capital of Indiana was committed on Thursday night , Sept. 19, about ten o'clock ..." " ...three bullets shot into the body of Miss Marv McHugh - by the son of a hotel keeper , for refusing to marry him ."
Murder - Suicide : Boott Cotton Mills , Lowell , Massachusetts " Rejected and Crazed , shooting his sweetheart dead at his feet and then committing Suicide " [ Illustrated ]
" Murdered with a Pitchfork " ( near Kingston, Kentucky )
" Deadly Dispatch " " Texas , as usual , musters the most Man Killers " ( details of murders throughout the country ; several in Texas , a double murder in Arizona by a highwayman , a murder - suicide in Cincinnati , Ohio of man and wife , etc., etc. Includes a murder in Maine in which the murderer carried around the body of his victim in a wagon for a day before finally burying the corpse in the woods near Deering ) ( other accounts of murder took place in Bozeman , Montana ; Terre Huate Indiana ; Chicago , Illinois ; New York , Missouri, Pennsylvania , etc., etc. )
The Murder Trial of Jesse Billings , Banker , of Northumberland , N. Y.
Three girls , victims of Hester Clark , a.k.a. " Hattie Black " : " How a landlady fished for fools ."
Jewelry Thief : Charles Woodward , House Burglar and Professional Crook " one of the most dangerous criminals in the country ." [ with portrait ]
Daniel Boyle , Tramp " a brute who is wanted at Carthage , Illinois for an attempted outrage on a little child ." [ with portrait ]
Uproar at a Funeral : accusation of muder by poisoning at a family funeral in Pottsville , Pennsylvania ( with illustration )
Killing his Cousin : Andrew Lacy, lawyer, shoots Miss Mary Reilly at Smithport , Penn., because she refused to marry him ( illustration )
Drunk : Daniel Foley shoots his own reflection in a $500 mirror at San Francisco , California , shattering it
" Recent Murder Mysteries " Body of a woman found on Staten Island , NY ; Brutal murder of Wolf Adams , " an old and respectable man of New York ," in suspected blackmail plot.
" Homorosities " ( bits of humor found in crimes and bad behavior )
" Fatal Falls " : accounts of recent executions in the United States " Curiously enough , the Texans have hung a white murderer at last. " ( John Speers , a white man , hung at Waco , Texas , for the murder of another white man ; what started as a disagreement over fences ended in death )
" Judge Lynch in Alabama " (" At Athens , Alabama , on Saturday night, Sept. 21, some 75 men rode from the country to the jail and demanded the keys of the jailer ..." - what follows is an account of the lynching of Daniel McBride , " a negro who murdered an unknown white man on the railroad six miles south of Athens , AL , on Sept. 7th,, by cutting his throat ear-to-ear with a razor )
" Rapist Roped " " George Duncan , colored , was lynched on Thursday night, Sept. 19 , at Princeton , KY , for attempted rape ." ( with some additional details )
Murder in Visalia , California ( J. M. White killed Dr. A. B. Mehring for attempted Adultery with Mrs. White ; after finding the doctor in his wife's bedroom Mr. White hacked him to death with a pocket-knife ; wife declared innocent ; attempted lynching , trial )
" The dead bodies of two men named O. B. Davis and George W. Keiting , well-known horse and cattle thieves , were found hanging to a tree five miles north of Spearfish , Dakotah , Sept. 18 , undoubtedly the work of vigilantes of Spearfish , as tracks of a dozen men were found to and from the spot."
Slain by Police Officer : Billy O'Brien , 18 years old ( in " crooked circles " O'Brien was " said to be the smartest young thief in America " - shot dead by a bullet in the bowels by Officer William A. Jones in Chicago on Sept. 13 ; the police officer exonerated however public indignation was considerable )
Bitten by a Bear ( a little girl killed by an angry " tame " bear on the farm of a man in Rome , Michigan ; the bear was kept as a Saloon attraction in Adrian , MI )
Close of the Murder Trial of Rev. Mr. Hayden , Methodist Clergyman ( dramatic courtroom episode ; Rev. Hayden charged with the murder of Miss Mary E. Stannard , his alleged paramour , at Madison , Connecticut ; lengthy account of the murder and aftermath )
Body Snatching at Cleveland , Ohio ( arrest of the whole medical college faculty for stealing fresh corpses from cemeteries for use in the medical college )
" Items of Interest " Strange doings from around the country , including a woman whose scalp was torn off by machinery and the effort to graft on a replacement for her , a man who vomited up a live lizard - years after swallowing it , the oldest man in America , a vagabond miner in Leadville Colorado who suddenly jumped into an income of $2000 per day , Fortune telling in San Francisco CA , etc., etc.
" Curious Casualties " Brief accounts of some ways people died or were severely injured in recent days in America , including accident with a pistol , a miner who was nearly killed when Indians in Inyo California starting dropping rocks on him, a man who was brained and killed when a tree he was cutting made an act of revenge , a man whose arm was ripped from his shoulder by a machine in an edge tool works in Cleveland , a boy aged 10 who shot his little sister , a man who was mowing a yard in Lovington Indiana who found a pistol and immediately shot himselt in the stomach with it, a 5 year old girl who was poisoned by eating Stink Weed in New Haven CT and began to act very strangely , a mad dog in Fishkill NY which ran about biting some 50 other dogs and several people , a 16 year old boy suffocated to death in an elevator bin in Panola Illinois when the grain started to pour in, a man killed by his hunting companion while hunting raccoons in Stafford , CT , etc., etc.