Yesterday’s Papers: Jack the Ripper

Showing posts with label Jack the Ripper. Show all posts

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Continental Crimes Illustrated

Source: FLORA.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Gallows Literature

“Gallows Literature,” common in England and the United States from about 1730 to the eighteen-eighties, consisted of biographies, “last speeches,” and “dying verses”. They could be found in any country with a printing press, Spain, France, Germany or Russia. When a celebrated burglar or murderer was scheduled to be publicly “turned off,” enterprising street publishers issued “whole-sheet” broadsides, in one or two columns of wretched, aging type, with a woodcut at top, to be sold in shops and hawked at the foot of the gallows.

In Regency England, the two major publishers were Jemmy Catnatch and “Old Mother Pitts,” derided by her rival as “a former bumboat woman.” James Catnatch’s business was founded in 1813, and, in the hands of his successor, lasted until 1883 when the famous Seven Dials establishment was torn down. Its tempting to speculate on what happened to Catnatch's type and woodcut stock, containing “many designed and cut by Thomas Bewick.”

This late example, a Charles Peace broadside, from the collection of Stewart Evans, was published by George Slater, Snighill, sometime before Peace was executed on 25 February 1879. The last public hanging in England was in 1868 so instead of sales under the gallows broadsides seem to have been sold at newsagents. The only reference to a British publisher named Slater I found was from 1849, One George Slater was publisher of Slater's Shilling Series from 252, Strand.

The bill-sticker cartoon from Punch, below, was published when Jack the Ripper was still active. It seems a little unfair to the bill-stickers, who were probably not paid much by the publishers.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

More Tom Merry

Another Tom Merry image for the Ripper section courtesy Stewart Evans. London Puck, No. 36, [New Series, No. 14] September 21st, 1889.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Tom Merry (1853-1902)

Tom Merry was the pen-name of cartoonist William Mecham (1853 – 21 August 1902). This striking cartoon features Jack the Ripper and British Justice debating the fate of the American Florence Maybrick, convicted of poisoning her husband in Britain. Maybrick served 14 years. The illustration above is courtesy Stewart Evans, author of The Lodger (1995) which has been updated and re-issued under the title Jack the Ripper First American Serial Killer. Stewart has a collection of over 8,500 books, newspapers, broadsheets and ephemera, much of it dealing with Jack the Ripper and true crime. One intriguing item he mentioned was possession of the last letter that Charles Peace wrote from the condemned cell on the eve of his execution. Hopefully Stewart will be sharing some more images with us in future.

The Tom Merry photo and text below is from Stead's London Review of Reviews circa 1890. At this period colour plates were being issued in America in Puck and Judge. The two London publications issuing color plates were the St. Stephen's Review and Vanity Fair. I have posted a high-res image of Merry's Ripper HERE for your enjoyment..

Friday, January 1, 2010

Chronicles of Crime

Chronicles of Crime and Criminals No. 1, 60 pages, Beaver Publishing Company, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. “Full and authentic account of the Murder by Henry Wainwright, of his Mistress Harriet Lane: and an extended account of the WHITECHAPEL MURDERS by the infamous JACK THE RIPPER.” The entire contents can be found on PDF HERE.