Bsoton: J.A. Cummings & Co, [1875]. First Edition. 32 pp, in original illustrated wrappers. Some staining and chipping to wrappers, internally clean; very good. McDade 757. Sometimes described as America's first serial killer, Jesse Pomeroy was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to death when just 14 years old. He had been tried for only one murder--that of 4-year-old Horace Millen--but was known to have also killed a nine-year-old girl and brutally beaten other young children. His case sparked heated debate in the local and national press over whether justice would only be served by the death penalty, or whether it was immoral to hang a boy who was only 14 at the time of his crime. Paralyzed by fear of political repercussions, the incumbent Governor of Massachusetts declined to either commute Pomeroy's sentence or to sign his death warrant. When a new Governor took office, he did commute the death sentence, but ordered that the young man be kept in solitary confinement for life. Pomeroy entered the Charlestown Prison at age 16 and spent next 53 years there, 41 of them in solitary confinement. Robert Stroud, the "Birdman of Alcatraz," is the only prisoner in American history known to have spent more time in solitary confinement. A documentary about this case called "Jesse Pomeroy: The Boston Boy Fiend" is in production as of July 2018. (Item #19812)

Philadelphia: C.W. Alexander, [1866]. First Edition. [30] pp (paginated 18-48), in original wrappers, illustrated with a portrait of Probst and several views showing different features of the Dearing farm, where the crime occurred. Wrappers somewhat soiled and edgeworn, one horizontal tear (.75 in.) affecting all pages; good. Anton (or Antoine) Probst was a German immigrant who arrived in the United States in 1863. He drifted among jobs and scams (among them repeatedly joining the Union Army, collecting a bounty, deserting, and re-enlisting with a different unit) until, in 1865 he happened upon the Dearing farmstead in a rural part of South Philadelphia. Christoper Dearing took him on as a laborer, but Probst quit after three weeks, unwilling to work on "a rainy, very rough day." A few weeks later he was back, having blown all his savings on alcohol and prostitutes. Dearing re-hired him, not knowing that Probst had once observed him in possession of a sizeable amount of cash. This money was Probst's purported motivation for the vicious slaughter of all six members of the Dearing family, as well as two guests. After a brief but sensational trial, the jury convicted in just 20 minutes, and he sentenced to hang. McDade (772) notes that "After [Probst's] execution, the doctors had a field day with his cadaver, putting it through all kinds of tests, including one to test the theory that the retina of the eye of dying persons retains the last image seen." Of the several contemporary accounts of the case, this one appears to be the least common, with just 3 physical copies located in OCLC. (Item #19782)

Baltimore: Baltimore Gazette Printers, 1873. First Edition. 59 pp printed in double columns, w/frontis portrait of Goss. Original wrappers show light dust soiling, else fine. “Nonexistent in the 18th century, life insurance became a formidable industry in the 19th century, growing from fifteen chartered companies in 1840 to 129 in 1870. During this same period, the amount of life insurance in force grew from $4.7 million to $2 billion” (Library Company of Philadelphia Online Exhibit). While this development was of great benefit to widows and children, it opened the door to an accompanying rise in fraud. In 1872, brothers-in-law Winfield Scott Goss and William Udderzook colluded to fake Goss’s death and collect the insurance money. They staged a fire in which “Goss’s body” (in reality a medical school cadaver) was burned beyond recognition. The insurance policy was large, and the company typically reluctant to pay up. When an investigation was launched, a nervous Udderzook decided he could keep the fraud under wraps by killing Goss for real. He was quickly discovered and, after a sensational trial, hanged for the crime in 1874. McDade 1012. (Item #19783)

Salt Lake City: Deseret News Co, 1886. First Edition. 6 pp. Disbound, but with original wrappers present. Thin strip of white paper remaining at inner edge where the pamphlet was once bound, some staining to rear wrapper, historical society stamp on title page; but still a very good copy. On December 16, 1886, Edward M. Dalton was shot in the back while fleeing from U.S. Marshals attempting to arrest him for practicing plural marriage. His death is often cited as the only case in which someone in Utah was killed in the war against polygamy. Since "unlawful cohabitation" was only a misdemeanor, there was considerable outrage over the action of the Marshal, William Thompson. Although Thompson was charged with manslaughter, the U.S. Attorney responsible for prosecuting territorial crimes argued that under statutes governing both manslaughter and the behavior of U.S. Marshals, Thompson was not guilty. A judge agreed and instructed the jury accordingly, resulting in an acquittal. This pamphlet provides the perspective of the Mormons, who found this to be just one in a series of "revolting outrages" committed against them by Federal authorities. The anonymous author provides testimony from numerous named witnesses to support his claime that Dalton was not shot because he attempted to escape (which would still have been unjustified), but that he was murdered in cold blood before he even had a chance to respond to Thompson's commands. The pamphlet concludes with a call for "Congress and the Administration of the nation" to conduct a thorough investigation of the Marshals' conduct. Flake 5667. (Item #19811)

Scrapbook housed in a former ledger, 8.5 x 14 inches, with the printed title "Pawnbroker's Watch Book." 100 leaves, all with clippings pasted on both sides, most dated 1899, a few later. Ledger worn, with leather spine partially perished, internally some glue staining, but otherwise very good. The compiler of this book had broad interests when it came to bad behavior and included reports of a wide variety of crimes--from sensational murders and brazen jewel robberies to embezzlement, con games, pick-pocketing, and forgery. One article recounts "Thrilling Experiences in Capturing Members of Chineese Secret Society" in San Francisco. Another tells of the "Gentleman Burgler" of Jersey City who was "Lothario by Day, Thief at Night" and another offers a "Round-Up of Notorious Gambler and Thiees in the Klondyke." There are dozens of mugshots of wanted criminals with brief notes about their crimes, while longer stories detail investigations and pursuits, arrests, confessions, trials, and sentences. There are also articles on police--most in praise of heroic actions or clever detections, but also tales of bungling and excessive use of force. With more than 450 clippings recounting events from all over the United States, this scrapbook offers a truly fascinating window onto both crime and crime journalism in the late nineteenth century. (Item #19816)

Paragould, AR: [1912]. Broadside, 5.5 x 11 inches. Stamp indicating receipt by the San Francisco Police Detective Bureau on June 24, 1912, as well as another blurred partial stamp, otherwise unmarked; very good. This wanted circular, issued by the Deputy Sheriff of Paragould, Arkansas, offers an uncommonly nuanced description of the criminal, who (according to local newspaper reports) fled after bludgeoning his wife, leaving her in a pool of water, and burning the tent they had been living in. Following the usual details of height, weight, hair and eyes, this circular describes Reed as "having a kind of silly grin and will not look you in the face when talking to you. Likes to brag about what he is worth and what he can do and will talk as long as anyone will listen....he has large feet and walks as if they were hard to move along." We have been unable to determine if this information ever led to Reed's arrest. (Item #19822)

Cincinnati: 1867. First Edition. 128 pp, rebound without wrappers in green leatherette stamped in gilt. Very good. Sabin 19107. Although this compendium of Cincinnati-area murders is filled with grisly detail clearly meant to shock, thrill, and sell books, a short preface asserts a moral and educational purpose. It "should be read by all parents and their children" to avoid heading dowh the slippery slope from minor infraction to homicide. "They of both sexes will find much that they must avoid--the commission of the first little sin, may be the means of bringing them to destruction." (Item #19820)

Providence: W. Marshall & Co., 1833. First Edition. Sewn pamphlet, 33 pp. Lacking rear wrapper, otherwise complete. Heavy wear and some chipping to fore edge, light staining and foxing. Good. In December 1832, unmarried mill worker Sarah Cornell was found hanging from the frame of a haystack in Tiverton, Rhode Island. She was five months pregnant, and a note found in her belongings (“If I should be missing, enquire of the Rev. Mr. Avery of Bristol,--he will know where I am”) implicated a prominent Methodist minister. Fearing adverse publicity, both the industrialists of Fall River and the Methodist Episcopal Church engaged in energetic campaigns to obtain a favorable verdict for Avery. The trial was one of the earliest attempts by American lawyers to prove their client innocent by assassinating the moral character of a female victim. On the other side, it also underscored deep suspicion of Methodists in old New England society. Avery was acquitted after a 27-day trial that heard testimony from 196 witnesses. The controversial verdict prompted the publication of more than a dozen accounts of the case. This one was written by the deputy sheriff who located and arrested Avery after he fled to New Hampshire, fearing the angry townspeople of Fall River would take justice into their own hands. McDade 41; see also Kasserman, Fall River Outrage. (Item #19780)

Portland, OR: 1946. Typed letter with typed signature ("Robert Mack"), approximately 900 words on two legal-sized pages, dated September 23, 1948, at Morningside Hospital in Portland, Oregon. Folding creases, otherwise fine. Enio Robert Mack (b. 1909) was a World War II veteran from Juneau, Alaska who lived with his parents. On July 3, 1948, he shot and killed his father, Finnish immigrant Andrew Mack. Within three weeks, he was tried, judged insane, and committed for life to Morningside Hospital, which held a federal contract to provide in-patient psychiatric services for Alaskans. In this chilling letter, Mack tells his sister that their father ("that moron") had been drinking heavily and abusing their mother. "One morning he came into my room with his eye's blazeing with hatred and shouted at me to be ready because, I was plotting against him with mother, he had taken all the axe's and a single-jack from the cellar and had place them on the porch, I could only come to the conclusion that he was insane... and that he would kill me or mother." This led Robert to break the lock on the gun cabinet and sit on the porch with a rifle, waiting for his father to come home. After warning his father not to come into the house, he "fired and killed him instantly." He further justifes the killing with the assertion that "he was color or race conscience [sic], and had the intelligence of a moron who would champion a negro above a white race...He had no right to marry a white person because he champion the black race." (Andrew Mack, it is worth noting, was white.) He criticizes his brother for testifying at trial to their father's good character, saying "the result was that I was sent to this hospital for life, as a person who is so mentally unbalanced as to have taken the life, of a person without a reason or a just cause." Although Mack clearly believed he was sane, his closing complaint that "the right side of my brain is infected, from bone decaying the right side of the skull" may suggest otherwise. (Item #19810)

Los Angeles: Louis S. Sonney. Second edition. Undated, but ca. 1924. 32 pp, original wrappers, with four illustrations from photographs and a small map. Archivally repaired tear to front wrap, some chipping and light soiling; about very good. Gardner was a notorious armed robber who stole more thant $350,000 in cash and securities from banks and mail trains. He escaped from custody many times and had a $5,000 bounty on his head when he was arrested by the author of this pamphlet, a Centralia, Washington police officer. Sonney, who characterizes Gardner as "humane, generous, industrious, and very likeable, but withal courageous, determined, and with nerves of steel, or none at all," offers a fairly straightforward account of his subject's early life and criminal exploits. He details the various escapes and manhunts of 1920 and 1921, ending with Gardner's incarceration at Leavenworth Penitentiary, where he remained "safely behind four reinforced concrete walls, each 30 feet high, charged wires on the top, and a small standing army of guards on the outside and about 250 on the inside." In 1925, Gardner was transferred to Atlanta Federal Prison, where he led a failed escape attempt that ended with his transfer to Alcatraz. He remained there until 1939, when he was granted clemency. Six-Guns 2063. Scarce; 6 copies located in OCLC, all in California. (Item #19786)