Murder Broadsides. Two rare murder broadsides mounted either...

Estimate

£300 - £400

Murder Broadsides. Two rare murder broadsides mounted either side of a card backing. ‘Awful Execution!! of Wilmot Buckley & Betty Eccles’, 1843. Kiernan, Printer, Liverpool. Large (50.5cm by 37.5cm) single sided printed broadside concerning the hanging of Wilmot Buckley and Betty Eccles in front of Kirkdale Gaol on 6th May 1843. Wilmot had been convicted of murder of his pregnant wife by stabbing her. Eccles had been convicted of murdering her step-son, William, by poisoning him with arsenic. The broadside contains details of their trials and sentencing and the subsequent joint hanging of the pair outside Kirkdale Gaol. With two engravings, the first of the hanging, the second of ‘Betty Eccles on her way for Execution attended by the Chaplain’. Scarce with no copies found on WorldCat or Jisc Library Hub; ‘Confession of Daniel McNaughton to the Murder of Mr Rummond [sic] with Important Disclosures.’, [1843] Paul, Printer, 18, Great St. Andrew Street, Seven Dials. Single sided printed broadside (37.2cm by 26cm) concerning the arrest, confession and committal for trial of Daniel M’Naghten (sometimes written as McNaughtan or McNaughton) for the killing by shooting of Edward Drummond. Containing an engraving of M’Naghten in his cell. M’Naghten has been on his way to Downing Street and believed he had shot Sir Robert Peel the Prime Minister, his intended target. M’Naghten was subsequently acquitted at trial based on a defence of insanity. The resulting public outcry led to the formation of the ‘M’Naghten Rules’ which have become the standard rules in England and many other jurisdictions for trials where insanity is claimed by the defendant. A scarce broadside (with no copies found on WorldCat or Jisc Library Hub) relating to one of the most famous cases in English legal history. Both laid down to recto and verso of old sheet of card (2)