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A huge crowd for a hanging: the end of John Knatchbull

Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (923.41/K67/2)   One of my very favourite letters in the collections of the State Library of NSW was written by a wool merchant by the name of Joseph Whitehead. In an 1838 letter to his uncle…

Order in the Court! The Trial of Two Murderers

John Jenkins 1834, by John Gardiner Austin, National Library of Australia (nla.pic-an5600121) In the mid-eighteenth century, the famous London magazine Punch published a short piece on the ever-increasing popularity of true crime stories: We are a trading community—a commercial people. Murder is,…