Murder Pamphlet Collection Full Text

These pamphlets range from publication dates in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth century, with the bulk published in the 1800s. Many of the books and pamphlets in this collection are listed in The Annals of Murder: a bibliography of books and pamphlets on American murders from Colonial times to 1900, compiled by Thomas M. McDade. The nineteenth-century pamphlets in this collection were drawn from the holdings of the Research Library of the New York State Historical Association (NYSHA) in Cooperstown, New York. NYSHA's collection of murder pamphlets contains 400 items published primarily in the 18th-19th centuries. These pamphlets document the changing perception of the murderer from a repentant sinner to a monstrous deviant.