Broadside entitled 'Fatal Love! Warning to lovers'

Commentary

This report begins: 'A Full and Authentic ACCOUNT of a most Melancholy and Extraordinary occurrence of FATAL LOVE, which took place at Kincardine, on Thursday last ; together with a COPY of the very affecting LETTER, which was found in the young Woman's bosom after she was cut down, and which fully explains the cause of her committing this rash and fatal act.'

The story of Miss Amelia McC----n, who hung herself in her bedroom in Kincardine, Fife. The reason for her suicide was her broken heart over a Sea Captain who had betrayed her by sailing for the West Indies after making many promises of love. Her pain is evident in the note found on her, in which she says, 'O inconstant men, How will you promise----how deceive!'.

Reports recounting dark and salacious deeds were popular with the public, and, like today's sensationalist tabloids, sold in large numbers. Crimes could generate sequences of sheets covering descriptive accounts, court proceedings, last words, lamentations and executions as they occurred. As competition was fierce, immediacy was paramount, and these occasions provided an opportunity for printers and patterers to maximise sales.

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