Broadside entitled 'Execution'

Commentary

This report begins: 'An account of the Execution of Robert Emond, who was executed this morning March 17, 1830, at the Head of Libberton's Wynd, for the Murder of Mrs Franks and her Daughter at Haddington, in October last.'

This is one in a series of broadsides kept by the National Library of Scotland which relate to this case. A week prior to his execution, Robert Emond was convicted of murdering his wife's sister and her teenage daughter. Apparently, Emond's wife and Mrs Franks had chastised him for speculating too much with the family's money, and Emond's 'bewildered mind' believed he was utterly despised by them. So, after a blazing row with his wife, he killed her sister and niece at their home.

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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