Commentary
This report begins, 'Account of the behaviour in confinement and on the Scaffold, of JAMES GLEN, who suffered at Glasgow on Wednesday the 12th of December, 1827, for the terrible, cruel, and barbarous Murder of his own infant child . . . with an account of his sorrowful parting with his friends. His body was afterwards given for dissection.' Printed in Glasgow on 12th December, 1827, by William Carse. James Glen had escaped Glasgow Jail a few months earlier, but had given himself up after finding no-one would harbour him. Due to the horrific nature of his crime - murdering his child 'to get cease of expense', it is said that 'the case . . . Did not excite much comisseration'. As a final insult, his body was sent for public dissection at Glasgow College. 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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Date of publication:
1827 shelfmark: L.C.Fol.73(098)
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