Broadside entitled 'Trial and Sentence'

Commentary

This broadside begins: 'An account of the trial of Allan Grant, James Kenny Stewart, Mary Muirhead and Isabella Kerr or Gray, accused of the Murder and Robbery of Mark Dow Shoemaker, on the 10th of Jan. last in Bank Street.'

The National Library of Scotland's collection also includes a broadside giving a detailed account of Dow's murder and robbery. Published a day or two after the incident, the names of the suspects were not included. This broadside, however, reports on the trial and sentencing of the four accused. With no date attached to this sheet, it is difficult to ascertain the time lapse between the crime being committed and the apprehension of the culprits.

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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