Tenth Anniversary!

This week marks the tenth anniversary of Murder by Gaslight! The first posts dropped on November 2, 2009, and every week since then I have added at least one new post related to murder in 19th century America.

Here are the top 10 most popular posts, since 2009, based on average pageviews per day:

1	The Meeks Family Murder
2	The Legend of Lavinia Fisher
3	The Killing of Bill The Butcher
4	The Notorious Patty Cannon.
5	Lizzie Borden Took an Axe...Or Did She?
6	Jesse Pomeroy - "Boston Boy Fiend"
7	19th Century Serial Killers.
8	H. H. Holmes - "I was born with the devil in me."
9	Big Harpe and Little Harpe
10	The Bloody Benders

It is probably not surprising that the list is dominated by serial killers whom the public find endlessly fascinating. The rest are sensational multiple murders and a gangland slaying. The only exception is Lavinia Fisher who, contrary to her nasty reputation, never killed anyone.

It is interesting that the most popular post of the last ten years is “The Meeks Family Murder” posted in 2011. Compared to the rest it is a relatively unknown case, but a good story with a somewhat happy ending.

What’s Next?

I plan to continue posting 19th century murders when I find stories that interest me (the supply is virtually endless). Going forward, I will also be reposting existing stories. Murder by Gaslight has more than 500 posts and most have not seen the light of day in years. They deserve another look. Murder by Gaslight will also be featuring guest posts from other bloggers and authors with stories relating to murder in 19th century America.

Murder by Gaslight will also be the platform for projects outside the blog—a book-length murder story, a mystery novel, some serial fiction, a podcast experiment, and other possibilities. Keep watching.

I want to thank everyone who has followed Murder by Gaslight through the years. A special thank you to those who have left glowing comments on the blog and on Facebook; they been very gratifying and encouraging.  For the past ten years, I have kept outside advertisements off the site and I will continue to do so (you’re welcome). If you would like to support the blog, I have books available at Amazon: 

https://www.amazon.com/Robert-Wilhelm/e/B005VWNX7E/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1

Cheers,
Robert Wilhelm

Now Available! The Bloody Century

New book...

 



Buy it Now! at Amazon.

A murderous atmosphere pervaded nineteenth century America unlike anything seen before or since. Lurid murder stories dominated newspaper headlines, and as if responding to the need for sensational copy, Americans everywhere began to see murder as a solution to their problems. The Bloody Century retells their stories -- some still famous, some long buried, all endlessly fascinating.

The Bloody Century is a collection of true stories of ordinary Americans, driven by desperation, greed, jealousy or an irrational bloodlust, to take the life of someone around them. The book includes facts, motives, circumstances and outcomes, narrating fifty of the most intriguing murder cases of nineteenth century America. Richly illustrated with scenes and portraits originally published at the time of the murders, and including songs and poems written to commemorate the crimes, The Bloody Century invokes a fitting atmosphere for Victorian homicide. 

The days of America’s distant past, the time of gaslights and horse drawn carriages, are often viewed as quaint and sentimental, but a closer look reveals passions, fears, and motives that are timeless and universal, and a population inured to violence, capable of monstrous acts. A visit to The Bloody Century may well give us insight into our own.

"I've been a fan of Robert Wilhelm's "Murder by Gaslight" blog for years and I'm so pleased that readers are being treated to the very best of his posts in this interesting and entertaining collection.  There's something here for everyone - tragedy and comedy, open-and-shut cases and wrongful convictions, rich and poor, city and country, and more.  Readers will delight in the period engravings, the emphasis on how the cases influenced popular culture, and the extensive research that provides for further reading.  The Bloody Century is a welcome and lively companion to Judith Flanders' recent  The Invention of Murder, with a decidedly American flavor."
--- James M. Schmidt, Author of Galveston and the Civil War and Notre Dame and the Civil War

Devil on the Silver Screen

We learn from Omnimystery News: Leonardo DiCaprio Acquires Film Rights to The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. Devil in the White City, of course, is the bestselling non-fiction book about serial killer H. H. Holmes and the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.

DiCaprio’s involvement means a big budget but that has never been a guarantee of success. We are hopeful that the right director and screenwriter will save this excellent book from the dismal treatment Hollywood gives most bestsellers. But Leonardo DiCaprio (who Kate Winslet described as  “A big girl’s blouse.”) as H.H. Holmes? Dubious.

What do you think?

Visible Proofs

Do modern crime scene photographs leave you sick to your stomach, or have repeated viewings of mangled corpses left you utterly desensitized to blood and gore? Either way, it may be time to return to a day when crime scene pictures were works of art. Visible Proofs: Forensic Views of the Body, a website maintained by U.S. National Library of Medicine, has an array of stunningly creepy 19th century crime scene paintings, with descriptions of the circumstances behind them. Taken from Atlas of Legal Medicine published in 1898, they were apparently used as a teaching aid. The Atlas itself can be read on-line, or downloaded as a pdf file or in several ebook formats: Atlas of Legal Medicine (warning: Unlike the excerpts, the book as a whole is extremely graphic. View at your peril.)

Visible Proofs contains a wealth of exhibits and information on the history of forensic technologies such as Bertillon cards (precursor to mug shots), Reading gunshot patterns, the Marsh test for detecting arsenic poisoning, and others. It includes biographies of forensic science pioneers and crime related artifacts like a pamphlet from the 1680s - "A True Relation of a Barbarous Bloody Murder..." And there’s a utopian view of the future of forensics as envisioned in the 1930s.

Visible Proofs - well worth a click.

Did Lizzie Do it?

A Gaslight Poll:
Did Lizzie Borden Kill Her Father and Stepmother?
Well over 100 years after the fact, this murder is still news. Did Lizzie Borden get away with murder, or did someone else? No one knows for sure, but everyone has an opinion. Express your opinion by voting in the box to the right.  Click here for a list of alternative suspects.

Poll Results:
Did Lizzie Borden Kill Her Father and Stepmother?
     Yes - 73%
     No - 27%

It’s official, Murder by Gaslight visitors, by an overwhelming majority, believe that Lizzie Borden got away with murder.

Welcome to Murder by Gaslight

Greed, jealousy, revenge, obsession – the motives of America’s gas-lit murders are universal and timeless. Yet their stories are tightly bound to a particular place and time; uniquely American, uniquely 19th Century.

The goal of Murder by Gaslight is to bring them all together, the great and the small, to retell their tales, to point the way for those seeking more detail, and most importantly, to provide a forum to share facts and opinions. So here they are, America’s Victorian murders – sometimes gruesome, often shocking, always fascinating. Welcome to Murder by Gaslight.
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Murder by Gaslight will update often, continually documenting our 19th century murders; a pool we see now as virtually endless. We will start with the famous murders of national interest and very soon begin documenting the no-less-fascinating regional murders. In each case we will include the salient facts, as they are known, briefly summarize the events, describe the trial and ultimate outcome of the case.

We will provide a list of resources for those who want to dig deeper into the story. We will link to sites that have a more detailed telling of the story or a unique point of view. In every case we will link to printed books, still the best source of information. If there is a song about the murder we will link to the lyrics and, if available, a recording. We will also link to gravesites, newspaper articles and anything else of relevant interest.

Most importantly we will provide a forum for comment, suggestion, discussion, and resource sharing. We encourage everyone who visits the sight to add their impressions, insights and personal knowledge on this fascinating topic.

Once again, welcome to Murder by Gaslight.


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