THE ILLUSTRATED POLICE NEWS London's Court Cases and Sensational Stories

Softcover. The Illustrated Police News (IPN) was, without doubt, the most sensational newspaper of the mid and late-Victorian era. With a front cover often containing fine wood engravings of sea monsters, ghosts and sex-starved gorillas, it was guaranteed to appeal to a wide range of readers and non-readers alike. Its main interest was of course crime, and murder in particular. With lurid illustrations of drunken axe-wielding assassins and their pathetic blood-soaked victims, the paper seemed to be daring the public to read the gory accounts inside. Before the days of newspaper photographs the only likeness anybody saw of the infamous Victorian murderers was in papers like the IPN and their artists certainly had fertile imaginations. They would often depict the dreams of killers such as Kate Webster and showed details of the murder even though they rarely visited the scenes of the crimes. There was no doubt as to the biggest story the newspaper ever ran. We are all familiar with the events in Whitechapel in 1888 and the IPN devoted tens of thousands of words and many, many illustrations to the hunt for the Whitechapel murderer, now known as Jack the Ripper. Both illustrations and reports have featured heavily in films and books on the subject ever since. These reprinted stories from the IPN are not just about crime, they cover the Victorians' fascination with animals, wacky pastimes and attitudes to foreigners and women. If you are interested in Victorian life, and lowlife in particular, there is no better reference work. Many of these stories and illustrations are now reprinted for the first time. Profusely Illus. 104pp. 4to. softcover. F. with no creasing to covers. This copy particularly scarce as the fr. cover title appears as 'London's Court Cases and Sensational Stories' whereas the more common publication (same ISBN) is entitled 'Victorian Court Cases....'.