A Complete History and Development of all the Extraordinary.

London, 1824. "A Faithful Picture of All the Fashionable 'Modern Hells' and 'Black-Legs' of the Metropolis" [Trials]. Thurtell, John (1794-1824). Probert, William (d.1825). Hunt, Joseph. A Complete History and Development of all the Extraordinary Circumstances and Events Connected with the Murder of Mr. Weare, Together with the Trial at Large, Including the Speeches of Counsel, Examination of Evidence, Defence, &c. &c. A Faithful Picture of All the Fashionable "Modern Hells" and "Black-Legs" of the Metropolis, With Sketches of the Principal Individuals Who Frequent Them, Whether in the Character of "Greeks" or "Pigeons." An Exposition of the Frauds Practised, The Immense Sums Won and Lost, And the Calamitous Events to Which this System of Nefarious Villany Has in Many Instances Led. Comprising Most Curious and Highly Interesting Details, Furnished from Original and Authentic Sources, With a View to Deter the Young and Unwary Novice from this Vortex of Vice and Misery. The Whole Forming a Genuine Series of Gambling Biography. London: Published by Jones and Co., 1824. 60, [3], 8-72, 61-266; 74 pp. 8 plates: 7 in text, 1 a portrait frontispiece (of Thurtell, Probert and Hunt). Final section has drop-head title reading: A History of the Gaming Houses, And Gamesters of the Metropolis. Complete. Octavo (9" x 5-3/4"). Recent three-quarter calf over marbled boards, raised bands, blind ornaments and lettering piece to spine, endpapers renewed, untrimmed edges. Moderate toning to interior, light foxing to margins of plates and some leaves, light soiling and foxing to title page. A handsome copy. $500. * Only edition, one of two issues, the other with a folding frontispiece. John Thurtell, an unlucky gambler, was deeply in debt to the crooked bookmaker William Weare. Deciding to get even with him, Thurtell, along with his friends Joseph Hunt and William Probert, murdered Weare in a grisly manner and tossed his body into a pond. Thurtell tried to escape conviction. He was hanged. Hunt confessed his involvement and stated that Thurtell was the killer. He was sent to the penal colony in Botany Bay, Australia. Charges against Probert were dropped in exchange for his wife's testimony. Nash, Encyclopedia of World Crime IV:2949-2950. Catalogue of the Library of the Harvard Law School (1909) II:1207.…