Publishing Eagle John (2 results)

Paperback. Condition: Brand New. 200 pages. 9.00x6.00x0.50 inches. In Stock.

Chicago: The Eagle Publishing Company, 1890. (illustrator). Chicago: The Eagle Publishing Company, 1890. A Sensational-And Seemingly Unrecorded-Fictionalized Account of the "Swamp Murder," One of the 19th Century's most Notorious International Crimes "Hawkshaw" (Fraser, John Arthur). The Swamp of Death; Or, The Benwell Murder. Chicago: The Eagle Publishing Company, 1890. 190 pp. Woodcut text illustrations. Octavo (7-1/4" x 5"; 18.4 x 12.7 cm). Original pictorial printed wrappers. Light spotting and soiling to wrappers; front wrapper partially detached but secure. Interior lightly toned. Small early owner stamp ("G.W. Stockman, M.D.") to head of front wrapper. A very good copy of an exceptionally rare title. $650. * In February 1890, the body of Frederick Cornwallis Benwell was found executed in Ontario's Blenheim Swamp. The culprit was John Reginald Birchall, an Oxford-educated grifter who ran a "Farm Pupil" scam, luring wealthy young Englishmen to Canada with promises of agricultural partnerships only to murder them for their capital. The ensuing investigation was led by John Wilson Murray, Canada's first government detective (and the real-life inspiration for The Murdoch Mysteries). Murray's use of post-mortem photography-published in newspapers to identify the victim-marked a landmark moment in forensic history. The trial in Woodstock, Ontario, became a global media sensation, culminating in Birchall's execution in November 1890. This edition is unrecorded in OCLC. While a single copy of this title is listed under the M.A. Donohue & Co. imprint, this Eagle Publishing Company edition is entirely unlocated in institutional holdings. A rare survival of "true crime" ephemera produced at the height of the public's obsession with the case, offering a fictionalized but immediate perspective on a foundational Canadian forensic mystery.