Cate Ludlow - The Terrific Register: The Book of Murder

[dem bones]

In similar ghoulish vein to Illustrated Police News & Co.


Cate Ludlow - The Terrific Register: The Book of Murder (History Press, 2009)

Blurb:
As a schoolboy, Charles Dickens took a copy of the Terrific Register every week, and he later recalled how it 'frightened my very wits out of my head, for the small charge of a penny weekly: which considering that there was an illustration to every number, in which there was always a pool of blood, and at least one body, was cheap.'

This selection contains the most gruesome tales from this 185-year-old publication. Including 'the horrible murder of a child by starvation', dreadful executions, foul tortures and one of the earliest mentions of a now notorious killer who turned his victims into pies, it will chill all but the sturdiest of hearts. Many of these tales have not appeared in print since Charles Dickens himself read them. Richly illustrated with original woodcuts, it will fascinate anyone with an interest in true crime.

Lurid accounts of the bloodiest deeds, including torture, cannibalism, dismemberment, murder, sadistic punishment - in short, horrible death in it's ghastliest guises. Back in the day, it seems everyone was at it, and, thankfully, the Terrific Register was around to embellish every foul deed in revolting detail. Features Sawney Beane (The Monster of Scotland), Dupre the Murderer, Horrible Affair in the Rue de la Harpe at Paris, (possibly the basis for the legend of Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett, though Peter Haining argues it is the other way around), the Murder of the Princess De Lamballe (inexplicably, the Terrific Register settle for one of the less depraved accounts), Horrible Murder of a Child by Starvation, Cruel Treatment of a Sailor Boy, various Horrors of the French Revolution (so many to choose from), Awful Consequences of Illicit Intercourse, & Co.

File under laugh out loud sick and twisted. The Newgate Calendar is about as gory as Crystal Tipps and Alistair #4: Bubble Trouble by comparison.

[ripper]

Cate Ludlow has also written or co-authored:

Tales from The Terrific Register: The Book of London

Tales from The Terrific Register: The Book of Ghosts

Tales from The Terrific Register: The Book of Wonders

Tales from The Terrific Register: The Book of Pirates and Highwaymen

Dickens' Dreadful Almanac: A Terrible Event for Every Day of the Year

A Grim Almanac of Georgian London


I have not read any of these, but have read a couple of other entries in the 'Grim Almanac' series, including Grim Almanac of the Workhouse, a horror a day of fires, murders and so forth in the workhouses of yesteryear.

[jamesdoig]

Cate Ludlow has certainly done all right out of the Terrific Register! It's a nice period piece but these days notable for the woodcuts (don't know how these photos will go - my scanner is out of order at the moment):

[dem bones]

Cate Ludlow (ed.) - Tales from the Terrific Register: The Book of Ghosts (History press, 2010).

Blurb:

As a schoolboy, Charles Dickens took a copy of the Terrific Register every week, and he later recalled how it 'frightened my very wits out of my head, for the small charge of a penny weekly.'

This selection contains all the finest ghost stories from this 185-year-old publication, many of which have not appeared in print since Charles Dickens himself read them. With countless reports of apparitions and premonitions of all kinds, extraordinary instances of second sight and visitations from spirits predicting fortunes, deaths and dreadful disasters, it will chill all but the sturdiest of hearts. Richly illustrated with original woodcuts, this book will fascinate all lovers of a good ghost story.

On the evidence of this selection, we can only conclude that ghosts were not the Register's strongest suit. Among the more interesting cases.

Apparition seen by Lord Lyttelton: Pit Place, near Epsom, Winter 1778. His lordship, abandoned in a riot of desperate orgy with his profligate friends receives an unwelcome bedside visitor - the ghost of a woman he seduced and deserted to take her own life. She urges him to seek repentance before he dies three midnights from now.

No Spectre: ... merely a manacled lunatic escaped from the stable to attack a guest at an inn. One of several rationalised stories. Set in French provinces.

Person Supposed Dead Returned To Life

A shoemaker's wife in the parish of Cripplegate, being thought dead, was, agreeable to her desire, buried in her wedding cloaths; her ring being on her finger, induced the sexton to open the grave in the night, in order to steal it; when finding it not easy to come off, he took his knife to cut the finger from the hand; which operation recalled the woman to her senses. and she rose from her coffin. The affrighted villain took to his heels; and she, taking his lantern, walked home, knocked on her husband, and lived several years after. Her monument is yet standing in Cripplegate-church.

Apparition of the Murdered Boy: With the onset of the French Revolution, Lady Pennyman and daughters relocate to Triste where they find luxury accommodation at a trifling rent. They soon find out why. The house is haunted by the ghost of the heir to a fortune, starved, imprisoned in a narrow iron cage, and slowly tortured to death by a grasping guardian who inherited all on the boy's demise.

Resuscitation: Strange history of Margaret Dickson, the Edinburgh alleged child-murderer who survived the rope.

Also The Radiant Boy; An Apparition seen by the Late Marguis of Londonderry; The Scalping Knife and Tomahawk, or Mode of Warfare Among American Industries; Well-Authenticated Account of Spectres - From Mr Spink's Journal; The Dismal Swamp of North America; Bonaparte And His Familiar; Barbarity Of The Native Tribes of Missouri & Co.

Woodcuts are delightful as ever.

[Swampirella]

Dec 26, 2020 11:58:35 GMT dem bones said:

Cate Ludlow (ed.) - Tales from the Terrific Register: The Book of Ghosts (History press, 2010).

Apparition of the Murdered Boy: With the onset of the French Revolution, Lady Pennyman and daughters relocate to Triste where they find luxury accommodation at a trifling rent. They soon find out why. The house is haunted by the ghost of the heir to a fortune, starved, imprisoned in a narrow iron cage, and slowly tortured to death by a grasping guardian who inherited all on the boy's demise.

Also to be found in "50 Great Ghost Stories" - "Ghosts of Old France" (Frank Usher)  where the story is set in Lille and the aristocrats are "Lord William and Lady Court and four of their children". Never heard of this version until now & know which one I like best.

[dem bones]

Cate Ludlow - Dickens' Dreadful Almanac: A Terrible Event for Every Day of the Year (History Press, 2010)

Blurb:
In among the pages of Dickens' monthly supplement to Household Words, a very strange and very British history lurks .

Under the headings of 'Narrative of Law and Crime' and 'Narrative of Accident and Disaster' may be found an astonishing catalogue of terrible, grisly, and most dreadful Victorian events. Fires and railway disasters abound; shipwrecks, floods, and 'horrible affairs' leap from every page. Some of the crimes would surprise even the most ardent fan of crime fiction—it is doubtful that so many cases of such shocking violence and awful ingenuity have been collected together in one volume since.
With a terrifying tale for every day of the year, Dickens' Dreadful Almanac will delight fans of his work everywhere.

Tales of everyday omnibus and railway disaster, plunging balloonists, extreme industrial injury, fatal conflagration, falling masonry, inadvisability of skating on frozen ponds, homicide, infanticide, suicide, insanity, etc. As with the Terrific Register compilations, you wonder at certain inclusions because some of these "terrible" events are not all that terrible. Fortunately, amongst entries on murder most mundane and non-fatal catastrophes, lurk the promised ghoulish horrors that we came for. Quoted below are two personal favourites.

Narrative of Accident and Disaster, Household Words, August 1851.

"A shocking case of Premature Burial has taken place at Tipperary. Mary Neill, a young woman, apparently died on the 3rd inst. in the poor house and was buried next day. On the morning of the 5th a man heard her cry as he passed close to her grave, and he ran as rapidly as possible to town, and gave the alarm. She was disinterred, and on opening her coffin, she was found lying on her right side, the shrouding torn, a cap which she wore on her head removed, and scratches and blood on her face, and other marks of recent violent exertion apparent, but she was quite dead. Her apparent death previously was sudden, but it is believed she was only sunk in a trance. She had been above twenty-four hours apparently dead previous to her interment."

And from October 1852.

"An attempt has been made to Burke a young woman at Yarmouth, named Mary Ann Proudfoot. She was found at night by the wall of a mill, all but suffocated; her clothes were torn, and there were marks of a struggle on her person; while over her face was fastened a plaster made of pitch and tar. She stated that the man who had beaten her and placed the plaster over her mouth was Samuel Howth,a corn-porter, by whom she was with child. She was a servant in the family of the merchant who employed Howth. The meeting was sought by Howth on pretence of providing money for the woman's lying-in. Howth was apprehended by the police and examined by the magistrate on the 19th. He is a man of forty, with a wife and family. Mary Ann Proudfoot is thirty-six; she has had two illegitimate children. Her appearance produced a sensation of horror in the court. Her head and face were swollen to nearly twice their original size: the features appeared to be completely destroyed. The face presented a blackened pulpy mass, produced by fearful blows inflicted by some blunt instrument while on the ground. She was greatly exhausted and almost bent double. From the poor creature’s evidence and that of other witnesses, it appears that the plaster was a very large one, sufficient to cover the face, head, and neck; it was made of Stockholm pitch and coal—tar spread on canvass. The woman stated that she tore off the plaster when Howth first threw it over her face; but he replaced it. Her screams brought persons to the spot in time to save her life. At Howth's house a kettle was found containing, tar and pitch, and a piece of canvass similar to that used for the plaster. One of his hands had a smear of tar upon it. A brace was found near the woman; Howth had but one brace to his trousers when arrested. The prisoner was remanded for a week."