Attempted Murder of a Wife by Her Husband, Near Banbury, Oxfordshire
Unrecorded Oxfordshire Ephemera: A Graphic Mid-Victorian Murder Broadside [Broadside]. [Murder]. [Great Britain]. Attempted Murder of a Wife by Her Husband, Near Banbury, Oxfordshire. Reading: Jones, Printer, [1849]. 14-1/2" x 10" (36.8 x 25.4 cm) broadside, triple-column text below headline and woodcut image of a man stabbing a woman flanked by six stanzas of verse. Light toning and edgewear, vertical and horizontal folds, the latter with early repair, fold line to lower right-hand corner, light foxing to margins, negligible faint dampstain to left-hand margin touching a bit of text. A remarkably well-preserved example of fragile Victorian street literature. $3,850. * A chilling primary account of the case of James Layton. Driven by financial ruin and paranoid delusions, Layton attacked his wife with both a pistol and a knife during a walk near Banbury. Despite the intervention of nearby laborers, the victim eventually succumbed to her wounds. The case is a significant example of mid-19th-century forensic psychiatry; Layton was ultimately found "not guilty by reason of insanity," reflecting the evolving legal treatment of mental illness in the Victorian era. This rare broadside appears to be unrecorded. No copies located on OCLC or Library Hub. Not at the British Library or the university of Oxford.
Price: $3,850.00
Book number 71787