TWENTY-FIVE ISSUES OF THE ILLUSTRATED POLICE NEWS, LAW-COURTS AND WEEKLY RECORD

Boston: Police News Publishing House, 1895. Large folios, 13" x 18." Each 16pp. Original printed and ornately illustrated wrappers with decorative masthead. Printed in four columns per page. Profusely and extravagantly illustrated. Light wear, occasional closed tears, a few random pieces of paper tape, some tanning and foxing, some stitched and others with pinholes in blank inner margin from previous stitching. A handful are uncut; Volume 49, Issue 1279 is bound out of order. Very Good .

The Illustrated Police News, Law-Courts and Weekly Record was an American weekly periodical, published from about 1864 to 1904 with an early weekly circulation of 50,000. In similar style to its New York contemporary, the National Police Gazette, it had a popular, sensationalist style of reporting news of crime and legal proceedings, as well as boxing news, sports and occasional western stories on figures such as Billy the Kid and Bat Masterson. Editors/owners included John Stetson and A. H. Millett. [Wikipedia.] The issues offered here are:
Vol. 20, No. 510 [August 3, 1876]; Vol. 24, No. 603 and 610 [May 18, 1878, and July 6, 1878]; Vol. 28, No. 714 [July 3, 1880]; Vol. 32, No. 817 [June 24,1882]; Vol. 49, 1279 [April 25, 1891]; Vol. 51, No. 1302 [October 3, 1891]; Vol 52, No. 1330 [April 16, 1892]; Vol. 56, Nos. 1419, 1421, 1438, 1440, 1443, 1445, 1455, 1456 [December 30, 1893; January 13, 1894, May 12, 1894; May 26, 1894; June 16, 1894; June 30, 1894; September 8 and 15,1894]; Vol. 57, Nos. 1457, 1460, 1469-1471, 1473 [September 22, 1894; October 13, 1894; December 15, 22 and 29, 1894, January 12, 1895] Vol. 58, Nos. 1483, 1498 [March 23, 1895 and July 6, 1895]; Vol. 59, No. 1509 [September 21, 1895].
These issues are profusely illustrated with scenes of murder, mayhem, portraits of wanted criminals, and other criminal and questionable activities. Female criminals and victims are frequently sexualized by the state or style of their clothing. They are filled with articles describing in detail salacious stories, murder/suicides, bludgeonings, lynchings, crimes against women; female highway robbers; beheadings; executions; and the heinous crime of showing too much leg or bosom. As with most crime rags, interspersed among the criminal material are a treasure trove of sports stories and illustrations of pugilists and other sportsmen.
Samples of featured stories and illustrations: Mrs. Waushabaugh uses her shotgun to save Negro from mob seeking to lynch him; Eugen Sandow peeped upon by ladies while he stood stripped behind a door; capsizing of Yacht Mohawk in New York Harbor with recovery of bodies, including wife of Vice Commodore Wm. T. Garner; physician mutilated by fellow physicians, followed by a game of dice for his body parts; "Sheeny Mike's" mob; knife-wielding "burly Negro", the "county terror," shot by constable; gang tears clothing off Mrs. Stephen Packard and tar and feather her; Polish Jews run in by wholesale; Mexicans disguised as Indians kill 25 adults and 15 children between 7-12 years old, the latter by disemboweling; Pearl Starr, outlaw madam and daughter of infamous "Bandit Queen" and bordello keeper, Belle Starr; human flesh at meat market during great famine of Northern China; brutal revenge on Negro by tying him by neck to wild horse, to be dragged to death; "colored" children bury their playmate alive; nude dancers in New York City Turkish parlors; faithless Piute wife torn apart by horses for committing adultery; execution of Jacob Levels, colored, for murder of Robert Swan; Indians "sun dance" with young braves, passing lariats through their flesh and dancing until the flesh gives way; mother poisons young children and arranges their bodies on bed to show husband when he arrives home; nurse breaks infant's neck; "colored" mother threatens mayor to drop her baby in his lap if he doesn't give her a pass to Pruitts, Kentucky; last execution in Arizona under Seminole law with Seminole Indians Charley Frog and John Wolf executed by their people after killing fellow tribesman over a card game.
Boxing and other sporting names and news: George Lavigne match ends with tragic fatal knockout of Andy Bowen; Joseph N. Wolcott, "Barbados Black", colored victor over Mike Harris, "the Gotham Hebrew"; Frank Craig "Harlem Coffee Cooler", Champion Colored Middleweight knocks out England's champion; Andy Watson, Lightweight Colored Boxing Champion of the East; Joseph B. Choyinski; John L. Sullivan; "Kid" Blue, Southwestern colored profession boxer of Georgia; Billy Smith; Tommy McCartney; James Elliott; George Powell; Charles G. Jefferson; John T. Griffin; Billy Murphy; Bob Fitzsimmons; and many others. Eugen Sandow, legend German bodybuilder and strongman. Baseball figures such as James Sullivan of Boston; and John Ewing and Louis Whisler of New York.