UofL Libraries: Legal History of Murder: Trials

Celebrated trials have long been of popular interest and in the 19th and early 20th centuries books and pamphlets containing full or partial trial transcripts were widely published.

Historic Trials (Transcripts & Accounts)

Crime, Punishment, and Popular Culture
Includes historic American and foreign manuscripts, books, broadsheets, and periodicals from 1790-1920.
JSTOR
Search for a specific murder.
Making of Modern Law
Digital images of legal treatises on US and British law published(1800-1926), trials (1600-1926), and primary sources (1620-1926).

Websites

English Crime and Execution Broadsides
Crime Broadsides Collected by the Harvard Law School
Google Books
Search for a specific murder.
Homicide In Chicago 1870-1930
Murder by Gaslight
Blog on 19th century American murders. Includes a murder list.
The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913
Trial Pamphlets Collection at Cornell University
Contemporary accounts of trials from the 1600s to 1800s

Black and white illustration of a man hitting a woman with a cane with text saying The Murderer at His Cruel Work — *Public domain image published before 1850.*

Newspapers

Newspapers are an excellent source for trials. See the 'News' tab of this guide for more.

Books

Law Library Catalog
The Law Library has many accounts of murder in the KF section of texts in the basement.
Louisville Free Public Library
True crime is very popular at the public library, and it is easy to get a library card as a Louisville resident.

American state trials by John D. Lawson
Call Number: KF 220.A54 1914
Publication Date: 1914-1936
A collection of the important and interesting criminal trials which have taken place in the United States.