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.
- JSTORSearch 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 BroadsidesCrime Broadsides Collected by the Harvard Law School
- Google BooksSearch for a specific murder.
- Murder by GaslightBlog on 19th century American murders. Includes a murder list.
- Trial Pamphlets Collection at Cornell UniversityContemporary accounts of trials from the 1600s to 1800s
Newspapers
Newspapers are an excellent source for trials. See the 'News' tab of this guide for more.
Books
- Law Library CatalogThe Law Library has many accounts of murder in the KF section of texts in the basement.
- Louisville Free Public LibraryTrue crime is very popular at the public library, and it is easy to get a library card as a Louisville resident.
- American state trials byCall Number: KF 220.A54 1914Publication Date: 1914-1936A collection of the important and interesting criminal trials which have taken place in the United States.