Fiction, Crime, and Empire by Jon Thomson was a pretty useful tool when thinking about the essay. It explores the nature of crime fiction, describing how it tells the story of a real crime but in a slightly modified way. We view these true crime stories as non-fiction, but are there elements of fiction within them? He says something happens similarly when crimes are reported through the media, it almost seems like they're run through some sort of filter. In his video lecture where he talks about Fiction, Crime, and Empire, Dr. Reed talks about how our interest in crime raises the more knowledge we have about that crime or criminal. Overall, the article observes how criminals are viewed in various mediums and the difference in how we view fiction and non fiction stories about murder.
The Maul and the Pear Tree is an account of the Ratcliffe Highway Murders of 1811 written by P.D. James. She wrote the book in 1971, exactly 160 years after the crimes took place. The Ratcliffe Highway Murders involve two separate break-ins and murders that happened 12 days apart. The first victims were a young couple Timothy and Celia Marr, and their just months-old baby. The second victims were a pub owner named John Williamson, his wife Elizabeth, and their servant Bridget Anna Harrington. The principal subject for the murders, a man named John Williams, seemingly had no connection to the families. He was declared guilty after he committed suicide by hanging in his cell. As we can see from this poster, the language used when talking about a crime was much different than the language we use today! However, our attitudes towards murderers and unsolved crimes seems to be the same. Lynchings, for example, used to be public events and seen as entertainment. While we may not take it...
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