Hunter-Armstrong Tragedy, The Great Trial, Conviction of Benj F..

1878. Philadelphia: Barclay & Co., 1878.. Philadelphia: Barclay & Co., 1878. An Axe-Murder in Camden, NJ: McDade 494 [Trial]. Hunter, Benjamin F. [d. 1879], Defendant. Hunter-Armstrong Tragedy. The Great Trial. Conviction of Benj. F. Hunter, For the Murder of John M. Armstrong. Philadelphia: Barclay & Company, 1878. [ii], 19-86 pp. Main text in parallel columns. 7 full-page woodcuts. Octavo (9-1/2" x 5-3/4"; 24.1 x 14.6 cm). Stab-stitched pamphlet in pictorial wrappers, cover title reads, in part: The Life, Trial and Execution of Benjamin F. Hunter. Light soiling, moderate edgewear and a few chips and tears to edges of wrappers, which are beginning to detach at foot of spine. Moderate toning to text, faint dampstaining to a few leaves. $750. * First edition, one of five issues. "Hunter had lost $7,000 when he invested in Armstrong's music-publishing company. Thinking to turn his loss into a profit, he insured Armstrong's life for $25,000. With a hired assistant, Tom Graham, he enticed Armstrong to Camden, New Jersey, and there bashed his head in with an axe which he had carefully marked with the initials of another man to throw suspicion on him. Though he remained unconscious, Armstrong survived, and Hunter, calling at his home, hastened his death by tearing the bandages from his head. Graham confessed and Hunter was convicted and hanged, and he was actually hanged by hand" (McDade). Other issues of this pamphlet have different cover titles and paginations. All are scarce. OCLC locates 7 copies of our 86-page issue, 1 in a law library (University of Missouri). McDade, The Annals of Murder 494.