A Copious Report of the Trial of Thomas Dewey, For the Wilful..

1825. Nottingham: Sutton and Son, 1825.. Nottingham: Sutton and Son, 1825. An Early (And Unsuccessful) Insanity Defense for the Impulsive Murder of a Woman [Trial]. Dewey, Thomas [d.1825], Defendant. A Copious Report of the Trial of Thomas Dewey, For the Wilful Murder of Maria Austin, Before the Hon. James Allan Park, Knt. On Monday, July 25, 1825, At the Town Hall, Nottingham. To Which is Added, Some Particulars of His Life, Character, Behaviour, And Execution. Copied from the Nottingham Review, With Some Additions. Nottingham: Printed and Sold by Sutton and Son, Review Office, [1825]. 22 pp. 12mo. (6-1/2" x 3-3/4"; 16.5 x 9.5 cm). Stab-stitched pamphlet in printed wrappers. Moderate toning, light soiling to exterior, a few creases to rear wrapper, faint dampstaining along spine and head of text block around gutter. A very good copy overall. $500. * Only edition. Thomas Dewey stabbed Maria Austin, a neighbor and acquaintance, after a quarrel in which she told him not to order her children about. Dewey claimed insanity (and several witnesses testified to this effect) but the judge and jury disagreed. He was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. Though it was unclear at trial whether a romantic connection between the two existed at the time of the murder, the account appended to the trial in our work suggests that Dewey was a womanizer jealous of Austin's husband, from whom she was estranged. It concludes with a poem titled "The Morning of Execution." OCLC locates 7 copies of this scarce title, 3 in North America (Harvard Law School, Library of Congress, University of Kansas). Library Hub locates no additional copies.