Thread by @DigiVictorian

When notable Victorian murderers were sent to the gallows, the Illustrated Police News often printed vivid front-page illustrations imagining their tortured dreams on 'the night before the execution.'

Kate Webster was a maid who murdered & dismembered her mistress.

(1879)

The imagined dreams of Charles Peace — infamous Victorian burglar and murderer — on the night before his execution.

— Illustrated Police News (1879)

Another set of pre-execution dreams, this time attributed to Percy Lefroy Mapleton, who robbed and murdered a coin dealer named Isaac Gold on the London to Brighton train.
(1881)

The imagined dreams of Frederick Deeming on the eve of his execution. Deeming murdered his wife and four children and then buried them beneath the floor of a rented house in Rainhill. He fled to Australia and murdered his second wife there a few months later.
(1892)

More imagined pre-executions dreams, this time from Mary Pearcey, who was found guilty of murdering her lover's wife and child.

The use of so much black ink makes these dream sequences really striking — they'd have really stood out on the newsstands.
(1891)

The imagined dreams of Dr Thomas Neill Cream — The Lambeth Poisoner — on the eve of his execution. (1892)

The recurring tropes of these illustrations should be pretty clear now: the restless sleeping prisoner being read to; key scenes from their life & crimes; the execution.

These dream sequences are a great example of how *illustrated* news was able to explore topics in ways that later photographic journalism couldn't (or wouldn't) emulate. Artists could depict — or, rather, imagine — scenes that no camera could capture.

The transition from illustrated to photographic news isn't a straightforward story of technological progress — it enabled plenty of exciting new forms of reporting, but closed down others at the same time.

Of course, the artistic license enjoyed by the Illustrated Police News also invited accusations of gratuitous sensationalism. In 1886, readers of the Pall Mall Gazette voted it the 'Worst Newspaper in England'!

I did loads of research on the Illustrated Police News and its public reputation about 6 years ago and, for some reason, never got around to publishing it. I feel it calling me back!