Murder in the Alexandria Gazette, 1900 & 1920

While completing this project, I noticed that murder was the easiest term to find. According to historian Randolph Roth starting in the late 19^th century homicide rates in the United States started to diverge from the rates of the rest of the world. According to him, all kinds of homicide skyrocketed from robbery murders to workplace murders. Americans were becoming more willing to kill not only their friends but strangers as well.[1]

• MURDER, FIRST AND SECOND DEGREE § 4393 Murder by poison, lying in wait, imprisonment, starving, or by any wilful, deliberate, and premeditated killing, or in the commission of, or attempt to commit arson, rape, robbery, or burglary, is murder of the first degree. All other murder is murder of the second degree.
  • FIRST DEGREE; HOW PUNISHED § 3663 Murder of the first degree shall be punished with death, or by confinement in the penitentiary for life, or for any term not less than twenty years.
  • SECOND DEGREE; HOW PUNISHED § 3664 Murder of the second degree shall be punished by confinement in the penitentiary not less than five nor more than twenty years.
• **VOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER; HOW PUNISHED § 3665 Voluntary manslaughter, shall be punished by confinement in the penitentiary not less than one nor more than five years.
• **INVOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER; HOW PUNISHED § 3666 Manslaughter is the unlawful killing of another, without malice, either express or implied; which may be either voluntary, upon a sudden heat, or involuntary, in the commission of some unlawful act. Involuntary manslaughter shall be punished by confinement in the penitentiary not less than one nor more than five years; or, in the discretion of the jury, by a fine of not exceeding one thousand one thousand dollars, or confinement in jail not exceeding a year.
• ATTEMPTS TO POSION; HOW PUNISHED § 3669 If any person administer or attempt to administer any poison or destructive thing in food, drink, medicine, or otherwise, or poison any spring, well, or reservoir of water with intent to kill or injure another person he shall be confined in the penitentiary not less than three nor more than eighteen years.
• SHOOTING, STABBING, ETC., WITH INTENT TO MAIM, KILL, ETC. § 3671 If any person maliciously shoot, stab, cut, or wound any person or by any means cause him bodily injury, with intent to maim, disfigure, disable, or kill, he shall, except where it is otherwise provided, be punished by confinement in the penitentiary not less than one nor more than ten years. If such act be done unlawfully, not maliciously, with the intent aforesaid, the offender shall, in the discretion of the jury, be confined in the penitentiary not less than one nor more than five years, or be confined in jail not exceeding twelve months, and fined not exceeding five hundred dollars.
• FIGHTING A DUEL, OR SENDING A CHALLENGE; HOW PUNISHED § 3686 If any person fight a duel with any deadly weapon through no death ensue, or send or deliver to another a challenge, or message intended to be a challenge, oral or written, to fight a duel, though no duel ensue, he shall be confined in jail not more than one year, and be fined not exceeding one thousand dollars.

**DISTINCTION BETWEEN VOLUNTARY AND INVOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER- Onn a trial for murder, where the evidence repelled the idea of self-defense the court instructed the jury that if they believed from the evidence the deceased and prisoner struck the deceased an ordinary blow or blows with his fists or feet, without any intention either to kill the deceased or to do him great bodily harm, but to repel his attacks, and that the death of the deceased was caused thereby accidentally and apart from the prisoners intention, then the prisoner is guilty of involuntary manslaughter. Yet if the jury are satisfied that the manner of inflicting the blows are cruel and unusual, and exceed in number and violence what was the necessary to repel the deceased, and he died of such beating, then the prisoner is guilty of voluntary manslaughter.[2]

The cases on murder reported in the Alexandria Gazette, are pretty to the point. Most of the stories are rather short and give necessary details included with the report. There are a few stories in which the details included were not necessary to the story. The reporting style is sensationalist; with the stories including details of mobs, lynching, and in-depth details of certain crimes. These stories primarily were included amongst other stories and rarely got their own headlines until the 1920s. I think that the reason for this is because the Alexandria Gazette started as a political newspaper and still focuses primarily on giving its reader political news in state, out of state, and out of country when possible.