Reporting Local Murders
Of the articles concerning murder, murders committed in state, especially ones committed in the counties surrounding Williamsburg, were more likely to get multiple articles updating the population on the progress of a trial, to demonstrate this, consider the murder of James Beech by his wife Sarah and her lover Roland Holmes. This crime was committed in a dramatic fashion, as after the murder occurred, an attempt was made to disguise the crime as an accident, as the body was moved by boat to a railway junction where it was discovered the next day, with some body parts having been blown 30 feet away from the tracks as the corpse was smashed to pieces overnight by an eastbound train. This one crime generated 5 separate articles as the trial progressed. The first reported that the body had been found and that murder was suspected, while establishing that the wife and lover had been arrested with strong evidence against them. The second announced the formation of a grand jury to indict the pair. The third noted that Holmes, the lover, had confessed to the murder. The fourth printed his confession in full. And the fifth, in dramatic fashion, announced that the trial had been conducted and the pair convicted. These articles vary in length, with the announcement of the Grand Jury members being the shortest article recorded at 67 words, and the article first announcing the murder being the fourth longest of all issues recorded coming in ten words behind the third longest The average length of these five articles comes to 199 words per article. As the paper aged, articles concerning in state murders were more likely to see the front page, however across the years under a quarter of in state murders were actually printed on the front page.