[CRIME]

The Trial of Jesse Strang For The Murder of John Whipple, At a Special Court of Oyer and Terminer Holden in Albany in July 1827

Albany: D. M'Glashan, 1827. First and Only Edition. Octavo (in 4's). 24cm. Stab bound pages, with the title page serving as the front cover, and no trace that the pamphlet was ever bound. 35pp. Some mild chipping to edges and extremities, most notably the upper right corner, toning and soiling to wraps; internally clean but uniformly toned with offsetting from the type throughout, edges untrimmed, luxuriously wide margins, some traces of careless opening in places. Very good by dint of survival and solidity rather than beauty, the paper is cheap, and the pamphlet was printed to leverage opportunity rather than posterity.

A notable, and at the time highly controversial trial, dealing with what was later referred to as "The Murder at Cherry Hill." The prominent New York Van Rensselaer family owned and lived at Cherry Hill Farm in Albany, the daughter Elsie was married, somewhat unhappily, to John Whipple and fell for a younger man she met in a bar, by the name of Jesse Strang. The couple fell in love, Elsie expressed her deep unhappiness with Whipple; Strang, masquerading under the name of Jesse Orton, took on a job at the farm and began an affair with Elsie which was maintained by the house staff (many of whom were enslaved people of color, whose testimonies were heard at the trial) passing notes between the two. Elsie, chafing somewhat at having to endure her legal husband, resolved that he must die to make way for Strang, and they would run away together to Canada.

The first plan was arsenic poisoning, which failed. What Elsie lacked in poisoning ability she made up for with murderous intent, and she purchased a rifle, removed the ammunition from her now somewhat suspicious husband's gun, and induced Strang (who does not come across as the sharpest tool in the shed) to shoot Whipple dead. Strang then attempted to fabricate an alibi, which did not hold up, and he was arrested. What followed was a widely publicised trial in which both defendants turned on each other, Elsie's status as the daughter of prominent landowners was leveraged as protection from any serious punishment, and Strang bore the brunt of the law. He had of course further doomed himself by attempting to plant evidence, lying under several oaths, and generally being one of the less gifted murderers of the early 19th century; he was hanged, Elsie went home to Cherry Hill, the Van Rensselaer's invested heavily in local collective amnesia, and the rest of the US stared somewhat incredulously and gossiped over their breakfast grits.
It was a carnival of awfulness that posed many questions about the societal rights and freedoms of women, the privileges of wealth, and the integrity of the judicial system. Fairly represented in institutions, with 20+ examples in US libraries, but scarce in commerce and usually in later binding.

Price: $400.00

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