“Maurice like a bloody villaine, and damnable sonne, throwes his Mother Christina into a Well, and drownes her: the same hand and arme of his wherewith he did it, rots away from his body; and being discrazed of his wi [...]s in prison, hee there conf [...]h this foule and inhumane murther, for the which he is hanged.”
Featured on PDR in the collection John Reynolds’ Book of Murder Tales (1621–1635)
We don’t know the year of John Reynolds’ birth or death, but according to the Dictionary of National Biography, he “flourished” between 1620 and 1640, at which time he must have been in his thirties and forties (give or take a few years). Born in Exeter — and known to his contemporaries as “John Reynolds, merchant of Exeter”, to distinguish him from other writers of the same name — he traveled on business to France, Spain, and probably Italy, where he collected the stories that make up his six-volume Triumphs of Gods Revenge and the Crying and Execrable Sin of (Wilful and Premeditated) Murther — one of the earliest examples of “true crime” writing in English.
Also appearing in the collection…
“Maurice like a bloody villain, and damnable son, throws his Mother Christina into a...”
Artist
Date
1621–1635
From
Triumphs of Gods Revenge and the Crying and Execrable Sin of (Wilful and Premeditated) Murther
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