“Pont Chausey kils La Roche in a Duell. Quatbrisson causeth Moncallier (an Apothecary) to poyson his owne Brother Valfontaine, Moncallier after fals, and breaks his necke from a paire of staires. Quatbrisson likewise causeth his Fathers Miller to murther, and strangle Marieta in her Bed, and to throw her body into his Mill-Pond; Pierot the Miller is broken alive on a wheele, and Quatbrisson first beheaded, then burnt for the same.”

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.