“Romeo (the Laquay of Borlary) kils Radegonda, the Chamber maid of the Lady Fellisanna in the street, and is hanged for the same; Borlary afterwards hireth Castruchio (an Apothecary) to poyson her Husband Seignior Planeze, for the which Castruchio is hanged, and his body throwne into the River, and Borlary is beheaded, and then burnt.”

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.