ABSTRACT
Early modern Europeans experienced high levels of crime and insecurity. Accounts of particularly horrific murders were recorded and disseminated in pamphlets and newssheets designed for a wide public. Deliberately sensationalistic, such works aim to elicit an emotional reaction from their readers in much the same way that modern news media seek to sensationalize crime stories and exploit public anxiety about violent crimes. An Account Of a Horrid and Barbarous Murder, Committed On the Body of a Young Person supposed to be of a good Quality in the Fields beyond Whitechappel-Church, in the Parish of Stepny commonly known by the Name of Tom-turds Field where she was found, on Munday the 16th. of March, her Throat Cut, and several wounds upon her Body, which was there left stark Naked in one of the Pits belonging to the Field.
