Trial, execution, and Confession of Mary Wittenback, for Poisoning her Husband, and who was Executed at the Old Bailey this Morning

Execution broadside printed with an account of the trial and execution of Mary Wittinback of 26 Brill Place, Kentish Town who was convicted of murdering her husband by 'administering arsenic' in a pudding. The broadside includes a generic woodcut engraving of the gallows and the crowd witnessing the public execution that took place in September 1827. Printed with witness accounts heard at the trial the broadside also includes a ballad about the crime. Another account of this crime was published by Charles Piggott.
Until 1868 public hangings were a popular form of entertainment for the London crowd. Such occasions provided an opportunity for cheap printers and street vendors to 'turn a penny on the street' by selling accounts of the crimes, trial and 'dying speeches' of executed criminals as souvenirs to the baying spectactors. As soon as the trap fell the street vendors began running amongst the crowd selling the broadsides. Execution broadsides were published by a small number of printers many of whom, such as Thomas Birt, James Catnach and James Pitts were based around the Seven Dials area of London. Spelling and grammar was often poor and the details not always accurate. Although ususally printed between the end of the trial and the date of the execution (usually a gap of a few weeks) they could be quickly changed to accomodate last minute information such as reprieves and dying confessions. The printers often used battered woodcuts, and, for the gallows scene used a stock block with a pierced central section to allow the sex and required number of hanging figures to be changed as required. Female criminals were depicted by using a block for a male figure, cut square at the knee to represent a skirt.