An Account of the Trial and Execution of Edward Davey Dunn, James Goff, and Edward Crawley, for burglary, who Suffered in Front of the Old Bailey this Morning

Execution broadside printed with an account of the trial and execution of Edward Davey Dunn (aged 17) and James Goff (aged 21) found guilty of burglary and stealing goods including a cruet set, toast rack and silver spoons from the home of Alexander Brice, 17 Euston Square, March 1825. A third burglar Edward Crawley (aged 17) was also found guilty at the trial but was reprieved from execution. The broadside includes a witness statement from the local watchman and notes that the three men attended services at the Chapel of Newgate and sought God's forgiveness for their crime. A similar broadside for the same 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. This broadside, for example, implies all three criminals were executed although Crawley was reprieved at the last moment. 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.