Trials and Execution of George Wyeth & Alexander Ephraim Shorter, alias Thomas Shorter, who were Executed in Front of the Old Bailey This Morning

Execution broadside printed with an account of the crimes, trial and execution at the Old Bailey of George Wyeth convicted of highway robbery and Alexander Ephraim Shorter, alias Thomas Shorter aged 50 convicted of forgery. The broadside, printed by Thomas Birt includes a woodcut engraving depicting the crowds before the gallows and concludes with a moral poem. Printed a few weeks before the execution date the broadside also includes details of the trial of the convicted burglar Samuel Weedon aged 35 who was also due for execution on the same day but was reprieved at the last minute.

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, as in this case to accomodate last minute reprieves. 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.