A Treasury of Victorian Murder
**A Treasury of Victorian Murder** is a graphic novel series created by Rick Geary, first published in 1987, that examines infamous murder cases from the Victorian era (1837-1901) in Great Britain and the United States. Each volume presents various historical murder cases through a combination of detailed illustrations and engaging narratives, exploring the societal context and public fascination with these crimes. The series includes notable cases such as the unsolved mystery of Jack the Ripper, the Lizzie Borden double murder, and the assassination of President James A. Garfield. Geary employs a distinctive artistic style reminiscent of old newspaper engravings, using stark black lines and detailed illustrations without speech balloons, relying instead on narrative boxes to tell the stories.
The thematic focus of the series revolves around the interpersonal anxieties of a rapidly industrializing Victorian society, coupled with the sensationalized coverage of crime by contemporary media. The work is notable for its meticulous research, providing historical context that enhances the reader's understanding of the times and events. Over its nine volumes, the series has contributed to the recognition of graphic novels as serious literature, often recommended for educational use in history classes. Through its combination of true crime, history, and artistic expression, **A Treasury of Victorian Murder** offers a compelling glimpse into the darker aspects of Victorian life and the enduring intrigue surrounding its notorious murders.
A Treasury of Victorian Murder
AUTHOR: Geary, Rick
ARTIST: Rick Geary (illustrator)
PUBLISHER: NBM
FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 1987-2007
Publication History
Nantier Beall Minoustchine (NBM) published the first volume of Rick Geary’s A Treasury of Victorian Murder in 1987. This anthology was republished in a smaller format in 2002, making it consistent in size with the other volumes in the series. The second volume, Jack the Ripper, was also reprinted after it initially went out of print. The second edition of The Borden Tragedy included a selection of newspaper clippings concerning the original case. The ninth and final volume of the series was published in 2007, and Geary began to publish graphic novels based on twentieth-century murders the following year. All of the titles in A Treasury of Victorian Murder were released in both hardcover and paperback editions in 2008. Several volumes were also made available as e-books.
Plot
A Treasury of Victorian Murder presents famous murder cases from the Victorian era (1837-1901) in both Great Britain and the United States. With a deadpan delivery and often flowery narration reminiscent of the writing style of the era, Geary’s treatment of these cases is not lurid but provides background context that is accessible to both young adult and adult readers. The separate volumes may be read in any order, as they do not follow any discernible time line. However, the first volume offers valuable background information on this era, providing a concise look at celebrated events and illustrious personages of the Victorian age and illuminating eighteen famous murderers. Of the eighteen cases, Geary highlights only two in subsequent volumes: those of Jack the Ripper and Madeleine Smith.
The introductory volume consists of three stories of unequal length. The first story introduces the unsolved 1873 murder of the Ryan siblings in New York City. The second tale involves the murderous physician Edward WilliamPrichard, who kills his wife and mother-in-law in 1865. Despite the suspicions of Prichard’s medical colleagues, nothing is done to save the lives of his victims. Prichard, an inept doctor and self-absorbed sociopath, becomes the last person to be publicly executed in Scotland. The final story is that of Mary Eleanor Pearcey, who brutally kills her lover’s wife and youngest child in 1890.
Jack the Ripper is the subject of Geary’s second volume. Geary presents the story through the lens of a faux journal of an unknown British gentleman and armchair detective. While many theories about Jack the Ripper are presented in Geary’s rendition, he does not favor any as the ultimate solution, leaving such speculation to his reading audience.
The subject of an equally infamous murder case, Lizzie Borden, is also presented through the lens of a “recently discovered” memoir, this time of a female acquaintance of the young woman. The account begins with the murders and Borden’s arrest and then explores the family background and dynamics of the case, as narrated by the young woman “playing detective.” Extensive research is put forth, including a time line of two days before the tragedy and an hourly diary of the events of the day of the murders.
In the fourth volume, Geary focuses on the personal and political motivation behind the assassination of President James A. Garfield in 1881. Charles Julius Guiteau shoots the president as a “political necessity” and feels that he is not guilty of murder because the bullet takes several months to kill Garfield. The topic of the fifth volume is the unsolved 1841 murder of the young clerk Mary Rogers, whose story was superficially adapted by Edgar Allan Poe as the short story “The Mystery of Marie Rogêt.” Again, Geary dispassionately presents the numerous theories proposed by the media at the time of the murder, highlighting the changes Poe made to his short story to concur with contemporary speculation.
The sixth volume follows the path of a known murderer, this time the proprietor of a rooming house built to his own peculiar specifications. H. H. Holmes reinvents himself numerous times to victimize mostly young women. He continuously flees compromising situations and danger until he is arrested for insurance fraud. The Pinkerton Detectives are brought on the case and uncover more than fifty missing people dispatched by Holmes.
The assassination of Abraham Lincoln is the focus of Geary’s next volume. Geary provides the reader with contextual information and compares Lincoln’s dream of his own assassination with the actual event. The story also details the aftermath of the assassination.
An unsolved murder and a classic case of class differences is explored in the story of Madeleine Smith, a young woman who becomes enthralled with an unsuitable man. She pens 198 passionate letters to Pierre Emile L’Angelier, sixty of which are read at her trial. When he refuses to destroy the letters or return them to her, she allegedly resorts to arsenic to rid herself of his persistence. Her guilt cannot be proved by the courts, and she goes free.
The final volume takes place in Kansas and concerns the bloody Bender family. Geary provides maps and historical context, illuminating several theories regarding the family members and the various murders.
Volumes
•A Treasury of Victorian Murder,Volume 1 (1987). Three murder cases that exemplify the Victorian era and its fascination with murder are explored.
•Jack the Ripper: A Journal of the Whitechapel Murders (1995). The infamous unsolved serial murders of Whitechapel are presented along with maps and contextual information concerning the area, the people involved, and the various theories regarding the possible identity of Jack the Ripper.
•The Borden Tragedy: A Memoir of the Infamous Double Murder at Fall River, Mass., 1892 (1997). The double murder of Lizzie Borden’s father and stepmother is explored, with particular focus on the subsequent trial of Borden both in court and in the media.
•The Fatal Bullet: The Assassination of President James A. Garfield (1999). The life paths of Garfield and his assassin, Guiteau, are compared and contrasted.
•The Mystery of Mary Rogers (2001). The unsolved murder of Rogers is played against the background of the inefficient New York Police Department and the various theories regarding her death.
•The Beast of Chicago: The Murderous Career of H. H. Holmes (2003). The lives and deaths of Holmes and his victims are explored in the context of the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893.
•The Murder of Abraham Lincoln (2005). The assassination of Lincoln and the events surrounding it are chronicled, beginning with the development of the conspiracy and ending after the death of the assassin, Booth.
•The Case of Madeleine Smith (2006). Smith’s arrest for poisoning her lover, failure to be convicted, and later life are examined.
•The Saga of the Bloody Benders (2007). The crimes of the notorious Bender family are contrasted with the everyday details of pioneer life of Kansas in the early 1870’s.
Characters
•Nicholas Ryan is a young man who lives with his sister, Mary, in New York City. The 1873 murders of Ryan and his pregnant sister go unsolved; there is speculation, however, that Ryan may have been the father of Mary’s child.
•Dr. Edward William Prichard is a successful and charming physician living in Glasgow, Scotland; he poisons his mother-in-law and wife in 1865. The murder trial uncovers the depths of his misrepresentations regarding his education and personal relationships.
•Mary Eleanor Pearcey is an unattractive widow fixated on her neighbor, Frank Hogg. Hoping that he will return her passion, she murders his wife and their baby.
•Narrator is an unknown British gentleman who lives in London during the time of the Jack the Ripper attacks and subsequent investigation. He is an amateur detective and crime buff with contacts in police departments.
•Lizzie Borden is a spinster living with her father, stepmother, and sister when her father and stepmother are murdered. She is the prime suspect for the murders but is acquitted.
•James A. Garfield is the twentieth president of the United States. He is known as an honest, courageous, humble, and steadfast person, having demonstrated these qualities throughout his political career. He is assassinated in 1881.
•Charles Julius Guiteau is an ambitious lawyer with a limited conscience who attempts to gain a foothold in politics through any means necessary. Seeking fame, he fatally shoots President Garfield.
•Mary Rogers is a clerk known as the “Beautiful Cigar Girl” who works in John Anderson’s tobacco store in New York City. Her unsolved murder becomes a national sensation.
•Herman W. Mudgett, a.k.a. H. H. Holmes, is a con artist, bigamist, and serial killer. He turns his Chicago boarding house into a “murder castle.”
•Abraham Lincoln is the sixteenth president of the United States. Although highly regarded as a passionate and wise leader, he is assassinated in 1865.
•John Wilkes Booth is an actor who is outraged by the South’s defeat in the American Civil War and strongly opposes the abolition of slavery. He assassinates Lincoln and later dies while attempting to escape pursuit.
•Madeleine Smith is a woman from a wealthy family who breaks societal conventions by falling in love with the working-class L’Angelier. She is accused of poisoning him with arsenic but is acquitted.
•Pierre Emile L’Angelier is Smith’s working-class lover. He resorts to blackmail attempts to stop Smith from breaking off their affair, using the passionate letters she had written to him over the course of their two-year relationship. He dies of arsenic poisoning.
•Kate Bender is an attractive and outgoing woman who orchestrates the murder of visitors to her family’s Wayside Inn. She and her family are responsible for eleven known murders, but they escape before the victims are discovered and are never apprehended.
•Colonel Ed York is the brother of murder victim Dr. William York. He inadvertently alerts the Bender family to their upcoming discovery while tracing his brother to the Wayside Inn. His brother’s body is the first to be uncovered when the property is searched.
Artistic Style
The sole creator of the Treasury of Victorian Murder, Geary researched, wrote, illustrated, and lettered the pages and covers of all nine volumes. Geary’s clean and stark black lines on a white background produce a woodcut quality that is evocative of old newspaper engravings and reminiscent of the style of artist Edward Gorey. His finely detailed illustrations lack shading and, surprising for a comic, speech balloons. There is no direct dialogue; all of the text appears in narration boxes or in long listings of questions collected for the reader.
Geary uses a consistent format for all of the stories. The cover of each volume is printed in full color. The splash page introduces the characters and the specific setting; a wide variety of rectangular panels follows, interspersed and often overlaid with circular panels that introduce characters and provide a portal into the past. The characters and individual settings are immediately recognizable, and both contain moody and distinct nuances, expressing the often sinister aspects of the story. Geary utilizes half pages, full pages, and double-page spreads to add suspense and horror to the narrative. Rarely do two consecutive panels illuminate the same character or setting; these frequently changing images create a detached sense of urgency and suspense. The detailed and dark illustrations are graphic enough to convey the severity and violence of the crimes, but the art is neither morbid nor gruesome. Geary’s use of language, often overblown and flowery, provides a counterpoint to his restrained images.
Themes
The title of the series sets out the thematic parameters: infamous murders that took place in the Victorian era in Great Britain and the United States. The murder victims and their killers are essentially from all walks of life, but the upper-middle-class stratum is the focus of the majority of the cases. In addition, each of the cases selected for inclusion in the series is shown to have been the subject of much public interest and speculation in the contemporary press. In his introduction to the first volume, Geary asserts that such crimes were characterized by interpersonal anxieties triggered by the rapidly industrializing, sexually repressive Victorian society and encouraged by the frenetic energy and sensational attentiveness of the popular press. Geary’s comparison of Victorian newspaper coverage of murders to modern media coverage of similar crimes is an underlying theme throughout the series.
Along with public sensationalism, the series explores true crime, history, and mysteries. Geary’s fascination with the darker elements of the Victorian era, the advent of sensationalized press coverage, and the macabre rationales for many of the murders is clearly reflected in his dispassionate but engaging exploration of these crimes. His meticulous research and illumination of the people, places, and events bring the seedy edge of the Victorian era to life.
Impact
Geary’s work on A Treasury of Victorian Murder and other historical nonfiction titles has aided in the acceptance of the comic book format as a viable and vital reading material in schools and libraries. His treatment of the evidence offers an accurate and detached, but horrific, view of the murders and demonstrates a strong affinity for illuminating the images, mood, and language of Victorian society. Geary’s presentation of the fascination that Victorians had with death never waivers through the nine volumes, nor does his attention to detail, as evidenced by the numerous maps, floor plans, and character studies provided for background. His inclusion of bibliographical information further indicates the serious intent of the work. This entertaining and educational series has been frequently recommended for inclusion in history classes.
Further Reading
Bendis, Brian Michael, and Marc Anderyko. Torso (2002).
Geary, Rick. A Treasury of Twentieth Century Murder (2008- ).
Moore, Alan, and Eddie Campbell. From Hell (1999).
Bibliography
Geary, Rick. “The Power of Old-Fashioned Storytelling.” In The Education of a Comics Artist: Visual Narrative in Cartoons, Graphic Novels, and Beyond, edited by Michael Dooley and Steven Heller. New York: Allworth Press, 2005.
Scott, Gini Graham. Homicide by the Rich and Famous: A Century of Prominent Killers. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2005.
Tabachnick, Stephen E. “The Graphic Novel and the Age of Transition: A Survey and Analysis.” English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920 53, no. 1 (2010): 3-28.