"Fearful Struggle with a Lunatic"

In their February 2, 1867 issue, the Illustrated Police News released the tragic accounts of a man who was was murdered by his deranged neighbor. According to the journalist, the murderer, a man who went by the name Smith, was a well know man in the water town of Tintagel. His work in the town was labor oriented, and he was known for spending most of his time with the donkeys that would help him complete his tasks. Smith was not always mentally off, but over time, the town began to notice that he had became mentally deranged. Due to his threats of self harm, his neighbors were kind enough to take shifts on watching him on nights.While most nights went smoothly, the night of Mr. Thomas Bakers’ watch took a turn for the worst. In efforts to “humor one of the lunatics’ whims”, the two men went for a walk alongside the water. At the point of the walk where the road was open to the sea, Smith grabbed the neck of Thomas and shoved it into the water. With the strength of an infant compared to the might of Smith, Thomas was unable to fight the deranged man off of him. Eventually, Smith fell into the water as well, and only let go of Thomas when a heavy current swept the body away, at which point both the men were underwater for an extended amount of time. With both men dead, the only witnesses to the story were the two women who just happen to be passing by and helplessly watched the situation unfold.

The focus of the article was centered on giving the deranged man and murder a backstory. Little information is told about the victim, and his his time as a living man is summed up in one sentence. The journalist opted to remind the reader that the murder was once normal and his outrageous behavior was unusual and not typical for him. By the end of the article, the murder is more humanized than the actual victim. This focus on the murder carries forward with the reputation of Illustrated Police News and their focus on giving the villain an unusual amount of attention. With both of the men dead, neither are able to testify for what led to such a violent outburst, so the writer ran in a direction that insinuates that the villain did not act without reason. With an image displayed on the cover of the newspaper, this story was a prime focus for this issue. The same story in which the murder is romanticized and given more sympathy than the victim.