[Hunter, Benjamin F.]:

HUNTER-ARMSTRONG TRAGEDY. THE GREAT TRIAL. CONVICTION OF BENJ. F. HUNTER, FOR THE MURDER OF JOHN M. ARMSTRONG. HUNTER SECURES INSURANCE POLICIES ON THELIFE OF ARMSTRONG AMOUNTING TO $26,000, AND LAYS A PLOT TO MURDER HIM. HIS TOOL, TOM GRAHAM, WEAKENS AFTER STRIKING THE FIRSWT BLOW, AND THE CHIEF INSTIGATOR FINISHES THE AWFUL WORK. THIS BOOK CONTAINS THE ONLY LIKENESSES OF HUNTER, GRAHAM, AND ARMSTRONG.

Philadelphia: Barclay & Company, 1878. Original printed and illustrated front wrapper [lightly spotted and worn; rear wrapper absent]. Stitched. [2], 19-91, [3- publ. advts] pp. Stitched. Illustrations. Good+. A typically lurid Barclay production.

"Hunter had lost $7,000 when he invested in Armstrong's music-publishing company. Thinking to turn his loss into a profit, he insured Armstrong's life for $25,000. With a hired assistant, Tom Graham, he enticed Armstrong to Camden, New Jersey, and there bashed his head in with an ax which he had carefully marked with the initials of another man to throw suspicion on him. Though he remained unconscious, Armstrong survived, and Hunter, calling at his home, hastened his death by tearing the bandages from his head. Graham confessed and Hunter was convicted and hanged, and he was actually hanged by hand" [McDade].
McDade 494. Item #39607

Price: $500.00