America250: True Crime Through American History Part 1 of 2

 

    True crime is all the rage, but there's nothing new about that.  Crime has always been with us, and people have always told stories and sung songs about it, whether it's for lurid entertainment or for teaching morality.  Crime stories have been a staple of American journalism and publishing  from the beginning.   In 1846, Abraham Lincoln wrote the story of an unusual murder trial in which he was involved as a young lawyer in Springfield, Illinois, and it was published on the front page of the Quincy Whig newspaper (and republished in the March 1952 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine).  

    Here are some of the true crime books about crime and the law in America that I've read.