Over the past few years, true crime media has grown in popularity, but true crime has been around for much longer. The origins of the true crime drama date back to the 16th century with early criminal trial reporting.
Pamela Burger wrote for JSTOR Daily stating, “Between 1550 and 1700, British authors and printers produced an unprecedented number of publications that reported on capital crimes. As literacy rates expanded and new print technologies emerged, topical leaflets began to circulate among newly literate and semiliterate consumers.”
These publications were widespread, and many were ladened with early elements of sensationalism as a way of drawing in more readers. Other true crime publications were used as propaganda, moral stories or simply informative pieces.
The Borden Axe Murders
The sensationalism of true crime in the U.S. is seen with the 1892 Borden case, in which Lizzie Borden was accused of murdering her parents with an axe in Fall River, Massachusetts. Borden was investigated not only in the courtroom but also in newsrooms. Newspapers and publishing houses at that time focused on the emotions of the case, painting Borden as driven only by violent urges. At the time, the New York Times wrote that, “the acquittal of this most unfortunate and cruelly persecuted woman…a condemnation of the police authorities of Fall River.” The New York Times was one of the few publications that presented the facts of the case rather than relying on emotion to sell papers.
The Kristen Smart Case
In the case of the disappearance and murder of Kristin Smart in 1996, a true crime podcast was able to help solve the case. Smart disappeared in May of 1996 following a party at California Polytechnic University. This case went unsolved until earlier this year. In April, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff, Ian Parkinson, announced that Paul Flores and his father were arrested for Smart’s murder. Parkinson mentioned that this was possible due to evidence reported in the “Your Own Backyard” true crime podcast.
Casey Anthony Trial
In 2008, Caylee Anthony disappeared from her grandmother’s home in Orlando, Florida. The investigation focused on Casey Anthony, Caylee’s mother. According to the Crime Museum out of Washington D.C., “The legal proceedings against Casey Anthony for murder and misleading law enforcement finally began with jury selection. Due to the massive publicity associated with the case, this process took place in Clearwater, Florida rather than in Orlando where the crime took place, in the hopes of finding a jury pool untainted by the media attention. That pool of jurors began shrinking as the judge allowed many to go home for financial and family reasons –the jury could have been sequestered for months, preventing jurors from working or taking care of family.” The trial began in 2011 making national news with laws being passed in many states called “Caylee’s Laws” similar to Amber Alerts.
