My dearest reader, this is unfortunately, may God have mercy, one piece of horrifying news after another ... so that my heart nearly breaks and my eyes fill with tears. I don't know how it seems to you, for there are many who will refuse to believe, since it does not affect them and appears to be false and invented.
-A German true crime author, writing in 1582
True crime stories started rolling off the presses as soon as presses were invented. A recent article delving into some of Germany's oldest machine-printed crime accounts contains some surprises for those who think Truman Capote or William Roughead "invented" true crime, such as the morons who wrote the absurd and error-laden Wikipedia entry on the true crime genre.
In a long piece exploring in detail early typeset German true crime accounts, New Jersey history professor Joy Wiltenburg sets the cultural record straight.
And what were these Germans reading in the late 1500s? Of all the crimes in the calendar, which captivated Germany in that time? Most of the accounts, says the professor, told stories of family annihilators. "Murder within the family was by far the most common theme, accounting for over half of the reports," she says.
The professor has a theory about why this particular rare form of murder dominated the early German genre: economics. "In their evocation of the horror of household bloodshed, a number of works pointed also to economic strain: The children were hungry and reminded the raging father of his economic failure; the greedy youths demanded their inheritance; the father's anger over debts drove him to violence."
In the piece she also explains:
* The authors and collectors of early publications were often ministers interested in exploring moral questions. "Virtually all crime accounts published during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries connected their stories with an edifying Christian message," the professor notes. (I am reminded of the Ogden Standard-Examiner, which produced fascinating true crime accounts for decades, not coincidentally a Mormon mecca, birthplace of Donny & Marie. It too focused on charting, with specific examples, "the descent and destruction of the human spirit.")
* The authors probably did not "make money off murder," that tired old charge. Professor Wiltenburg says true crime, from its earliest days, "almost certainly brought little reward to authors."
* The accounts were written for and purchased by the upper classes.
* A great emphasis was placed on the truthfulness of the accounts; it was strictly a non-fiction genre, or sold as such, at least.
* The accounts were extremely gory. (They might not even see print today, except as fiction.)
* Many accounts heaped praise upon police officials, singling them out for their pursuit of justice.
* Authors focused on the victims; "the perpetrators were usually not examined closely as individuals, nor was the audience offered vicarious entry into their minds."
* Some of the most famous cases were revisited decades later; one account, republished many times, told the story of a family annihilated in 1504.
Point being, the true crime genre is much older than some would have it - as is the historic true crime genre.
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