Violent Cremation

The Cincinnati Tanyard Murder

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Episode 17 is a report from Lafcadio Hearn, on of my favorite Pioneers of True Crime. Although he became better known late in his career for his books on travel and on Japanese legends and ghost stories, Lafcadio Hearn began his professional writing career as a staff correspondent for the Cincinnati Enquirer. He was such a devotee of Edgar Allen Poe that he carried the nickname The Raven, given to him by an early mentor, throughout his life. The devotion shows in much of his writing, including this account of what’s commonly known to local history as “the tanyard murder” in 1874. His account of the crime helped, I’m sure, make it one of the most well-known of Cincinnati’s historical murders. Hearn is also well-known for his essays about the poorest parts of Cincinnati.Even though the author was visually impaired (he carried with him both a magnifying glass and a telescope), Hearn's account of this ghastly crime contains graphic details of the discovery of the body and the autopsy.The tanyard was situated next to a soap factory that had caught fire the previous night and attracted a crowd of 50,000, the newspapers said, to watch the massive flames. Such was the mood of the city that Hearn begins his report with a quote from William Shakespeare's tragic Hamlet.True crime history is not just about reviving the stories of America's scandals, scoundrels, and scourges, but also about exploring the history of true crime as a genre.

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