“The Innocent Boy,” 1836

In 1836, the brutal murder of Helen Jewett shocked New Yorkers. An attractive young woman from Maine, Jewett was working as a prostitute in Manhattan when she was slashed and burned in her bed in the early morning hours of April 10. While the growing incidence of crime and prostitution appalled the middle class, the mass-circulation “penny press” had a field day covering this gruesome story for their largely working-class readers.

Source: Richard P. Robinson, "The Innocent Boy," negative #40696, Collection of The New-York Historical Society