Quill and Quire

REVIEWS

« Back to
Book Reviews

The Ballad of Jacob Peck

by Debra Komar

On a cold winter night in 1805, a New Brunswick farmer named Amos Babcock stabbed his sister to death in a fit of religious fervour that may have been inspired by the hellfire sermons of a wandering preacher named Jacob Peck. Though not particularly well-known today, the story has been noted by several local historians and inspired a song by John Bottomley.

In this new account of the crime, which takes its title from Bottomley’s song, forensic anthropologist Debra Komar seeks to set the record straight by cleaning up some errors introduced in earlier tellings, taking a fresh look at the culpability of Jacob Peck, and providing a fuller, more sympathetic portrait of the victim, a woman named Mercy Hall. The result is a potent mix of history and true crime, albeit one that makes its case (against both Jacob Peck and the writers of previous accounts) a little too forcefully.

Komar registers shock – and comes close to alleging professional incompetence – at the fact that Peck was not vigorously pursued in relation to Hall’s death. This, however, would have been a very difficult charge to make stick. Peck was a bad guy who behaved irresponsibly, but his actual role in the events remains ambiguous. Also excessive, at least in terms of rhetoric, is the way other historians are taken to task for embellishing the record.

There are some confusing moments resulting from what seems like a rush to convict on Komar’s part. One 19th-century account of the crime reports that Amos’s brother Jonathon actually “saw the blood flow” the night of the murder. “In truth,” Komar writes, “Jonathon never saw any blood.” This assertion, however, is contained in Jonathon’s own witness statement, other parts of which Komar calls into question. Moreover, we are told that Jonathon’s statement at the trial was “graphic and sanguinary,” and his re-enactment of the crime fully satisfied the “gore-hungry spectators.” It’s hard to sort all this out.

There is tension between the world of criminal forensics, in which facts must be established beyond a reasonable doubt, and history, where few things are entirely certain. In her prosecutorial zeal, Komar sometimes blurs the line between the two. Nevertheless, this is a well-told tale that nicely evokes a time and place, its people, and past events.        

 

Reviewer: Alex Good

Publisher: Goose Lane Editions

DETAILS

Price: $19.95

Page Count: 264 pp

Format: Paper

ISBN: 978-0-86492-903-7

Released: March

Issue Date: 2013-5

Categories: Politics & Current Affairs