Police Crime Scene Photo Album

Portland, 1948. Hardcover. Near fine. Photo album (15 1/4" X 11 1/2") with 115 Weegee like crime scene photographs shot by a Portland Oregon policeman that are equal parts gruesome and businesslike. Many of the photographs have handwritten captions, in white ink, often with gallows humor. Oblong 4to, paper boards, "Photographs" in gilt on the cover, and 75 string-tied pages. The pictures range from 3 1/2" X 2 1/2" to 8" X 10". Edges of the binding worn, else very good, the photos near fine. The album unflinchingly documents various crime scenes visited by a Portland patrolman from Jun. to Oct. 1948. Half of it are images of car crashes, boating disasters, fires, and bee swarms. The other half are a series of macabre images of the recently deceased, some of them murdered. Many, like a murder victim dumped by the side of the road, are disturbing, but it gets worse. There are bodies recovered from the Willamette River and other nearby waterways (the officer calls them "floaters"), along with victims of suicides or weird accidents. All the corpses are in various states of mutilation, the decay of time, or bloat from the water, that makes for harrowing viewing. A compelling, stark photo collection, rarely seen by the public, not for the faint of heart, and almost as scary as the string of actors recently hired to portray Colonel Sanders.