The Oliver Criminological Collection includes a substantial array of pamphlets, trial accounts, and popular ephemera from the sensational Tichborne Claimant case of the 1870s. Orton, a butcher in Wagga Wagga, Australia, claimed to be Sir Roger Tichborne, who had been presumed lost at sea in 1854. Although Lady Tichborne, some other family members, and associates—over one hundred individuals—accepted him and initially supported his claim, Orton lost an 1871 trial over the Tichborne inheritance. He was then arrested on a charge of perjury, and, after a second trial, was convicted in 1874 and served ten years in prison. He died, impoverished, in 1898. Photographs of the three justices who handled the Tichborne Claimant case, Hon. Mr. Justice Mellor, Hon. Mr. Justice Lush, and the Lord Chief Justice of England, Sir Alexander Cockburn, Bart.
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