"'Orrible Murder" is a selection of Illustrated Police News articles from 1867-1880. The writing ranges from respectful to tasteless, and the stories cover the gamut of people being terrible or having terrible things happen to them. Child murder and neglect, creative methods of suicide, animal abuse, machine accidents, and the occasional sea creature can all be found here.

Most of the stories are illustrated, and the printing quality is very good. The illustrations are quite fun despite the subject matter, as the artists relied largely on their imaginations. I do not know whether the articles are abridged, but they're certainly reformatted, so while this is a fun reference for Victorian tabloid articles, it should not be taken as representative of the look of such papers.

This is not a "serious" reference book, but if the subject is relevant to you, I think it's worth checking out. With the Illustrated Police News apparently not available online, this is probably the easiest way to get a taste of it.

If you're looking for more like this, the majority of the Illustrated London News is available online, as is some of the US Illustrated Police News. There are also the two volumes of de Vries's "History as Hot News".