Description
Before the sensational cases of Amanda Knox and Casey Anthony-before even Lizzie Borden-there was Polly Bodine, the first American woman put on trial for capital murder in our nation's debut media circus. On?Christmas night, December 25, 1843, in a serene village on Staten Island, shocked?neighbors discovered the burnt remains of?twenty-four-year-old mother Emeline?Houseman and her infant daughter, Ann Eliza. In a perverse nativity, someone?bludgeoned to death a?mother and child in their home-and then covered up?the crime with hellfire. When?an ambitious district attorney charges Polly Bodine (Emelin's sister-in-law) with a double homicide, the new "penny?press" explodes. Polly is a?perfect media villain: she's a separated wife who drinks gin, commits adultery,?and has had multiple abortions.?Between June 1844 and April 1846, the nation?was enthralled by her three trials-in Staten Island, Manhattan, and?Newburgh-for the?"Christmas murders." After?Polly's legal dream team entered the fray, the press and the public debated not?only her guilt, but her character and fate as a fallen?woman in society. Public opinion?split into different camps over her case. Edgar Allen Poe and Walt?Whitman covered her case as young?newsmen. P. T. Barnum made a circus out of it.?James Fenimore Cooper's last novel was inspired by her trials. The?Witch of New York?is the first narrative?history?about the dueling trial lawyers, ruthless newsmen, and?shameless hucksters who turned the Polly Bodine case into America's?formative tabloid trial.?An origin story of how America became addicted to?sensationalized reporting of?criminal trials,?The Witch of New York?vividly reconstructs an epic mystery?from Old New York-and uses the Bodine case to?challenge our system of tabloid?justice of today.
Binding: Hardback
Binding: Hardback