The trial of Emma Cunningham : murder and scandal in the Victorian era /

The trial of Emma Cunningham : murder and scandal in the Victorian era /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Jenkins, Brian, 1939- author.
Imprint:	Jefferson, North Carolina : McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers [2020]
Description:	1 online resource (v, 229 pages)
Language:	English
Subject:	Cunningham, Emma Augusta -- Trials, litigation, etc. Burdell, Harvey, -- -1857 -- Estate. Burdell, Harvey, -- 1811-1857. Cunningham, Emma Augusta. Trials (Murder) -- New York (State) -- New York. Decedents' estates. Trials (Murder) New York (State) -- New York. Trial and arbitral proceedings. Trials, litigation, etc. Trial and arbitral proceedings.
Format:	E-Resource Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/13518882

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	9781476638287 1476638284 9781476679839
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references and index. Description based on print version record.
Summary:	"The alleged 1857 murder of a wealthy Bond Street dentist by a Emma Cunningham, a young widow he was believed to be sexually involved with, served to distract many New Yorkers from the deepening national crisis over slavery in the United States. Public anxieties seemed well founded-domestic murders committed by women were believed to be increasing sharply, jeopardizing society's patriarchal structure. The penny press created public demand for a swift solution. The inadequacy of the city police, complicated by the state's decision to install a new force, resulted in the rival forces battling it out on the streets. Elected coroners conducting inquests and elected D.A.'s prosecuting alleged culprits fed a tendency to rush to judgment. New York juries, all men, were reluctant to send a middle class woman to the gallows. At trial, Cunningham proved a formidable and imaginative member of the so-called weaker sex and was acquitted. This reexamination places the story in its social and political context."--
Other form:	Print version: Jenkins, Brian, 1939- Trial of Emma Cunningham. Jefferson, North Carolina : McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers [2020] 9781476679839

Table of Contents:

Murder in Bond Street
The inquest opens
The coroner's theory
Clinton intervenes
Verdicts and indictments
In the court of public opinion
The case for the people
The defense
The response to the verdict
The bogus baby melodrama
The question of guilt.