Arsenic and clam chowder
Subtitle: murder in gilded age New York
By: James D. Livingston.
Publisher: Excelsior Editions, State University of New York Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Albany
Language: eng
Number of pages: 205
ISBN-13: 9781438431796
Subjects: Bliss, Evelina, -- 1842-1895; Murder -- New York (State) -- New York -- Case studies; Murder -- New York (State) -- New York -- History -- 19th century; New York (N.Y.) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
Genres: Case studies
Description: "Arsenic and Clam Chowder recounts the sensational 1896 murder trial of Mary Alice Livingston, a member of one of the most prestigious families in New York, who was accused of murdering her own mother, Evelina Bliss. The bizarre instrument of death, an arsenic-laced pail of clam chowder, had been delivered to the victim by her ten-year-old granddaughter, and Livingston was arrested in her mourning clothes immediately after attending her mother's funeral. In addition to being the mother of four out-of-wedlock children, the last born in prison while she was awaiting trial, Livingston faced the possibility of being the first woman to be executed in New York's new-fangled electric chair, and all these lurid details made her arrest and trial the central focus of an all-out circulation war then underway between Joseph Pulitzer's World and Randolph Heart's Journal."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: The death of Evelina Bliss; title: The New York world; title: Mary Alice Almont of the New York Livingstons; title: Promises breached; title: In the tombs; title: Twelve good men and true; title: Opening of the people's case; title: The people rest; title: The defense; title: Decision; title: Afterwards; title: Reasonable doubt and judicial murder.