A sad but interesting story. Good for those interested in Upstate New york history or true crime ( )

Yuck.

This book took me a l - o - n - g time to get through. There were several very interesting parts, especially those dealing with the general history of the US & NY State in particular. The Walworths left a long legacy of positive change but were quite disfunctional in their personal relationships.

Geoffrey O'Brien intricately details the lives of several generations of Walworths. Some passages were much too short - mere mentions of interesting anecdotes or historical references. Others were tediously long. I feel I've lived through every moment of Frank Walworth's murder trial. The result was an overall adequate book with quite good moments sprinkled in.

If you are interested in the history of the Saratoga NY area, you will certainly enjoy this book. Otherwise? Meh... ( )

Early one June morning in 1873, Mansfield Tracy Walworth, a second-rate thriller writer and son of a well-known New York judge, stopped by the Sturtevant House in New York City. His 19 year old son, Frank, was visiting from Saratoga to settle some family business before leaving for Europe with his uncle - specifically to get Mansfield to stop harassing his mother (and Mansfield's ex-wife), Ellen. Somehow in the next few minutes, Frank shot Mansfield four times and calmly turned himself into the police, kicking off a celebrity trial of the first order.

Mansfield Walworth was nuts, everybody in Saratoga agreed. He made his wife's life a living hell before running off to the city after the divorce, which in those days was a heck of a big deal. Frank spent his late teenage years trying to shield his mother from all this, but was largely unsuccessful. But maybe he wasn't nuts; his publishers, for instance, never had any inkling of his violent side. On the other hand, Frank was either a saintly young man who cared for his mother very much or an epileptic with mental illnesses of his own. And Frank either coldly planned to entrap and kill his father or he was innocently defending himself, depending on which newspaper you read. In the end, Frank was found guilty of the new crime of second degree murder and sentenced to life at hard labor. Unfortunately, he was found guilty just as several powerful and rich men managed to get off essentially scotch-free from some big time crimes. So in spite of what appeared to be worsening mental illness, it was some time before he was pardoned from this sentence many thought was extremely out of bed for his crime. The family never recovered from this tragedy.

And really, that's what O'Brien is writing about - the decay from one generation to the next that happens as the sins of the fathers are visited on their children. His allusion to Poe is right on target. In between the history is a tragic family that cannot seem to keep from wounding each other. Madness runs in this family. and Ellen spends her life internally agonizing over the hardships in her life while externally becoming a respected educator and businesswoman, and founding numerous organizations like the Daughters of the American Revolution. It's a fascinating look at the Gilded Age behind the scenes. ( )