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Virginia A. McConnell

Författare till Arsenic Under the Elms : Murder in Victorian New Haven

7 verk 101 medlemmar 3 recensioner

Om författaren

Virginia A. McConnell is an acclaimed writer of historical true crime books, including Arsenic under the Elms: Murder in Victorian New Haven, Sympathy for the Devil: The Emmanuel Baptist Murders of Old San Francisco, Fatal Fortune: The Death of Chicago's Millionaire Orphan, and The Adventuress: visa mer Murder, Blackmail, and Confidence Games in the Gilded Age. In 2011, The Adventuress was awarded the Gold Medal in the True Crime category by the Independent Publisher Book Awards. visa färre

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I had never heard of the murder mentioned in the title of this book so when I was offered the chance to listen, I hopped on board. I quickly learned that the murder is very little in the information covered. There is a lot in this book about a group of kids from rich parents who were involved in shadier activities around the turn of the century. Definitely an interesting perspective, and I enjoyed learning what this audiobook had to teach. The details within this book considering the dates, people, and even headlines have been researched in depth.

Narration was well done, offering an easy to absorb delivery as the audiobook progressed.

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.
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Kayla.Krantz | Feb 14, 2020 |
This is a well researched account of the two sensational murders which took place in the Emmanuel Baptist Church in San Francisco, California in 1895. At the time, it created an uproar. The two young women who were murdered were respectable, the young man accused had a spotless reputation, and the murders were in a church! This book attempts to unravel the why of it all, and whether or not justice was served, or the wrong man was convicted.

I bought this on a whim. I am not a reader of true crime novels, nor serial killings, nor court procedurals. I bought it because I have a cookbook, written by the ladies of Emmanuel Baptist Church as a fundraiser, which literally jumped off the shelf at me. Odd event. I was doing a bit of research on it because I wanted to catalog it in LibraryThing. That was when I came across the very strange history of the Emmanuel Baptist Church of San Francisco. Its history began long before these murders. Two of its early pastors committed suicide, and one committed murder of no less a person than Charles de Young, the founder of the San Francisco Chronicle. In an effort to exorcise the past, and any demons which might be haunting, the church decided to build a new building, start afresh, hence the cookbook to raise money. Then these murders happen and are discovered on Easter Sunday, no less. In my research, I came across this book.

I was gripped by the story of Theo Durrant and the murders. The author did copious amounts of research, citing all of her sources, but not only that, she wrote a great story. Layer upon layer the whole tale was revealed and I was mesmerized reading it until the end. It wasn't only the telling of the murders themselves which fascinated, it was the recounting of police and court procedurals, and journalism in the 1890s. The way people behaved, the details of the lives of those involved and the times they lived, these were all presented in such a way that they came to life.

I bought this on a whim, but will be keeping it for the fine account it is about a slice of early California history.
… (mer)
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MrsLee | Oct 17, 2016 |
This book was different from what I am used to reading. It's a true crime story (actually there were 2 crimes) that took place in New Haven, CT in the 1800's. Both crimes were murders of young women, presumably by men they knew.

The most amazing thing about this book was finding out how very primitive the judicial system and procedures were at that time. Inquest jurors were expected to gather evidence and witness accounts on their own time and at their own expense. Tests that would have been helpful were not yet developed - or were just being understood by experts but not the public. Bribery was rampant. Attitudes of class hung heavy over victims who were poor. Evidence and testimonies were so muddled much of it became useless and severely crippled justice in both cases.

Autopsies were conducted in the backyard, living room, barn, whatever was convenient. Bodies were exhumed several times to get more information. Tests on organs took time that delayed trials or the judge would give orders to proceed without the results. It was all so crude compared to what is available today.

These were Victorian times. Gender roles heavily influenced the proceedings. Newspaper reporters of all persuasions published what they heard and saw at the trials with subjective slants. In Connecticut at this time there were no recorders during the trials. Witnesses kept changing their stories and there was nothing to refer back to what they had said previously.

All in all, this was interesting to a degree - and in a subject I generally don't know much about. The author did a good job gathering material and her writing was clear and readable. Of course her conclusions were her own.. very plausible... but too late to pursue or prove.
… (mer)
½
 
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-Cee- | Jan 20, 2014 |

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Statistik

Verk
7
Medlemmar
101
Popularitet
#188,710
Betyg
½ 3.6
Recensioner
3
ISBN
14

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