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In 1836, the murder of a young prostitute made headlines in New York City and around the country, inaugurating a sex-and-death sensationalism in news reporting that haunts us today. Patricia Cline Cohen goes behind these first lurid accounts to reconstruct the story of the mysterious victim, Helen Jewett. From her beginnings as a servant girl in Maine, Helen Jewett refashioned herself, using four successive aliases, into a highly paid courtesan.
But she was to meet her match - and her nemesis - in a youth called Richard Robinson. He became Helen Jewett's lover in a tempestuous affair and ten months later was arrested for her murder. He stood trial in a five-day courtroom drama that ended with his acquittal amid the cheers of hundreds of fellow clerks and other spectators.
With no conviction for murder, nor closure of any sort, the case continued to tantalize the public, even though Richard Robinson disappeared into the wilds of Texas and a new life under a new name. Through her meticulous and ingenious research, Patricia Cline Cohen traces his life there and the many twists and turns of the lingering mystery of the murder.
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Previews available in: English
Subjects
History, Murder, Biography, Prostitutes, Moral conditions, Prostitution, Murder, new york (state), Trials (murder)People
Helen Jewett (1813-1836)Places
New York (State), New York, United StatesTimes
19th centuryShowing 2 featured editions. View all 2 editions?
Edition | Availability |
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1
The murder of Helen Jewett: the life and death of a prostitute in nineteenth-century New York
1999, Vintage
in English
0679740759 9780679740759
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2
The murder of Helen Jewett: the life and death of a prostitute in nineteenth-century New York
1998, Alfred A. Knopf
in English
- 1st ed.
0679412913 9780679412915
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- Created April 1, 2008
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July 13, 2024 | Edited by MARC Bot | import existing book |
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April 1, 2008 | Created by an anonymous user | Imported from Scriblio MARC record |