The witch of New York : the trials of Polly Bodine and the cursed birth of tabloid justice
Before the sensational cases of Amanda Knox and Casey Anthony-before even Lizzie Borden-there was Polly Bodine, the first American woman put on trial for capital murder in our nation's debut media circus. On Christmas night, December 25, 1843, in a serene village on Staten Island, shocked neighbors discovered the burnt remains of twenty-four-year-old mother Emeline Houseman and her infant daughter, Ann Eliza. In a perverse nativity, someone bludg...