A Poisoned Life: Florence Chandler Maybrick, the First American Woman Sentenced to Death in England

by Richard Jay Hutto

Overview

Florence Maybrick was the first American woman to be sentenced to death in England--for murdering her husband, a crime she almost certainly did not commit. Her 1889 trial was presided over by an openly misogynist judge who was later declared incompetent and died in an asylum. Hours before Maybrick was to be hanged, Queen Victoria reluctantly commuted her sentence to life in prison--in her opinion a woman who would commit adultery, as Maybrick had admitted, would also kill her husband.

Her children were taken from her; she never saw them again. Her mother worked for years to clear her name, enlisting the president of the United States and successive ambassadors, including Robert Todd Lincoln. Decades later, a gruesome diary was discovered that made Maybrick's husband a prime Jack the Ripper suspect.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476632940
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	05/27/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	196
File size:	7 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Richard Jay Hutto served as White House Appointments Secretary to the Jimmy Carter family and was chairman of the Georgia Council for the Arts. He is an internationally recognized speaker and historical consultant often appearing in televised adaptations of his work. He lives in Macon, Georgia, and can be reached at www.poisonedlife.com.
Richard Jay Hutto served as White House Appointments Secretary to the Jimmy Carter family and was chairman of the Georgia Council for the Arts. He is an internationally recognized speaker and historical consultant often appearing in televised adaptations of his work. He lives in Macon, Georgia, and can be reached at www.poisonedlife.com.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Preface
One. A Marriage of Northern Money and Southern Aristocracy
Two. An Officer and a Gentleman
Three. Seeking Solace in the Old World
Four. A Baroness’s Coronet and an ­Ill-Fated Marriage
Five. Financial Struggles
Six. Marital Poison
Seven. Murder or Slow Suicide?
Eight. Like Mother Like Daughter?
Nine. Building a Case or Stacking the Deck?
Ten. Sentenced to Die
Eleven. Saved from the Gallows
Twelve. Fifteen Long Years
Thirteen. Released at What Cost?
Fourteen. Blessed Obscurity
Fifteen. Jack the Ripper?
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Rick Hutto does a great job of organizing a myriad of facts in this intriguing story of a celebrated miscarriage of justice, and he presents them masterfully as a compelling read.”—Mary S. Lovell, author of The Riviera Set: Glitz, Glamour, and the Hidden World of High Society; “A scrupulously detailed dissection of one of the most intriguing cases in British judicial history--with a surprising twist at the end.”—Anne de Courcy, author of The Viceroy’s Daughters: The Lives of the Curzon Sisters.

From the Publisher