She-Devil in the City of Angels: Gender, Violence, and the Hattie Woolsteen Murder Case in Victorian Era Los Angeles
This compelling study of the American public's response to the fate of accused murderer Hattie Woolsteen uses this legal case to examine the complexities of gender history and societal fears about the changing roles of women during the Victorian era.

In October of 1887, a young woman named Hattie Woolsteen was accused of murdering her married lover, Los Angeles dentist Charles Harlan. The subsequent trial captivated the public as few incidents had done before. The idea of a female murderer was particularly disturbing in 19th-century America, and the public quickly labeled her a fiend and a "she-devil." But despite the overwhelming evidence against the accused, Hattie Woolsteen was not only acquitted of the charge, but emerged as the victim in this sordid drama. As the public grappled with the details of Hattie's alleged crime, she became a symbol of female victimization and gender inequality—as well as an unlikely champion of women's rights.

This book provides the fascinating and lurid details of the Hattie Woolsteen murder case within the context of 19th-century American social history, allowing readers to view this event in historical perspective. Its chapters examine the various factors that influenced public opinion about the case and its outcome, including Victorian attitudes about gender roles and women's place in American society as well as sexuality and crime, common concerns about the societal consequences of rapid urbanization, the power of the Victorian-era press in shaping public opinion, and the subjective nature of the criminal justice system in that time period.
1123426323
She-Devil in the City of Angels: Gender, Violence, and the Hattie Woolsteen Murder Case in Victorian Era Los Angeles
This compelling study of the American public's response to the fate of accused murderer Hattie Woolsteen uses this legal case to examine the complexities of gender history and societal fears about the changing roles of women during the Victorian era.

In October of 1887, a young woman named Hattie Woolsteen was accused of murdering her married lover, Los Angeles dentist Charles Harlan. The subsequent trial captivated the public as few incidents had done before. The idea of a female murderer was particularly disturbing in 19th-century America, and the public quickly labeled her a fiend and a "she-devil." But despite the overwhelming evidence against the accused, Hattie Woolsteen was not only acquitted of the charge, but emerged as the victim in this sordid drama. As the public grappled with the details of Hattie's alleged crime, she became a symbol of female victimization and gender inequality—as well as an unlikely champion of women's rights.

This book provides the fascinating and lurid details of the Hattie Woolsteen murder case within the context of 19th-century American social history, allowing readers to view this event in historical perspective. Its chapters examine the various factors that influenced public opinion about the case and its outcome, including Victorian attitudes about gender roles and women's place in American society as well as sexuality and crime, common concerns about the societal consequences of rapid urbanization, the power of the Victorian-era press in shaping public opinion, and the subjective nature of the criminal justice system in that time period.
46.49 In Stock
She-Devil in the City of Angels: Gender, Violence, and the Hattie Woolsteen Murder Case in Victorian Era Los Angeles

She-Devil in the City of Angels: Gender, Violence, and the Hattie Woolsteen Murder Case in Victorian Era Los Angeles

by Cara Anzilotti
She-Devil in the City of Angels: Gender, Violence, and the Hattie Woolsteen Murder Case in Victorian Era Los Angeles

She-Devil in the City of Angels: Gender, Violence, and the Hattie Woolsteen Murder Case in Victorian Era Los Angeles

by Cara Anzilotti

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Overview

This compelling study of the American public's response to the fate of accused murderer Hattie Woolsteen uses this legal case to examine the complexities of gender history and societal fears about the changing roles of women during the Victorian era.

In October of 1887, a young woman named Hattie Woolsteen was accused of murdering her married lover, Los Angeles dentist Charles Harlan. The subsequent trial captivated the public as few incidents had done before. The idea of a female murderer was particularly disturbing in 19th-century America, and the public quickly labeled her a fiend and a "she-devil." But despite the overwhelming evidence against the accused, Hattie Woolsteen was not only acquitted of the charge, but emerged as the victim in this sordid drama. As the public grappled with the details of Hattie's alleged crime, she became a symbol of female victimization and gender inequality—as well as an unlikely champion of women's rights.

This book provides the fascinating and lurid details of the Hattie Woolsteen murder case within the context of 19th-century American social history, allowing readers to view this event in historical perspective. Its chapters examine the various factors that influenced public opinion about the case and its outcome, including Victorian attitudes about gender roles and women's place in American society as well as sexuality and crime, common concerns about the societal consequences of rapid urbanization, the power of the Victorian-era press in shaping public opinion, and the subjective nature of the criminal justice system in that time period.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9798216144809
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date: 06/20/2016
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 200
File size: 3 MB
Age Range: 7 - 17 Years

About the Author

Cara Anzilotti, PhD, is associate professor of history at Loyola Marymount University.
Cara Anzilotti, PhD, is associate professor of history at Loyola Marymount University.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xiii

Chapter 1 "It Was Murder" 1

Chapter 2 True Women and Women Adrift 19

Chapter 3 The Unwritten Law 41

Chapter 4 Sex and the Victorian City 57

Chapter 5 Reaping- the Whirlwind 83

Chapter 6 The Story, Not the Facts 99

Chapter 7 Getting Away with Murder 123

Epilogue: "She told such a plausible story…" 149

Notes 157

Bibliography 169

Index 177

What People are Saying About This

Janet Fireman

"She-Devil—more than a murder case history—situates and decodes a complex, contentious, and violent Los Angeles in the 1880s. From sources disparate as popular speculation, press hyperbole, factual forensics, and broad historical reading, Cara Anzilotti shapes an engrossing narrative delivering a progressive understanding of gender-role identity and ideology set against a cultural scene of ambitious if merciless women, ruthless libertines and their joint offspring: murder, arson, retribution, and transgressions of every stripe. Anzilotti’s stories and messages from the past produce powerful reading for today."

Katherine A.S. Sibley

“With meticulous research in the popular press of the day, this book well illuminates the gendered nature of justice in the late nineteenth-century American West. The phenomenon of gendered justice, of course, has hardly gone away and the book is most timely; the criminal justice system continues to be affected by gender, race, and class, while the media shapes greatly how we explore the intersection of crime and cultural expectations. But beyond its explorations of the nineteenth-century justice system, Anzilotti’s book is also a rollicking tale, sure to please a wide range of readers.”

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