It was pitch dark outside a stately New Jersey mansion early in the morning of Tuesday, July 11, 1916. Inside, Christof Beutinger’s body lay on the floor, and Margaret Claire Beutinger held a smoking gun. Two little girls crept from their bed and clung to their mother. She arose with the revolver carefully pointed away from them, and then, in fright, threw it down. She sank back and wept. Six-year-old Marie ran to soak a towel in water from the sink and returned to bathe her mother’s face. The servants came.Was it murder or self-defense?This story is told in an creative and artful way through the actual reporting from newspapers of the past. Follow the fascinating tale just the way people did it before the days of radio and television. Did she do the crime, and must she pay the time?I have edited these articles for you, today’s reader, but always with the knowledge that I must not play false with you. (Occasionally some quaint phrasings from the past sneak in; you will recognize them when you see them.) The stories are all dated and identified so you can check the originals for yourself.This is the third book of the Read It Again! series. Fully illustrated.