A murderous atmosphere pervaded nineteenth-century America and lurid murders dominated newspaper headlines.
The Bloody Century
retells the stories of Americans, driven by desperation, greed, jealousy, or an irrational bloodlust, to take the life of someone around them. It presents 50 of the most intriguing murder cases from the archives of American crime including:
The Famous
Lizzie Borden
H H Holmes
The Bloody Benders
The Sensational
Jesse Pomeroy - 14-year-old serial killer
Adolph Luetgert-dissolved his wife in a vat of lye
Lydia Sherman-poisoned her husband and nine others
The Unsolved
Rose Ambler - found stabbed in a field near her home
Benjamin Nathan-beaten to death in his bedroom
and many others. Richly illustrated with scenes and portraits from the time of the murders, and including songs and poems written to commemorate the crimes,
invokes a fitting atmosphere for Victorian homicide. The days of America's distant past, the time of gaslights and horse-drawn carriages, are often viewed as quaint and sentimental, but a closer look reveals passions, fears, and motives that are timeless and universal, and a population inured to violence, capable of monstrous acts. A visit to
may well give us insight into our own.