The Witch of New York

Before the sensational cases of Amanda Knox and Casey AnthonyΓÇöbefore even Lizzie BordenΓÇöthere was Polly Bodine,the first American woman put on trial for capital murder in our nationΓÇÖs debut media circus. On Christmas nightDecember 251843in a serene village on Staten Islandshocked neighbors discovered the burnt remains of twenty-four-year-old mother Emeline Houseman and her infant daughterAnn Eliza. In a perverse nativitysomeone bludgeoned to death a mother and child in their homeΓÇöand then covered up the crime with hellfire. When an ambitious district attorney charges Polly Bodine (EmelinΓÇÖs sister-in-law) with a double homicidethe new ΓÇ£penny pressΓÇ¥ explodes. Polly is a perfect media villain: sheΓÇÖs a separated wife who drinks gincommits adulteryand has had multiple abortions. Between June 1844 and April 1846the nation was enthralled by her three trialsΓÇöin Staten IslandManhattanand NewburghΓÇöfor the ΓÇ£Christmas murders.ΓÇ¥ After PollyΓÇÖs legal dream team entered the fraythe press and the public debated not only her guiltbut her character and fate as a fallen woman in society. Public opinion split into different camps over her case. Edgar Allen Poe and Walt Whitman covered her case as young newsmen. P. T. Barnum made a circus out of it. James Fenimore CooperΓÇÖs last novel was inspired by her trials. The Witch of New York is the first narrative history about the dueling trial lawyersruthless newsmenand shameless hucksters who turned the Polly Bodine case into AmericaΓÇÖs formative tabloid trial. An origin story of how America became addicted to sensationalized reporting of criminal trialsThe Witch of New York vividly reconstructs an epic mystery from Old New YorkΓÇöand uses the Bodine case to challenge our system of tabloid justice of today.