The article dives into New York media coverage throughout all stages of Lizzie Borden’s transcontinental murder trial. Mark Bernhardt, an Assistant Professor of History at Jackson State University, argues that 19th century gender, class, and ethnic stereotypes are evident in most of the New York Press coverage of the Borden Murder Trials. The argument is validated through a plethora of sources, including many New York reports on the Lizzie Borden’s trial. Bernhardt’s article provides a careful evaluation of the relevant topics of womanhood and Lizzie Borden, while also supplying background knowledge on the life of Borden before her climb to bloody fame. As a professor of American and New England Studies at the University of Southern Maine …show more content…
Specifically, this piece covers a forensic scientist and witness’s testimony on the stand. Both statements neither criminalizing or decriminalizing Borden. Furthermore, the language of the article has a noticeably sexist tone referring to the murderers of Mr. and Mrs. Borden as “him” or “he,” and claiming women were not present for the forensic based trial because it was too gruesome and detailed for feminine ears. However insightful the article is, there still exists the limitation of legibility. The text was printed on paper in 1892 and then scanned into an online database making the language hard to decipher. Overall, this article adheres to the ideals of the Cult of True Womanhood and does not approach the article …show more content…
All women were persecuted for immoral and heinous crimes during two different periods of American History. Some, like Borden, escaped her trial with all charges dropped, while others like Rebecca Nurse were sentenced to death. This story investigates in depth each trial strategy, period in American history, and woman. The bulk of Schultz’s argument revolves around gender stereotypes and society’s treatment of women. Although not each trial is relevant to the Borden mystery, they all are examples of how gender roles and stereotypes influenced Judicial rulings. Therefore, adding a greater level of validity to the argument that Borden was treated differently because she was a
In the book, “The Hanging of Ephraim Wheeler,” Irene Quenzler Brown and Richard D. Brown tell the story of Ephraim Wheeler, a man from Lennox, Massachusetts, who is 1806, was accused of raping his daughter. In “The Hanging of Ephraim Wheeler” the Browns present the case to the reader, and without bias, allow the reader to form their own conclusion on Ephraim’s guiltiness. The Browns argue, not on Ephraim’s guilt, but on the impact of his trial. In order to present the case without any bias the Brown’s utilized the long term effects of the trial, but failed to provide any real evaluation of the event.
A little over 100 years ago, a gruesome double murder was committed at the Borden residence. For example, Lizzie Borden and her sister Emma’s childhoods were awful. Their mom died when Lizzie was just three years old (Allard, 2013). Their father got remarried, but Lizzie and Emma did not like their step-mother, Abby Borden, because they thought she was just using their father for his wealth. Furthermore, people think Lizzie did it because she hates Abby. Both, Emma and Lizzie greeted her as Mrs. Borden (Biography, 2017). Abby was also very mean to
... order to further understand female criminal policy in the years that followed and will follow. Zedner’s final claim of the book is, perhaps, the most valid: “It is only through historical research that we can recognize just how far these beliefs about women continue to inform penal policy today (p. 300).”
Unfortunately crime and murder is an issue in all areas of the country. Trials take place every day from a basic traffic offense to capital murder and the offender’s consequences depend on the jury. The jury consist of ordinary people that live an ordinary life. When faced with these trials, the decision making process is not easy. Some cases may hit home for many of the jurors so when deciding one’s fate does not make the process easy. The court case of Lizzie Borden is a story of a young girl who took an axe to her mother then to her father, the evidence led straight to her and she was later found not guilty by a stunned jury.
Howe, Irving. ""Winesburg Preface"" American Studies @ The University of Virginia. University of Virginia. Web. 28 May 2010.
Through newspapers articles we can take a glimpse at recorded history from the 18th century and see that rape had been a crime committed by many criminals, and dealt with harshly. Most victims of rape assaults were young women that were “robbed of that which constitutes the fairest part of the female sex- her chastity and peace of mind” (Newgate Calendar, Paragraph 3). John Lennard created a reputation for himself, as a man that was found guilty of raping a young woman by the name of Miss Ann Boss on the 15th of June, 1773. Not long after committing the crime, Lennard’s name appeared in numerous newspapers that were reporting on his accused crime. The newspapers followed him through his trial until after his execution on August 11, 1773. The newspapers used specific words and phrases that made Lennard appear to the public as either a dangerous criminal who has committed a particularly dangerous crime, or one that was grouped with other criminals who may have committed less dangerous or harmful crimes. These newspapers also had a way of appealing to the reader’s emotions in an attempt to teach the reader a valuable lesson from Lennard’s life of crime and execution. Through the newspapers specific word choices and appealing to our emotions and idea’s around life lesson’s, we can analyse how John Lennard is characterized by the public and depicted in the press.
Would you believe me if I told you that a nascent, young girl brutally murdered her parents with a hatchet? That’s what the entire town of Fall River. Massachusetts believes happened on the morning of August 4th, 1892. In fact daughter Lizzie Borden was even put on trial and accused of this nefarious act. Later, she was declared innocent and let go. However, decades later there is still speculation of whether Lizzie Borden was truly innocent. Lizzie Borden and the maid, Bridgett Sullivan, are guilty of the heinous crime. Both had little, to no, alibi and motives to kill.
Anne Hutchinson, on trial for apparently nothing more than leading religious discussions at her house, is subjected to belittlement and unclear, if not unfounded, accusations in “The Examination of Mrs. Anne Hutchinson at the Court at Newton.” The trial, which took place in 1637, set a standard for the future treatment of women, and subsequently their speech and writing. Because of the way the prosecution pigeonholes Hutchinson into admitting her guilt, the reverends (and thus men) gain (or keep) power over women—the power to control their women and to interpret contrived meanings from their words.
Knox’s construction as an “Other” was mainly established in relation to the femininity, or lack thereof. Media coverage on the Amanda Knox case and the prosecution’s version of events were viewed almost exclusively through the prism of Knox’s looks and sexuality, as well her propensity for masculine behaviour. It has been noted that Knox was not viewed as a college student who may or may not have been involved in the murder of her flatmate, but rather a "demonic, satanic, diabolical she-devil" who was "devoted to lust, drugs and alcohol" (Rizzo, 2011). Lexical choices such as these constructs her as a bad woman, and at the same time highlights the media’s gendered construction of criminals as evident from its differential portrayal of Knox and the other two male suspects.
For three hours and a half in a courtroom at Boise, Ohio, Harry Orchard assembled in the witness chair at the Haywood trial and recounted a record of offenses, slaughter, and murder… the like of which no individual in the overcrowded courtroom had ever thought of. Not in the entire scope of "Bloody Gulch" literature will there be exposed anything that approaches an equivalent to the atrocious narrative so motionlessly, coolly, and composedly voiced by this audacious, disimpassioned man-slaughterer.
During the summer of 1964 an American women by the name of Kitty Genovese made headline news. She had been stabbed to death outside her residence in Queens Kew Gardens, New York. In 1960 murders in New York were common, they were very rarely report in the news paper. However the story of an attack on a young women
Due to Münsterberg’s previous work he was invited by the then Idaho governor to forensically test Harry Orchard, a person on trial for the murders of eighteen people (Fancher & Rutherford, 2012). During a period of seven hours Münsterberg tested Orchard using a variety of devices he used in his own laboratory. After the testing was complete, Münsterberg was positive Orchard was being honest regarding his crimes and those who were also involved (Hothersall, 2004). Unfortunately for Münsterberg, he was met upon his arrival home by a particularly aggressive reporter who was able to discover the results of Orchard’s testing. The reporter published the test results before the trial was finished and raised the anger of lawyer’s across the nation for interfering with the judicial process (Fancher & Rutherford, 2012).
In the past, the private investigation profession was acknowledged as the man’s area of expertise, yet increasing numbers of women are pursuing the field. The war of the genders will never cease. In Sue Grafton’s book “K is for Killer”, gender conditions have an affect on the methods of investigation. To support my thesis, I apply the methods of investigation with quotations from the book supporting my argument.
In the history of the American penitentiary, women are, for the most part, invisible. The early history of women’s prisons as well as theories about female criminality did not factor into the discussion. In comparison, there is a large amount of scholarship and literature on male prisons and prisoners of that same time. This paper is an attempt to fill that gap. With Women, Prison, & Crime, Women in Prison and Their Sister’s Keepers by Jocelyn Byrne, Cyndi Banks and Estelle Freedman, respectively, this paper attempts to outline the history of women’s prisons and the main theories about female prisoners from 1840-1930. In analyzing these two concepts in conjunction with the status of women in society at those particular times, a pattern emerges. Theories about female criminals, and the subsequent approaches created to control them, are a direct reflections of society’s belief that a woman’s place is in the domestic sphere. Thus, from 1815-1930, society only considered women criminal when they left that sphere and all reformatory efforts went towards their return.
In early May of 1959 four white men made the decision to rape a young woman named Betty Jean Owens on the way to a school event with a few of her friends (McGuire, 160). Owen was forced to a smear campaign when she faced her attackers in court, but it payed off when she won her case and her rapists were sent to jail (McGuire, 181-183). While her rapists didn't spend as long as many African-American men had when accused of raping women in years past, allowing one of the rapists to kill another women in an attempt at revenge, it was a victory that had been unprecedented in years past (McGuire, 184). Also, not only did this case work as a victory for allowing African-American rape victims to finally be able to prosecute their attackers, but it