Description
Book SynopsisEngendered Death: Pennsylvania Women Who Kill is an historical and interdisciplinary study of women who kill in Pennsylvania from the 18th century to the present. It is not an examination of what motivates women to kill, although the reader may deduce that from the case studies included. Instead, it is an examination of how society perceives women who kill and how the gender-lens is applied to them throughout the legal process in the media and in the courtroom. What makes this work particularly unique is its combination of both scholarly analysis and narrative case studies. As such, it will appeal to both the scholar and the reader of true-crime non-fiction. If we are to recognize the complex variables at play in all criminal offenses, we will need to understand that the laws of a community, its social values, its politics, economics, and even geography play a factor in what laws are enforced and against whom they are enforced. The decision to define and label certain behaviors and certain people was based on social, political, and economic considerations of each community. Thus, the commission of murder by a woman in Arizona may have a variety of factors associated with it that are not present in the case of a woman who murdered her husband in Maine. This study, in part because of the volume of cases and in part to limit the variables affecting the cases, has limited its scope of women killers to the state of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is the ideal state to study because of its long and stable legal and political traditions, its historically diverse population, and the large number of newspapers that will help us gauge the public's view of women and women who kill. By limiting our scope to one state, we know that the legal definitions are fairly consistent for all of the women during a certain period and we can more easily identify the shifts in social values regarding women and homicide.
Table of ContentsACKNOWLEDGMENTS CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 2. THE WICKED STEPMOTHER? THE EDNA MUMBULO CASE Edna’s Background The Fire The Hunt The Trial Conclusion CHAPTER 3. GENDER ROLES IN AMERICAN SOCIETY Historic Fabrications of Femininity Engendered Violence: Women, Violence, and the American Way of Life Changing Theories Biological Explanation Situational Explanation Combined Forces The Statistical Profile CHAPTER 4. MARITAL TERROR: HOMICIDE, WOMEN, AND THE MEN THEY LOVED No Escape: The Tragic Life and Death of Stella Kuzmicki A Troubled Motherhood The Escape Their End Aftermath The Devils and the Diary: Mrs. Sample and Murder Background The Diary The Murder and the Trial Aftermath CHAPTER 5. THE DARKER SIDE OF MOTHERHOOD No Chance in Heaven: The Marie Noe Case Background Bassinet to Burial Investigation, Fame, and SIDS The Unraveling “The Clock is Dismantled”: Tanya Dacri Background The Crime The Trial CHAPTER 6. THE DEMOTED DEPUTY HUSBAND Iron Irene: The Life, Crimes, and Electrocution of a Mother Background The Butler Robbery and the Roadblock Killing A Cross-Country Flight The Trial of Iron Irene Schroeder “It’ll All Come Out in the Wash’: The Millie Thomas Case Background The Murder The Investigation and Trial Conclusion The Janice Graham Case Background The Murders The Trials CHAPTER 7. WITCHCRAFT AND WOMEN WHO KILL Poisoned Kitchens Arsenic and Homeland Traditions: Chalfa-Allas Case Background The Crime The Trial Witches, Poison, and Italian Women: The Philadelphia Poison Ring of the 1930s Arsenic and Death Italian Philadelphia The Black Widows of Philadelphia The Investigation and Trial CHAPTER 8. SERVICES NOT RENDERED: WOMEN WHO KILL AND THE AGENCIES THAT FAILED THEM Social Services History: A Cracked Community Child Protective Services Inseparable Companions: The Matricide Case of Agnes West, 1940 212 Cuts and Bruises and One Big Black Eye: The Lisa Iarussi Case Brittany and Lisa The Murder and Trial The Black Eye of OCY Child Welfare Breakdowns Three Times a Lady: Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong Background Murder One Murder Two Murder Three CHAPTER 9. RACE, HOMICIDE, AND WOMEN WHO KILL Severed City, Severed Soul: Corinne Sykes Case Racist Philadelphia, 1940s Corinne and the Crime Raymond Pace Alexander and the Trial of Corinne Sykes CHAPTER 10. CONCLUSION BIBLIOGRAPHY
