Description
Josephine McCarty had many identities. But in Albany, New York, she was known as Dr. Emma Burleigh, the abortionist of Howard Street.
On January 17, 1872, McCarty boarded a streetcar in Utica, New York, shot her ex-lover in the face, and disembarked, unaware that her bullet had passed through her target''s head and into the heart of the innocent man sitting beside him. The unlucky passenger died within minutes. Josephine McCarty was arrested for attempted murder and quickly became the most notorious woman in central New York.
The Abortionist of Howard Street was, however, far more than a murderer. In Maryland she was Johnny McCarty, a blockade runner and spy for Confederate forces. New Yorkers whispered of her as a mistress to corrupt Albany politicians. So who was she?
The prosecution in her murder trial claimed she was a calculating and heartless operative both in the bedroom and in her public life. Or was she the victim of ill fortune and the syst
