In 1856, in the rural town of Alabama, NY one woman's family suffered from multiple unexplained deaths. The town folk grew suspicious of the now remarried Polly Frisch. An investigation commenced, bodies were exhumed, an affair—exposed. Polly would be arrested for the murders of her first husband and daughters. Her fourteen-year-old son would testify against her. If found guilty, the punishment for such a crime was the gallows. Bread & Butter the Murders of Polly Frisch, written by Cindy Amrhein and Ellen Lea Bachorski, is the true story of Polly Frisch who poisoned her family with arsenic and the five trials it took to convict her. Here is an excerpt:
In an article printed by the Republican
Advocate, November 17, 1857, Polly claimed—that “she was innocent of this
[meaning her family’s deaths] or any like offense, and attributed the
prosecution to local excitement and prejudice.” From this statement it seems
obvious she knew that the residents of Alabama didn’t like her or her
unbecoming behavior. Maybe Polly’s calm exterior during the trials was because
she knew she was innocent and thought justice would prevail. Did she do it or
was the community trying to railroad her out of town? It wasn’t until we came
across a certain newspaper article and scrutinized court documents that we felt
Polly was guilty in some form.
Our hardcovers released yesterday. Hopefully the softcovers today, and Kindle and Nook editions this week.
Stay tuned as I blog about other 19th century true crimes during the whole month of April!
This post is part of the April Blogging A to Z Challenge. Check out the list of other bloggers blogging on all types of subjects!
And I almost forgot it's the first Wednesday! My first post for IWSG and I almost missed it! I guess my stickler for me these past few months was getting ready to publish. My list would be very long on all the things that went wrong trying to learn the new world of self-publishing. POD is different than offset, and ebooks? Wow. Learning curve there. But I get by with a little support from my writer friends! I look forward to meeting the folks over at ISWG and checking out their blogs and thoughts on writing.
That's a very interesting theme you have for your A to Z challenge. I like it. Welcome to the Insecure Writer's Support Group!
ReplyDeleteInteresting topic. Catchy name for murders too. Welcome IWSG.
ReplyDeleteJuneta at Writer's Gambit
Thanks for the welcome to ISWG! Don't think I'd gotten through the new world of self publishing without support from my writer friends. :)
ReplyDeleteA month of gristly murders! What could be better :)
ReplyDeleteVery cool! Congratulations on the releases!
ReplyDeleteAwesome! I'm not in for the Challenge, alas I have too many challenges already. Sorry I'm late! Happy belated IWSG day. The murder thing is inventive. I'm reading Cold Blood by Truman Capote right now. Eye-opening stuff.
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ReplyDeleteI am fascinated by this series, the most innovative A-Z challenge I've found. As a writer, I see variations and spinoffs galore. Thanks for the highly engaging posts. And you got me onto the forensic science site and now I'm off to the The Insecure Writers Group!
ReplyDeletefascinating, loving your posts.
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