| Description |
1 online resource (xiii, 236 pages) : illustrations |
| Series |
Cornell paperbacks |
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Cornell paperbacks.
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| Contents |
Killed Strangely -- Contents -- Acknowlegments -- Introduction -- 1. A Death in the Family -- 2. The Background of a Tragedy -- 3. The Contentious World of Thomas Cornell -- 4. Doubting Thomas: Or, Considering the Alternatives -- 5. A Community Renders a Verdict -- 6. Life after Death -- Notes -- Index |
| Summary |
"On a winter's evening in 1673, tragedy descended on the respectable Rhode Island household of Thomas Cornell. His 73-year-old mother, Rebecca, was found close to her her bedroom's large fireplace, dead and badly burned. The legal owner of the Cornells' hundred acres along Narragansett Bay, Rebecca shared her home with Thomas and his family, a servant, and a lodger. A coroner's panel initially declared her death "an Unhappie Accident," but before summer arrived, a dark web of events - rumors of domestic abuse; allusions to witchcraft; even the testimony of Rebecca's ghost, who visited her brother - resulted in Thomas's trial for matricide. Such were the ambiguities of the case that others would be tried for the murder as well." "Rebecca is a direct ancestor of Cornell University's founder, Ezra Cornell. Elaine Forman Crane tells the story of Rebecca's death and its aftermath, vividly depicting the world in which she lived. That world included a legal system where jurors were expected to be familiar with the defendant and case before the trial even began. Rebecca's death was an event of cataclysmic proportions, affecting not only her own community, but neighboring towns as well."--Jacket |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 191-226) and index |
| Notes |
English |
|
Print version record |
| Subject |
Cornell, Rebecca, 1600-1673.
|
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Cornell, Thomas, 1627?-1673.
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| SUBJECT |
Cornell, Rebecca, 1600-1673 fast |
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Cornell, Thomas, 1627?-1673 fast |
| Subject |
Homicide -- Rhode Island -- Portsmouth -- History -- 17th century -- Case studies
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Trials (Murder) -- Rhode Island -- Portsmouth -- History -- 17th century -- Case studies
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SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Criminology.
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TRUE CRIME -- Murder -- General.
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Homicide
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Trials (Murder)
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| SUBJECT |
Portsmouth (R.I.) -- History -- 17th century
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| Subject |
Rhode Island -- Portsmouth
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| Genre/Form |
Case studies
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|
History
|
| Form |
Electronic book
|
| ISBN |
9780801471452 |
|
0801471451 |
|
0801471443 |
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9780801471445 |
|
1322522650 |
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9781322522654 |
|
