“Most criminals are great egoists and inordinately vain, but these two qualities are found in excess in murderers,” said the British grande dame of true crime, F. Tennyson Jesse, in Murder and Its Motives (1924). “Vanity is the hallmark of criminals, the great quality they all have in common, as any student of their words, either spoken or written, soon discovers.” 
My latest discoveries in my favorite subgenre of true crime – vain and wicked women – include some curious examples of the murderess phenomena replete with sensational trials and tabloid coverage.
The Enigma Woman: The Death Sentence of Nellie May Madison is a new title out from the University of Nebraska Press, which tells the story of the first woman put on Death Row in California. But this was the 1930s, and much-married or not, Nellie May was rather attractive. I dare to guess the ultimate outcome of her case and want to find out if I’m right! Details on the book, including an excerpt, are on the publisher’s website. The author is Kathleen A. Cairns, who also wrote Front-Page Women Journalists, 1920–1950.
Woman Reporter Nails a Poisoner A newspaper reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Jane Hansen, will hopefully write a book about how a tip from a homicide detective led her to investigate a black widow’s mysterious past. Hansen’s investigation culminated in a murder conviction – said widow’s second. The details are in an interview with Hansen (registration required) – and the story of the second verdict.
Says Hansen in her interview:
… for a while, I put the Turner file away, convinced I would never be able to get to the bottom of it. But I continued to be haunted by the deaths of these two young public safety officers.
What was the likelihood that two healthy men in their 30s, both linked romantically to the same woman, would develop identical symptoms and die?
Come to think of it, I can cite several examples of women who ended their marriages to police officers and firemen with poison. Hm.
The Good-Bye Door: The Incredible True Story of America’s First Female Serial Killer to Die in the Chair by Diana Britt Franklin is a book I enjoyed not only for the story of poisoner Anna Hahn but for the dollops of female criminology the author included in the book. Although The Good-Bye Door missed out on a nomination for an Edgar Award (because each publisher can only suggest two books, and this publisher had two other books nominated), it is gathering a number of other nominations and awards.
The book was recently named as a finalist for the 2007 Ohioana Book Award, finalist for 2006 Book of the Year -- ForeWord Magazine, and was named as the winner of Governor Thomas Worthington Award for Ohio biography, this from the Ohio Genealogical Society. I admire very tight writing and excellent depictions of courtroom tension, and this author is expert at it.
Perhaps the incredibly tight, tense writing that distinguished The Good-Bye Door is becoming a lost art. I finally finished Strange Piece of Paradise by Terri Jentz. Phew. To read my full book review of that title, though, you’ll have to catch it in the next issue of The Hatchet: Journal of Lizzie Borden Studies, which is expanding its coverage beyond Fall River’s feminine hatchet killer.
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