The Enigma Woman : The Death Sentence of Nellie May Madison Paperback / softback
by Kathleen A. Cairns
Part of the Women in the West series
Paperback / softback
Description
“Crack shot.” “Enigma woman.” “Good with ponies and pistols.” “A much-married woman.”What if such an unconventional woman—and the press unanimously agreed that Nellie May Madison was indeed unconventional—were to get away with murder?
Shortly after her husband’s bullet-riddled body was found in the couple’s Burbank apartment, police issued an all-points bulletin for the “beautiful, dark-haired widow.” The ensuing drama unfolded with all the twists and turns of a noir crime novel. In this intriguing cultural history, Kathleen A. Cairns tells the tale of Nellie May Madison, the first woman on Death Row in California.
Her story offers a glimpse into law and disorder in 1930s Los Angeles while bringing to life a remarkable character whose plight reflects on the status of women, the workings of the media and the judiciary system, and the stratification of society in her time.
Cairns’s re-creation of the case from murder to trial to aftermath also casts an eye forward to our own love-hate affair with celebrity crimes and our abiding ambivalence about domestic violence as a defense for murder.
Information
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Available to Order - This title is available to order, with delivery expected within 2 weeks
- Format:Paperback / softback
- Pages:328 pages, 16 photographs
- Publisher:University of Nebraska Press
- Publication Date:01/04/2009
- Category:
- ISBN:9780803224506
Information
-
Available to Order - This title is available to order, with delivery expected within 2 weeks
- Format:Paperback / softback
- Pages:328 pages, 16 photographs
- Publisher:University of Nebraska Press
- Publication Date:01/04/2009
- Category:
- ISBN:9780803224506
