Overview

Engendered Death: Pennsylvania Women Who Kill is an historical and interdisciplinary study of women who kill in Pennsylvania from the 18th century to the present. It is not an examination of what motivates women to kill, although the reader may deduce that from the case studies included. Instead, it is an examination of how society perceives women who kill and how the gender-lens is applied to them throughout the legal process in the media and in the courtroom. What makes this work particularly unique is its combination of both scholarly analysis and narrative case studies. As such, it will appeal to both the scholar and the reader of true-crime non-fiction. If we are to recognize the complex variables at play in all criminal offenses, we will need to understand that the laws of a community, its social values, its politics, economics, and even geography play a factor in what laws are enforced and against whom they are enforced. The decision to define and label certain behaviors and certain people was based on social, political, and economic considerations of each community. Thus, the commission of murder by a woman in Arizona may have a variety of factors associated with it that are not present in the case of a woman who murdered her husband in Maine. This study, in part because of the volume of cases and in part to limit the variables affecting the cases, has limited its scope of women killers to the state of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is the ideal state to study because of its long and stable legal and political traditions, its historically diverse population, and the large number of newspapers that will help us gauge the public's view of women and women who kill. By limiting our scope to one state, we know that the legal definitions are fairly consistent for all of the women during a certain period and we can more easily identify the shifts in social values regarding women and homicide.

Full Product Details

Author:   Joseph W. Laythe
Publisher:   Associated University Presses
Imprint:   Lehigh University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 16.40cm , Height: 2.00cm , Length: 23.90cm
Weight:   0.472kg
ISBN:  

9781611460926

ISBN 10:   1611460921
Pages:   212
Publication Date:   16 December 2011
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS CHAPTER 1.  INTRODUCTION    CHAPTER 2. THE WICKED STEPMOTHER? THE EDNA MUMBULO CASE    Edna’s Background     The Fire     The Hunt     The Trial    Conclusion      CHAPTER 3. GENDER ROLES IN AMERICAN SOCIETY    Historic Fabrications of Femininity     Engendered Violence: Women, Violence, and the American Way of Life    Changing Theories    Biological Explanation   Situational Explanation    Combined Forces The Statistical Profile   CHAPTER 4.  MARITAL TERROR: HOMICIDE, WOMEN, AND THE MEN THEY LOVED    No Escape: The Tragic Life and Death of Stella Kuzmicki        A Troubled Motherhood     The Escape     Their End     Aftermath     The Devils and the Diary: Mrs. Sample and Murder     Background     The Diary     The Murder and the Trial     Aftermath     CHAPTER 5.  THE DARKER SIDE OF MOTHERHOOD     No Chance in Heaven: The Marie Noe Case     Background     Bassinet to Burial     Investigation, Fame, and SIDS     The Unraveling    “The Clock is Dismantled”: Tanya Dacri     Background     The Crime     The Trial     CHAPTER 6. THE DEMOTED DEPUTY HUSBAND     Iron Irene: The Life, Crimes, and Electrocution of a Mother      Background    The Butler Robbery and the Roadblock Killing    A Cross-Country Flight    The Trial of Iron Irene Schroeder     “It’ll All Come Out in the Wash’: The Millie Thomas Case       Background     The Murder     The Investigation and Trial     Conclusion        The Janice Graham Case     Background    The Murders    The Trials       CHAPTER 7.  WITCHCRAFT AND WOMEN WHO KILL     Poisoned Kitchens    Arsenic and Homeland Traditions: Chalfa-Allas Case     Background     The Crime     The Trial     Witches, Poison, and Italian Women: The Philadelphia Poison Ring of the 1930s     Arsenic and Death     Italian Philadelphia      The Black Widows of Philadelphia     The Investigation and Trial     CHAPTER 8.  SERVICES NOT RENDERED: WOMEN WHO KILL AND THE AGENCIES THAT FAILED THEM    Social Services History: A Cracked Community     Child Protective Services     Inseparable Companions: The Matricide Case of Agnes West, 1940      212 Cuts and Bruises and One Big Black Eye: The Lisa Iarussi Case     Brittany and Lisa     The Murder and Trial     The Black Eye of OCY      Child Welfare Breakdowns     Three Times a Lady: Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong     Background     Murder One     Murder Two     Murder Three      CHAPTER 9.  RACE, HOMICIDE, AND WOMEN WHO KILL    Severed City, Severed Soul: Corinne Sykes Case    Racist Philadelphia, 1940s    Corinne and the Crime   Raymond Pace Alexander and the Trial of Corinne Sykes    CHAPTER 10.  CONCLUSION     BIBLIOGRAPHY  

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Author Information

Joseph W. Laythe currently teaches courses on the American West, American violence, and American urban development at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. His other works include Crime and Punishment in Oregon, 1875-1915: A Study of Four Communities (2008).

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