Overview

Herkimer County is steeped in history, from the settlement of the Mohawk Valley by Palatine German settlers to the flood of western migration with the opening of the Erie Canal. But the region also boasts an infamous history of high-profile homicides and crimes. Roxalana Druse murdered her abusive husband and became the last woman to be hanged in New York in 1887. The death of Grace Brown on scenic Big Moose Lake became one of the most famous cases in the country in 1906, inspiring author Theodore Dreiser's novel An American Tragedy. Psychological tests of intelligence were admitted into court for the first time in an acquittal of sixteen-year-old Jean Gianini in 1914. Caryl Hopson and Susan R. Perkins collect these historic narratives of murder and mayhem in Herkimer County.

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9781540241498

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CARYL HOPSON has been with the Herkimer County Historical Society for twenty-seven years in an administrative capacity overseeing programs, projects, exhibits and fundraising activities for the organization, including a recent collaboration with the local theater company Ilion Little Theatre in the production of a new play, Shattered Angel, written by Stephen Wagner on the famous 1914 Jean Gianini murder, and a previous play, Roxy, written by Jack Sherman, based on the 1884 Roxalana Druse murder. SUSAN PERKINS has been with the Herkimer County Historical Society for thirty-six years as an archivist, administrative assistant and, for the past twenty-two years, the executive director. She writes monthly articles for the Mohawk Valley Living magazine on the area's history and serves as the town of Manheim historian. Together they have worked with Arcadia Publishing on four publications for the Images of America series: Herkimer Village, German Flatts, Frankfort and Little Falls.

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