Virginia A. McConnell, Arsenic Under the Elms

In Arsenic Under the Elms, Virginia McConnell writes about two infamous murder trials that took place in New Haven County in the late 19th century. The first was the murder of Mary Stannard in 1878 near her home in Rockland, Connecticut, some 15-20 miles northeast of New Haven. Mary's neighbor, the slick Reverend Herbert Hayden, was arrested for the crime, and a sensational trial ensued. According to the prosecution, Hayden poisoned Mary with arsenic (and clubbed her in the head and slit her throat) because she was pregnant by him and he wanted to protect his reputation. McConnell walks us through the crime and trial and the legal procedures of the day. I found the introductory chapters, detailing the crime, more interesting than the author's account of the trial, which got bogged down a bit in details. It's clear from her account where the author stands on the question of Hayden's guilt, but we're still left guessing until the end of the story about what the jury's verdict would be. 

Jenny Cramer was killed three years later, in 1881, her body found in West Haven's Savin Rock area. There was arsenic in her system as well. Members of an illustrious New Haven family were implicated in the crime: Walter Malley, scion of the Malley's Department Store family, and his cousin Jimmy were arrested in connection with her death. This account too gets bogged down in the trial chapters, and so while I'm glad to have read the book—particularly because I'm local to the area—it wasn't always easy to make progress in it.

One final note is that it's not always clear when reading to what extent the narrative is based on verifiable fact versus inference. McConnell cites her sources and is honest about her inferences, but you have to dig in the footnotes to find her comments, and many readers may not bother. For example, p. 135:

"Mrs. Cramer was very much aware that her daughter's beauty might well be her ticket to a higher class, and so she took great pains to highlight it and show it off."

With footnote 3 on p. 238:

"This is an assumption based on Mrs. Cramer's actions and statements concerning her daughter, including her disapproval of one of Jennie's suitors because of his lowly occupation (barber)."