Cry of Murder on Broadway Audiobook By Julie Miller cover art

Cry of Murder on Broadway

A Woman's Ruin and Revenge in Old New York

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Cry of Murder on Broadway

By: Julie Miller
Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
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About this listen

On the evening of November 1, 1843, a young household servant named Amelia Norman attacked Henry Ballard, a prosperous merchant, on the steps of the new and luxurious Astor House hotel. Agitated and distraught, Norman followed Ballard down Broadway before confronting him at the door to the Astor House. Taking out a folding knife, she stabbed him, just missing his heart.

Ballard survived the attack, and the trial that followed created a sensation. Newspapers in New York and beyond followed the case eagerly, and crowds filled the courtroom every day. Prominent author and abolitionist Lydia Maria Child championed Norman and later included her story in her fiction and her writing on women's rights.

The would-be murderer also attracted the support of politicians, journalists, and legal and moral reformers who saw her story as a vehicle to change the law as it related to "seduction," and advocate for the rights of workers. Cry of Murder on Broadway describes how New Yorkers, besotted with the drama of the courtroom and the lurid stories of the penny press, followed the trial for sensation. Throughout all this, Norman gained the sympathy of New Yorkers, in particular the jury, which acquitted her in less than ten minutes.

©2020 Cornell University (P)2020 Tantor
Murder United States Women
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Not for true crime readers

I barely could finish this audio book. The author uses an extremely flimsy crime from the 1840s to view the situation of women from a very 21st century point of view by merely studying the works of liberal women writers and activists from the period whose writing survives. We learn very little about the character of the subtitle, due to the fact she was (probably) illiterate. Well, that is convenient, the author just fils in the blanks and there are no sources to back this up. The entire book reads like a masters' thesis, a lot of detailed though selective research: women were victims and men were pigs. When you are interested in true crime, this is not a book for you.

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a great gem of true crime

this was a fun listen. I love this time period, and this slice of real life is no excetion

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