The Fall Fields Tragedy, Or True Crime I Bump Into And Mean to Read Later
One of the bookish things that consistently happen is that I'll find mention of an obscure (to me) thing, then I'll find an old book about it that's actually been ebookenated, and then add it to my TBR list. And then I forget all about it. So now I've decided I'll at least pop it in here and share it, even if I have no clue how interesting or dull the thing may be.
Tonight's entry - which I can't linked thanks to help from Murder by Death to an image now that because I don't think it's in BookLikes yet:
The Falls Field Tragedy! : The Confession of Sarah E. Littles : Being an Authentic Narrative of the Facts Connected with the Murder of Her Husband, Charles W. Littles, at Rochester, N.Y., on the Night of the 19th of December, 1857, for which Her Brother, Marion Ira Stout, was Hung, and She was Sent to Sing Sing State Prison ... a True Statement, Made by Mrs, Littles, at Sing Sing, on Saturday, Oct. 30th, 1858
[That's a Google books link]
That's the full title - you must love the 1800s publishers for trying to squash as much info in there as will help sell things. (You can see the equivalent of this on Amazon in products like Bestselling Womens Touchscreen Texting Driving Winter Warm Nappa Leather Gloves Fleece or Cashmere Lining - someone is trying to hit ALL the search engine nouns there. ...Yes I was gloves shopping. Nope, not for those.)
Haven't heard of this murder? I'm not surprised - it's not in wikipedia, which is a fair meter for how well known something is (but I'm not epic at searching today, so let me know if I missed it). The jist is that Sarah Littles and her brother, Marion Ira Stout, killed Sarah's husband, Charles Littles. And there's an incest allegation in there. This happened in Rochester, NY, where I was able to find this via a local into history research:
Examiner.com, May 14, 2012
Which has a lot of footnoted quotes, that led me to:
Epitaph Newsletter Volume 19, Number 2, River Campus Libraries, Rochester, Spring 1999
Also this popped up via google:
Murder and Mayhem in Falls Field
Blog: Local History Rocs! Rochester Public Libarary/Local History & Genealogy Division, August 2013
Two source links for that one, at the end of the text.
So there you have it - some links to the basic story if that's what you want, and places to look for primary docs if not. I have a feeling that if I'd grown up in the Rochester area I'd have heard of this at one point.
Where I bumped into it in the first place:
Has a Stopped Clock Ever Really Helped Solve a Crime?
Straight Dope column, Nov 29, 2013
I suppose I could have picked all of them to look up, but I got side tracked after just the one. As usual. Oh and the citation linked there is to an 1858 NYT article, which I'm not going to get to without coughing up funds.
LATER: I just now notice this is some 20+ pages long - I really should peek into it later.
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