Six Capsules

The Gilded Age Murder of Helen Potts

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, True Crime
Cover of the book Six Capsules by George R. Dekle Sr., The Kent State University Press
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Author: George R. Dekle Sr. ISBN: 9781612778150
Publisher: The Kent State University Press Publication: May 14, 2019
Imprint: The Kent State University Press Language: English
Author: George R. Dekle Sr.
ISBN: 9781612778150
Publisher: The Kent State University Press
Publication: May 14, 2019
Imprint: The Kent State University Press
Language: English

The permanent solution to a wife’s chronic headache

As Ted Bundy was to the 20th century, so Carlyle Harris was to the 19th. Harris was a charismatic, handsome young medical student with an insatiable appetite for sex. His trail of debauched women ended with Helen Potts, a beautiful young woman of wealth and privilege who was determined to keep herself pure for marriage. Unable to conquer her by other means, Harris talked her into a secret marriage under assumed names, and when threatened with exposure, he poisoned her.

The resulting trial garnered national headlines and launched the careers of two of New York’s most famous prosecutors, Francis L. Wellman and William Travers Jerome. It also spurred vigorous debate about Harris’s guilt or innocence, the value of circumstantial evidence, the worth of expert testimony, and the advisability of the death penalty. Six Capsules traces Harris’s crime and his subsequent trial and highlights what has been overlooked—the decisive role that the second-class status of women in Victorian Era culture played in this tragedy.

The Harris case is all but forgotten today, but Six Capsules seeks to recover this important milestone in American legal history.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

The permanent solution to a wife’s chronic headache

As Ted Bundy was to the 20th century, so Carlyle Harris was to the 19th. Harris was a charismatic, handsome young medical student with an insatiable appetite for sex. His trail of debauched women ended with Helen Potts, a beautiful young woman of wealth and privilege who was determined to keep herself pure for marriage. Unable to conquer her by other means, Harris talked her into a secret marriage under assumed names, and when threatened with exposure, he poisoned her.

The resulting trial garnered national headlines and launched the careers of two of New York’s most famous prosecutors, Francis L. Wellman and William Travers Jerome. It also spurred vigorous debate about Harris’s guilt or innocence, the value of circumstantial evidence, the worth of expert testimony, and the advisability of the death penalty. Six Capsules traces Harris’s crime and his subsequent trial and highlights what has been overlooked—the decisive role that the second-class status of women in Victorian Era culture played in this tragedy.

The Harris case is all but forgotten today, but Six Capsules seeks to recover this important milestone in American legal history.

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