The Girl Widow Unveiled

Unraveling Dark Secrets in an American Family

Biography & Memoir, Historical
Cover of the book The Girl Widow Unveiled by David Haward Bain, BookBaby
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: David Haward Bain ISBN: 9781483505039
Publisher: BookBaby Publication: August 1, 2013
Imprint: Language: English
Author: David Haward Bain
ISBN: 9781483505039
Publisher: BookBaby
Publication: August 1, 2013
Imprint:
Language: English
Secrets Buried Beneath the Family Tree It started with an innocent hobby night of genealogy, but what prizewinning author David Haward Bain discovered that night and over the next feverish days of detective work would change the course of his life, revealing a century-old family secret of his beloved grandmother Rose Donahue Haward. It would quickly take him back to her home ground of Kansas City, Missouri and through many archives, and into the very heart of memory itself. Hidden deep in a hard-won census record was this astounding fact: she had kept a lifelong secret about an unacknowledged first marriage that, as he learned with increasing amazement in a search of official documents and old newspaper clippings, had ended in a loud burst of gunfire on a dark Kansas City street just a day before Christmas Eve, 1908. Rose was arrested for first-degree murder of her husband. She sat before judge and jury in a much-publicized, newspaper-field-day trial – the “Girl Widow Case,” as headlines screamed through the early months of 1909. Miraculously, given the time, as he found, Rose was exonerated in the dramatic trial – for being a victim of domestic abuse in fear of her life, found not guilty by a jury of men (women could not serve on juries and would not even be able to vote for eleven more years). Then she was free to retreat to a quiet life of rebuilding and denial, meeting and marrying his grandfather, bearing their children including Bain’s mother, making possible the author’s very existence and those of his three siblings and all their nine children. His discovery of this secret rocked everyone’s foundation, whether of his siblings or cousins or Rose’s great-grandchildren: how narrow, how miraculous was Rose’s escape. And how equally miraculous was the fate of her family and all the descendents. Moreover, how fortunate was his initial discovery of genealogical pay dirt, just weeks before the 50th anniversary of Rose’s death, and a couple of months before the 100th anniversary of the shooting. The Girl Widow Unveiled is a triumphant story of absorbing detective work. It also features a vivid recreation of events leading up to that Christmastime shooting and its equally dramatic aftermath, based on trial records and jury logs, newspaper accounts, government documents, and ephemera, even down to period trolley and fire insurance maps, all of which contribute to reanimating forgotten times, vanished places -- casting an eerie but truer light on the present.
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Secrets Buried Beneath the Family Tree It started with an innocent hobby night of genealogy, but what prizewinning author David Haward Bain discovered that night and over the next feverish days of detective work would change the course of his life, revealing a century-old family secret of his beloved grandmother Rose Donahue Haward. It would quickly take him back to her home ground of Kansas City, Missouri and through many archives, and into the very heart of memory itself. Hidden deep in a hard-won census record was this astounding fact: she had kept a lifelong secret about an unacknowledged first marriage that, as he learned with increasing amazement in a search of official documents and old newspaper clippings, had ended in a loud burst of gunfire on a dark Kansas City street just a day before Christmas Eve, 1908. Rose was arrested for first-degree murder of her husband. She sat before judge and jury in a much-publicized, newspaper-field-day trial – the “Girl Widow Case,” as headlines screamed through the early months of 1909. Miraculously, given the time, as he found, Rose was exonerated in the dramatic trial – for being a victim of domestic abuse in fear of her life, found not guilty by a jury of men (women could not serve on juries and would not even be able to vote for eleven more years). Then she was free to retreat to a quiet life of rebuilding and denial, meeting and marrying his grandfather, bearing their children including Bain’s mother, making possible the author’s very existence and those of his three siblings and all their nine children. His discovery of this secret rocked everyone’s foundation, whether of his siblings or cousins or Rose’s great-grandchildren: how narrow, how miraculous was Rose’s escape. And how equally miraculous was the fate of her family and all the descendents. Moreover, how fortunate was his initial discovery of genealogical pay dirt, just weeks before the 50th anniversary of Rose’s death, and a couple of months before the 100th anniversary of the shooting. The Girl Widow Unveiled is a triumphant story of absorbing detective work. It also features a vivid recreation of events leading up to that Christmastime shooting and its equally dramatic aftermath, based on trial records and jury logs, newspaper accounts, government documents, and ephemera, even down to period trolley and fire insurance maps, all of which contribute to reanimating forgotten times, vanished places -- casting an eerie but truer light on the present.

More books from BookBaby

Cover of the book Sd Protocol: Achieve Greater Health and Wellbeing by David Haward Bain
Cover of the book Doing Your Own Taxes is as Easy as 1, 2, 3. by David Haward Bain
Cover of the book The Weekend by David Haward Bain
Cover of the book The Little Shell by David Haward Bain
Cover of the book Parenting & Tech: iPad Edition by David Haward Bain
Cover of the book Hello by David Haward Bain
Cover of the book The Secrets of Superior Talent Management by David Haward Bain
Cover of the book HaTe 2 LoVe by David Haward Bain
Cover of the book The Transmogrification of Roscoe Wizzle by David Haward Bain
Cover of the book God Broke Through by David Haward Bain
Cover of the book Boogie-Woogie Piano for Beginners by David Haward Bain
Cover of the book The Saga of Bartholomew Bee by David Haward Bain
Cover of the book World Enough for Me by David Haward Bain
Cover of the book Radical Ideas by David Haward Bain
Cover of the book Reality Struck!!! THE MAKING OF POETRY IN MOTION by David Haward Bain
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy