On November 12, 1850, Ann Simpson stood in a Fayetteville, North Carolina, courtroom. Prosecutors accused her of being in league with the devil, of visiting a fortune teller, of committing adultery, and of murdering her husband by poisoning his food. This book provides the first scholarly examination of the murder trial of Ann Simpson. In The Murder Trial of Ann Simpson, author Christopher Thrasher explains who Ann Simpson was and traces her crooked path from a member of one of North Carolina's most prominent families to a disgraced woman accused of cold-blooded murder. Thrasher's analysis rests on a careful examination of numerous sources, including court documents, newspaper articles, memoirs, medical records, and collections of never-before-examined personal papers. It provides a detailed account of the medical investigation that led to her arrest and covers the trial in which several of the finest legal minds in the state battled over every scrap of evidence. The Murder Trial of Ann Simpson is a comprehensive study of a single case, providing insights into the history of medicine, marriage, and law in nineteenth-century North Carolina.
