Women who Kill

Acknowledgments

439 acknowledgments Thanks are in order, for during four years of research I have incurred many debts. I am grateful to librarians and archivists of many institutions: the Historical Societies of Fall River and Worcester (Massachusetts) and New Castle (Delaware) and of the states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Delaware, and Massachusetts; the Pennsylvania State Library, the Library of Congress , the libraries of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Cornell University , Rutgers University, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Smith College, and the law libraries of Columbia University and the University of Missouri; the San Francisco Public Library, the Ithaca (New York) Public Library, and the Forbes Library in Northampton, Massachusetts ; the American Antiquarian Society (Worcester, Massachusetts) and the Board of Trade of New Castle, Delaware. I am indebted to the New York Historical Society and to librarian Barbara Shikler, who cheerfully searched stacks and on fruitless days took me to lunch; to Jane Williamson , who put the library of the Women’s Action Alliance at my disposal; and to director Abby Schaeffer, who provided work space in The Writers Room. My debt to the New York Public Library is enormous. It offered me a desk in the Frederick Lewis Allen Memorial Room (where I have maintained a typewriter and a toothbrush since 1978), the services of its concerned and patient staff (particularly in the American History and Newspaper divisions), and its incomparable collections. There is simply no place quite the equal of “the Library.” I couldn’t have written this book anywhere else. Carol Kramer of the New York Daily News and Sherry Brown of the Lafayette (Indiana) Journal and Courier provided information from their files, and the clerks of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, the Hampshire County (Massachusetts) Court, the Worcester County (Massachusetts ) Court, and the Kings County (New York) Court searched records for me. Dr. Donald B. Hoffman, chief toxicologist of the New York Medical Examiner’s Office, pored over old cases and offered expert opinion. Only three institutions declined to aid me: the law libraries of Harvard and Yale and the Pennsylvania Bureau of Correction. 440 It was exciting to me to move out of my self-imposed isolation in libraries and into research on contemporary feminist problems, for other women working on these issues willingly gave me a hand. Betsy Warrior and Del Martin, who led the way in the concerns of battered women, generously advised me. Attorney Elizabeth Schneider, Kathleen Ridolfi, and Elizabeth Bochnak of the Women’s Self-Defense Law Project offered enthusiasm, help, and stacks of information. (The Project, in consultation with attorneys across the country, is developing important theoretical approaches to legal representation of women facing criminal charges for defending themselves against physical or sexual assault.) Among others who helped in my research on battered women were Rebecca Allerton of the Tompkins County (New York) Task Force on Battered Women and JoAnn Dunn of the Lincoln (Nebraska) Task Force on Abused Women, Ruth Childers, Betty Evett, Marie de Jong-Joch, Bill Johnson, Mary McGuire, Bernadette Powell, Mary Randolph, Lucy Slurzberg, Cheryl Smith, Judy Sturm, Mary Thom, David Trevallion, and Carol Ann Wilds. Providing information on other topics were Sharon Wiggins, Susan Reed, Odette L. McCartny, and the New York City Department of Correction. Several attorneys helped me ferret out information or clarify points of law: Fern Adelstein (student), David Burres, Linda Fidnick, John Gambs, Mark Gasarch, Martin Luster, Jay Seeger, Martin Stolar, and especially Susan Thon. Among many friends who offered information, advice, or help were Barbara Bader, Rayna Green, Linda Hamalian, Leo Hamalian, Marvin Kaye, Claudette Kulkarni, David Lowe, Harry Maurer, Elizabeth Meyersohn, John Clair Miller, Lynn Myers, B.J. Phillips, Pat Sackrey, Anne Summers, and Kathleen Swaim. Others who shared their own work with me included Margaret Culley, Sarah Hoaglund, and Robin Morgan. Lynn Campbell, Elisa Evett, Jeffrey Hessing, and Mary Lea Meyersohn criticized sections of one draft or another. Jennifer Josephy, my editor, remained encouraging through it all. And there are special debts: to Maynard Cat and Big Randolph, two gray friends who sat up many a long night with me and my murderers ; to my literary agent and dear friend Frances Goldin; to Ann Ellen Lesser, director of the Millay Colony for the Arts, who made it possible for me to work at the Colony, where this book was finished, then brilliantly dissected my manuscript; to Norma Millay, who offered me her sister’s studio and her incisive criticism; to my Allen Room cronies—Jane Alpert, Susan Brownmiller...