Review: Borowitz, The Woman Who Murdered Black Satin

[truepenny]

The Woman Who Murdered Black Satin: The Bermondsey Horror by Albert Borowitz

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


So the murder of Patrick O'Connor by Marie and Frederick Manning was a cause celebre back in 1849. The title refers to the urban legend that because Marie Manning wore black satin to her execution, she was so hated by London that black satin immediately went out of fashion and stayed that way for some time (years, in some accounts). Borowitz is having his cake and eating it, too, with this, because he digs around and proves that in fact no such thing happened. Marie Manning wore black satin to her execution, and people kept right on buying black satin.

This is a rather dry account of the murder, the pursuit of the suspects (Marie was found in Edinburgh, Frederick on the isle of Jersey), the trial, the execution, and the public reaction---though not as dry as Borowitz's book about the Thurtell case. Borowitz examines the evidence thoroughly and puts forward the theory that Marie Manning did not herself murder Patrick O'Connor, although she was clearly an accessory before and after the fact and had no qualms about stealing O'Connor's stocks and shares. Frederick is the one who confessed (she maintained her innocence all the way to the gallows), and therefore Frederick is the one who got to tell the story. Borowitz is right that Frederick's version loads the blame for everything on Marie, and right that there does seem to be a discrepancy between Frederick's confession and the witness statements, since taking them together requires Marie to be able to teleport. And he's right that in several significant ways, Marie did not get a fair trial (as distinct from actually being innocent).

Her contemporaries were convinced of her guilt (she is the model for the diabolical Mademoiselle Hortense in Dickens' Bleak House), and I think it's clear from the objective evidence that she was complicit in the plan from the beginning, whether she physically took part in the murder or not.



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