Welcome to another Tuesday celebrating bookish events, from Tuesday/First Chapter/Intros, hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea Every Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea posts the opening paragraph (sometime two) of a book she decided to read based on the opening. Feel free to grab the banner and play along.
My first paragraph this week comes from Last Woman Hanged by Caroline Overington published in the UK in November 2014
Blurb
In January 1889, Louisa Collins, a 41-year-old mother of ten children, became the first woman hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol and the last woman hanged in New South Wales. Both of Louisa’s husbands died suddenly.
The Crown was convinced that Louisa poisoned them with arsenic and, to the horror of many in the legal community, put her on trial an extraordinary FOUR TIMES in order to get a conviction. Louisa protested her innocence until the end.
Now, in LAST WOMAN HANGED, writer and journalist Caroline Overington delves into the archives to re-examine the original, forensic reports, court documents, judges notebooks, witness statements and police and gaol records, in an effort to discover the truth. Goodreads
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First Chapter ~ First Paragraph ~ Intro
CHAPTER 1
The Early Years
According to various sources, Louise Collins was just thirty-two years old when she was hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol in 1889 – or else she was thirty-nine or perhaps forty. Not even prison officials could seem to make up their minds.
In fact, if the official records ae correct, Louisa must have been forty-one years old when she died. Both he birth certificate and her certificate of baptism make plain that she was born Louisa Hall on 11 August 1847 at Belltrees near Scone, and no amount of lying about he age, which Louisa had a habit of doing, could make a difference to that date.
So what do you think? Do you want to know more?
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