Arsenic and Clam Chowder: Murder in Gilded Age New York

Livingston (materials science and engineering, MIT), a research physicist and distant cousin of the woman, relates the story of the 1896 murder trial of Mary Alice Livingston, who was accused of murdering her mother, Evelina Bliss, using arsenic-laced clam chowder. Livingston, a member of a prestigious family in New York and the mother of four out-of-wedlock children, awaited an inheritance that she could only obtain after the death of her mother. He recounts the media coverage, the context of New York City, the family's history, her previous trial against a romantic interest for breach of promise, the scandalous murder trial, and her acquittal. An imprint of State University of New York Press. Annotation c2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Born June 23, 1930, in Brooklyn, New York, James D. Livingston studied engineering physics at Cornell University and received a PhD in applied physics from Harvard University in 1956. Since retiring from General Electric after a lengthy career as a research physicist, he has been teaching in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT. Although a physicist by profession, he has long had a strong interest in American history, and is the coauthor, with Sherry H. Penney, ofA Very Dangerous Woman: Martha Wright and Women’s Rights.