Joan G. (despinne) reviewed The Fall of the House of Walworth: A Tale of Madness and Murder in Gilded Age America on + 59 more book reviews
The murder story is very common and unexciting (compared with, say, Ann Rule). What is interesting is the history. The characters are 2nd or 3d generation after the Revolutionary War and the settlement of Kentucky. In fact, the mother of the murderer, Ellen Hardin Walworth, was one of the three founders of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Despite her sordid troubles--in those days there was no divorce--Ellen did some very interesting things, including being elected to a school board--not sure that women could vote then... I have studied a lot of early American history, but this particular book fleshes out the facts with the deeds and problems and lifestyle of people who lived the history during the 19th century. The last Walworth died in the early 1950s. The later generation in the 20th century lived fairly uneventfully in Saratoga NY.
