Preview
Identifier
KF 223 .H37 1865 (no. 1)
Creation Date
1865
Description
Official Report of the Trial of Mary Harris, Indicted for the Murder of Adoniram J. Burroughs. Washington: WH & OH Morrison, 1865.
After meeting the 9-year-old Mary Harris, Adoniram J. Burroughs, a businessman more than twice her age began to court and cultivate her. When Harris was 13, Burroughs moved to Chicago. He corresponded with her, expressing his intentions to marry her. When Mary turned eighteen, she moved Chicago at his request. Burroughs then moved to Washington, D.C., where he broke off correspondence with Harris, attempted to disgrace her, and married another woman. Learning about the marriage, Harris engaged in increasingly erratic behavior. In 1865, she found Burroughs at his office, shot and killed him. Though charged with first-degree murder, the defense asserted that Burroughs' betrayal drove this innocent, virtuous young lady insane. Harris was acquitted of the charges.