Today's Reading
In the years ahead, Catharine and I would carefully evaluate the clues to a maddening mystery—why was Sarah Maria Cornell, a thirty-year-old woman with seemingly so much to live for, found dead on this spot on a crisp December morning? Catharine and I would scour the scores of unpublished original documents, mining for clues in the extensive testimonies of people who sought to protect Sarah. We also had to consider the damning narratives from those determined to condemn her. Catharine and I would interview Sarah's family and her close friends—though, admittedly, Catharine was granted greater access than I (luckily for us). We would soon visit Sarah's humble gravesite, the spot where she was finally able to rest in peace after being buried three times in two different locations.
Ultimately, we hoped that our writing would serve as a lesson in criminal investigation. There was discussion about victimology, motives, witnesses, criminal profiling, physical clues, and legal arguments. We both had our own forensic experts, though my list was more extensive. Catharine's side of the investigation had its weaknesses; she refused to interview the suspected killer's family, much to my dismay. But I did.
And Catharine didn't realize it, but once I detected her biases, I began investigating her. What were Catharine Williams's true intentions for writing a book about a murder that might not have been a murder at all? Unbeknownst to her, I spoke to Catharine's own family to evaluate her motives and delve into her personal history.
But the focus of our narrative was the distraught young woman found dead on a remote farm one winter morning. Regardless of the cause of Sarah's death, Catharine and I both wanted to answer why it happened. Together, we would investigate a sad, pitiful end to a troubled life; we would dissect the dynamics of Sarah's family that led her to that bleak spot; we would study her past paramours, as well as scrutinize several sexual predators who crossed paths with her. We would examine the overt, odious assertions about Sarah's so-called promiscuity as a cause, even a justification, for her death. Catharine and I noted the misogyny that has always pervaded America, the enduring impulse to excuse a man's behavior at the cost of his victim. Our aim was to offer a true crime narrative that might reshape how Americans regarded the demise of a flawed, victimized woman&and how our society exploited her, even after death.
While Sarah Cornell's story has largely been forgotten, its legacy remains. Echoes of her narrative—which was as omnipresent and infamous in its time as the stories of women like Nicole Brown Simpson and Gabby Petito are in ours—made their way into all aspects of society upon her death. In fact, the details of Sarah's story inspired an author to write one of the most important novels in American history, a reimagining of the exploitation of women. But more on that later.
True crime, I believe, is overdue for a broad reckoning. For every authentic, empathetic professional in the genre, there is an endless supply of seemingly callous true crime creators whose work exploits a victim's past, re-traumatizing and re-victimizing their families (and the victim's reputation) in the process. The genre seems to be at an inflection point, a moment that demands self-evaluation for all of us who venture into true crime storytelling.
Catharine Williams and I want to do things differently. We aim to offer readers a victim-centered reclamation of the "wanton woman" in the true crime narrative. As a crime historian, I found that working with a gifted, galvanized writer like Catharine was a blessing. Alongside her, I wasn't alone in my determination that true crime could help restore the public character of victims who suffered harm not only at the hands of perpetrators but at the pens of writers who recounted their stories. That impulse is at the heart of The Sinners All Bow.
I consider Catharine Williams my coauthor, and she and I were determined to get to the heart of the mystery of Sarah Cornell's death. The only catch: we were working on the same case almost two centuries apart. Sarah Cornell was found dangling by her neck from a haystack pole in what is now Fall River, Massachusetts, in the year 1832. Catharine Williams began her investigation the following spring.
What's singular about The Sinners All Bow is that my coauthor has been dead for more than 150 years.
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These are the basic facts of the case:
On a frigid day in December 1832, the body of a young woman was found hanging at a farm in Tiverton, Rhode Island. She was identified as Sarah Maria Cornell, a worker in a nearby textile factory. Evidence implicated Methodist minister Ephraim Avery, a married man and father of four. The community was outraged that a man of God had apparently seduced and murdered an innocent mill girl.
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