The Brooklyn Daily Eagle published an interview with first-time writer Benjamin Feldman, author of Butchery on Bond Street: Sexual Politics & The Burdell-Cunningham Case in Ante-Bellum New York. The book is about an 1857 murder in Antebellum New York. Of course, Lizzie’s name is mentioned (along with OJ’s in another Q).
What is it about this thirst for death we have? The cigar girl that Poe made famous, Lizzie Borden — Why do these murders from a century and longer ago still captivate us today?
That’s a tough question. I think the main part is curiousness. The opportunity to get close to the gruesome, get close to light and shadow, I think is something that appeals to readers. And what is different about 19th Century murder cases and circumstances of lust and greed and deceit that surround them, as opposed to today’s, is that the 19th century and particularly the mid- and the late 19th century, there was every place for the perpetrators to hide. Being anonymous, changing your name, getting away with murder, was a lot easier in the mid- to late 19th century, as well as sexual predation, than it is today. Today the smokinggun.com is going to nail you, your name’s going to be up on Craigslist; there is no place to hide today.
