The Murder of Helen Jewett

August 3, 1998
Massive publicity surrounded the arrest of a young clerk named Richard Robinson for murdering prostitute Helen Jewett with a hatchet in New York City in 1836. The 20 reporters and approximately 6000 spectators who attended the trial made it the most infamous case of its day and made celebrities of its attorneys and witnesses. Despite overwhelming evidence, Robinson was acquitted, but the story as presented here isn't so much a 19th-century potboiler as an examination of New York City's thriving illicit sex trade and the fascination it inspired. Cohen (The American Promise) examines the case with zeal and skill. Details of life in 1830s New York City--a time when it was surpassing Boston and Philadelphia as the country's preeminent metropolis--are involving. And Cohen's depiction of gender inequality in Jacksonian America adds to her stellar achievement. Photos.