Murder of a Herkimer County Teacher: The Shocking 1914 Case of a Vengeful Student

Murder of a Herkimer County Teacher: The Shocking 1914 Case of a Vengeful Student
Author: Dennis Webster
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 144
Release: 2017
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 146713645X

In 1914, Poland, New York, was a picturesque slice of small-town America. But that innocence was shattered with the shocking murder of beloved schoolteacher Lida Beecher at the hands of her former student Jean Gianini. At twenty-one years old, Lida wasn't much older than her students. The son of a successful furniture dealer, Jean had all the advantages in life, but he had been labeled as different by all who encountered him. The shocking murder brought the world's best alienists to the packed Herkimer County Courthouse to try to prove that the teenager's mental development precluded his guilt. Author Dennis Webster utilizes unprecedented access to court documents to reveal details of the sensational crime never before made known to the public.

Murder of a Herkimer County Teacher

Murder of a Herkimer County Teacher
Author: Dennis Webster
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 133
Release: 2017-03-27
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1439660131

“The true case of Lydia ‘Lida’ Beecher, a school teacher, being killed by one of her former students . . . The book flows seamlessly” (Observer Dispatch). In 1914, Poland, New York, was a picturesque slice of small-town America. But that innocence was shattered with the shocking murder of beloved schoolteacher Lida Beecher at the hands of her former student Jean Gianini. At twenty-one years old, Lida wasn't much older than her students. The son of a successful furniture dealer, Jean had all the advantages in life, but he had been labeled as different by all who encountered him. The shocking murder brought the world’s best alienists to the packed Herkimer County Courthouse to try to prove that the teenager’s mental development precluded his guilt. Author Dennis Webster utilizes unprecedented access to court documents to reveal details of the sensational crime never before made known to the public. Includes photos!

Murder & Mayhem in Herkimer County

Murder & Mayhem in Herkimer County
Author: Caryl Hopson
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2019-12-02
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1439668663

Caryl Hopson and Susan R. Perkins collect historic narratives of murder and mayhem in Herkimer County. Herkimer County is steeped in history, from the settlement of the Mohawk Valley by Palatine German settlers to the flood of western migration with the opening of the Erie Canal. But the region also boasts an infamous history of high-profile homicides and crimes. Roxalana Druse murdered her abusive husband and became the last woman to be hanged in New York in 1887. The death of Grace Brown on scenic Big Moose Lake became one of the most famous cases in the country in 1906, inspiring author Theodore Dreiser's novel An American Tragedy. Psychological tests of intelligence were admitted into court for the first time in an acquittal of sixteen-year-old Jean Gianini in 1914.

Wicked Herkimer County

Wicked Herkimer County
Author: Caryl Hopson
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 179
Release: 2021-09-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 1439673713

From Little Falls to Frankfort, Herkimer County is no stranger to the seamier side of life. The drowning murder of Grace Brown at Big Moose Lake and the ensuing trial of Chester Gillette was the inspiration for Theodore Dreiser's famous novel An American Tragedy. Medical students from the Fairfield Medical College attempted to rob local graves for cadavers, drawing the ire of local residents, who formed a mob to meet them. Outlaw thieves faced off against New York City detectives in a gun battle at Camp Utica in Old Forge. Hotheaded shootings and Prohibition raids were rampant at the liquor-soaked lumberjack camp of Beaver River Station in Webb. Editors Caryl Hopson and Susan R. Perkins have assembled a collection of narratives that offer a glimpse into the seedy underbelly of Herkimer County's wicked past.

A Northern Light

A Northern Light
Author: Jennifer Donnelly
Publisher: Clarion Books
Total Pages: 417
Release: 2003
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 035806368X

In 1906, sixteen-year-old Mattie, determined to attend college and be a writer against the wishes of her father and fiance, takes a job at a summer inn where she discovers the truth about the death of a guest. Based on a true story.

A Woman Condemned

A Woman Condemned
Author: James M. Greiner
Publisher: True Crime History
Total Pages: 344
Release: 2019
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 9781606353820

A sensational murder, trial, and a young woman's execution in Depression-era New York At first glance, the 1932 Easter morning murder of Salvatore "Sam" Antonio had all the trademarks of a gang-related murder. Shot five times, stabbed a dozen more, Antonio was left for dead. His body was rolled into a culvert on Castleton Road outside of Hudson, south of Albany, New York. It was only by chance that the mortally wounded Antonio was discovered and brought to the hospital. He died in the emergency room without ever naming his assailant. William H. Flubacher of the New York State Police arrived at the hospital minutes after Antonio succumbed and immediately began his investigation by questioning the victim's wife, Anna Antonio. The vague details she offered, coupled with her utter lack of shock or grief upon hearing of her husband's brutal murder, convinced Flubacher that something was amiss. Soon, as James M. Greiner tells us in this absorbing book, Anna was accused of hiring two drug dealers, Vincent Saetta and Sam Feraci, to kill her husband. In Greiner's description of the trial itself, he seeks to show how flaws in the judicial system, poverty, and prejudice around the Italian American community in Albany all played a part in Anna's conviction and death sentence. Perhaps no other woman on death row endured the mental anguish she experienced; her execution was postponed three times--once when walking to the electric chair. The first complete history of this historically significant case, A Woman Condemned draws upon newly discovered New York State Police records, volumes of court transcripts, and period newspapers, leading readers to wonder if justice was really served.