Proof of Guilt Barbara Graham and the Politics of Executing Women in America.

Cairns, Kathleen A.

Proof of Guilt Barbara Graham and the Politics of Executing Women in America. - Lincoln : UNP - Nebraska, (c)2013. - 1 online resource (239 pages)

Includes bibliographies and index.

Cover; Title Page; Copyright Page; Contents; Illustrations; Author's Note; Introduction; 1 A Murder in Burbank; 2 A Life on the Lam; 3 A Femme Fatale on Trial; 4 Crime Doesn't Pay; 5 An Execution in California; 6 Executing Women in America; 7 I Want to Live!; 8 Due Process; 9 Abolishing the Death Penalty; 10 The Ultimate Penalty; Notes; Selected Bibliography.

Barbara Graham might have been a diabolical dame in a hard-boiled detective story-beautiful, sexy, and deadly. Charged alongside two male friends in the murder of an elderly widow during a botched robbery attempt, "Bloody Babs" became the third woman executed in California-after a 1953 trial that played out before standing-room-only crowds captured the imaginations of journalists, filmmakers, and death penalty opponents. Why, Kathleen A. Cairns asks, of all the capital cases in the twentieth century, did Graham's have such political resonance and staying power? Leaving aside the question.



9780803245693


Graham, Barbara, 1923-1955.


Women murderers--California--Case studies.
Women death row inmates--United States--Case studies.
Capital punishment--United States.
Capital punishment.
Graham, Barbara, 1923-1955.
Women death row inmates.


Electronic Books.

HV8701 / .P766 2013