The Alleged Murderer Known as 'The Witch of New York' (Women Behaving Badly)

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In 19th century Staten Island, a heavily pregnant woman named Polly Bodine was accused of murdering her own sister-in-law, and her baby niece. The crime and subsequent trials set off a media firestorm in New York, with luminaries like Edgar Allen Poe and Walt Whitman covering the case. We speak with author Alex Hortis about his new book, The Witch of New York: The Trials of Polly Bodine and the Cursed Birth of Tabloid Justice as part of our series, "Women Behaving Badly," a tongue-in-cheek look at unruly women in New York history.