About this item
An Italian immigrant who spoke little English and struggled to scrape together a living on her primitive family farm outside Chicago, Sabella Nitti was arrested in 1923 for the murder of her missing husband. Within two months, she was found guilty and became the first woman ever sentenced to hang in Chicago. Journalist Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi leads readers through Sabella's sensational case, showing how, with no evidence and no witnesses, she was the target of an obsessed deputy sheriff and the victim of a faulty legal system. She was also - to the men who convicted her and the reporters fixated on her - ugly. For that unforgiveable crime, the media painted her as a hideous, dirty, and unpredictable immigrant, almost an animal. Lucchesi brings to life the sights and sounds of 1920s Chicago - its then-rural outskirts, downtown halls of power, and headline-making crimes and trials, including those of two other women (who would inspire the musical and film Chicago) also accused of killing the men in their lives.
About the Author
"A Light in the Dark: Surviving Ted Bundy and more," by Kathy Kleiner Rubin and Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi. (Working title) . In 1978, Kleiner Rubin survived a brutal attack by serial killer Ted Bundy. She miraculously survived and testified in court. Her riveting story is both chilling and inspiring. "This is Really War: The Incredible True Story of a Navy Nurse POW in the Occupied Philippines," Chicago Review Press, May 7, 2019. "Ugly Prey: An Innocent Woman and the Death Sentence that Scandalized Jazz Age Chicago. " Chicago Review Press, 2017. More at: Emilie-Lucchesi. com
