In 1914, while working as a reporter for the San Francisco Bulletin, Sophie Treadwell covered the trial against a woman named Leah Alexander, who stood accused of murdering her lover, J. D. Van Baalen. Two years later, writing for the New York American, Treadwell wrote a series of about sixteen articles while covering her second sensational murder case. This time Treadwell described the trial of Mrs. Elizabeth Blair Mohr, accused of hiring three men to murder her adulterous husband. Even before the trials began, the public opinion was clearly against these women who dared defied patriarchal notions of what a woman should be. In spite of the evidences proving the abuse suffered by both defendants, Alexander and Mohr, a

This article in full comprises 1513 words but only the first 150 or so words are available to non-members.

All our articles have been written recently by experts in their field, more than 95% of them university professors. To read about membership, please click here.

Published 21 October 2005

Citation: López-Rodríguez, Miriam. "Machinal". The Literary Encyclopedia. 21 October 2005.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16862, accessed 9 February 2010.]