Poison widows

by Cooper, George

Former Columbia law professor Cooper re-creates a sensational but forgotten crime of the 1930s. Working from newspapers, archival records, and interviews, he reconstructs the story of three men in Philadelphia who convinced Italian immigrant wives to solve their domestic problems in drastic fashion. After taking out life insurance policies on their husbands, the women were provided with a special "white powder." The mystery powder turned out to be arsenic or antimony, and the ringleaders, two cousins named Herman and Paul Petrillo and their partner Morris Bolber (a.k.a. Louie the Rabbi), received a healthy cut of the insurance. Cooper focuses on the two attorneys who rose to fame during the trials: Vincent McDevitt, an up-and-coming assistant district attorney, and Raymond Pace Alexander, the first black lawyer to defend a white client successfully. Their stories are as remarkable as the crime itself.