Tom Zaniello Livres

On Memorial Day 1933, Stanford executive David Lamson found his wife, Allene, dead in their Palo Alto home. The only suspect, he became the face of California s most sensational murder trial of the century. After a judge sentenced him to hang at San Quentin, a team of Stanford colleagues stepped in to form the Lamson Defense Committee. The group included poets Yvor Winters and Janet Lewis, as well as the Sherlock Holmes of Berkeley, criminologist E.O. Heinrich. They managed to overturn the verdict and incite a series of heated retrials that gripped and divided the community. Was Lamson the victim of aggressive prosecutors, or was he a master of deception whose connections helped him get away with murder? Author and Stanford alum Tom Zaniello meticulously examines the details of a notorious case with a lingering legacy."

This chronicle of ten controversial mid-Victorian trials features brother against brother, aristocrats versus commoners, an imposter claiming a family's fortune, and an ex-priest suing his former wife, a nun. These trials, analyzed in depth for the first time, challenged a culture that disapproved of public displays of bad taste, exposing the underlying tensions in what is often viewed as a moral and orderly society. The author delves into religious scandals, family lineage controversies, and debates over which architectural styles might convert individuals from one faith to another. The narrative is structured into three parts: the first addresses a crisis in Victorian culture, examining themes such as the specter of societal expectations, legal challenges, and the intellectual aristocracy of the time. The second part details ten scandalous court cases, including the ex-priest and nun's lawsuit, a defrocked priest's conflict with a future cardinal, and various disputes involving aristocrats and religious figures. The final section discusses the unbuilt Victorian church, exploring the divisions within churches and the souls they represent. This exploration reveals the complexities and contradictions of Victorian society through its legal battles and cultural conflicts.