Ugly Prey: An Innocent Woman and the Death Sentence That Scandalized Jazz Age Chicago
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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. But Sabella's fellow inmates Beulah and Belva were beautiful, charmed the all-male juries, and were quickly acquitted, raising doubts among many Chicagoans about the fairness of the "poor ugly immigrant's" conviction.
Featuring an ambitious and ruthless journalist who helped demonize Sabella through her reports, and the brilliant, beautiful, twenty-three-year-old lawyer who helped humanize her with a jailhouse makeover, Ugly Prey is not just a page-turning courtroom drama but also a thought-provoking look at the intersection of gender, ethnicity, class, and the American justice system.
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Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi. (2017). Ugly Prey: An Innocent Woman and the Death Sentence That Scandalized Jazz Age Chicago. Chicago Review Press.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi. 2017. Ugly Prey: An Innocent Woman and the Death Sentence That Scandalized Jazz Age Chicago. Chicago Review Press.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi, Ugly Prey: An Innocent Woman and the Death Sentence That Scandalized Jazz Age Chicago. Chicago Review Press, 2017.
MLA Citation (style guide)Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi. Ugly Prey: An Innocent Woman and the Death Sentence That Scandalized Jazz Age Chicago. Chicago Review Press, 2017.
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- bioText: Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi has contributed to the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Baltimore Sun, Detroit Free Press, Miami Herald, Seattle Times, and Crain's Chicago Business. She has taught courses in media history, media criticism, and journalism and is a frequent guest lecturer in graduate and undergraduate media courses. She is also a regular presenter at conferences in the topics of communication history and journalism studies. She lives in Oak Park, Illinois.
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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. But Sabella's fellow inmates Beulah and Belva were beautiful, charmed the all-male juries, and were quickly acquitted, raising doubts among many Chicagoans about the fairness of the "poor ugly immigrant's" conviction.
Featuring an ambitious and ruthless journalist who helped demonize Sabella through her reports, and the brilliant, beautiful, twenty-three-year-old lawyer who helped humanize her with a jailhouse makeover, Ugly Prey is not just a page-turning courtroom drama but also a thought-provoking look at the intersection of gender, ethnicity, class, and the American justice system.- reviews
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April 15, 2017
Journalist Lucchesi's first book tells the story of Sabella Nitti, the first woman sentenced to hang in Chicago for murder, who was convicted with no evidence, no witnesses, no body of the deceased, and with no understanding of the process as a result of a language barrier that the court and attorneys made no effort to overcome. Lucchesi includes contemporary crimes, specifically women who evaded conviction owing to their beauty, to make the convincing case that Nitti was treated abhorrently by her family, the press, and the court. Her saviors turned out to be a group of attorneys, led by one of Chicago's first female lawyers, Helen Cirese, who worked to get Nitti not only a new trial but a new look that would make her more sympathetic, turning the impoverished peasant woman into a respectable matron. Lucchesi's writing is a little uneven, as she seems transfixed on unimportant and unexplained details such as Nitti's carpet shoes, but overall this book is well put together. The author's inclusion of contemporary sensational Chicago trials helps readers place the importance of the case. VERDICT For lovers of historical true crime.--Amelia Osterud, Carroll Univ. Lib., Waukesha, WI
Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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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.
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