Thursday, Nov 14, 7:45pm   at Wagner College, 1 Campus Road (off Howard Avenue), Campus Hall – Room 228, Staten Island NY 10301

Join historian Patricia M. Salmon, who’ll present her new book Murder and Mayhem on Staten Island, published by The History Press. If details the stories of infamous murders on the Island, from 1843 through the Jazz Age.

One of the most notorious murder mysteries was covered by Edgar Allan Poe, when he was a young crime writer in New York City.  Mary “Polly” Bodine was accused of the Christmas murders of her sister-in-law and infant niece.  The mother and child were savagely beaten to death, then their house was set afire to destroy some of the evidence.  Polly Bodine was tried three times for the murders, but ultimately acquitted.  Some observers say that the Bodine story influenced Poe as he developed the first detective story, The Mystery of Marie Roget.We’ll read & discuss Poe’s writing, as we explore Ms. Salmon’s account of the Bodine case.

Free & open to the public