The True Story of the Hart-Meservey Murder Trial, In Which Light is Thrown Upon Dark Deeds, Incompetency, and Perfidy; and Crime Fastened upon those whose Position, if not Manhood, Should have Demanded Honest Dealing

Boston: Published by the Author, 1882. First Edition. 309 pp, including index and five pages of testimonials regarding the competence and credibility of the author. A good copy in original pictorial cloth; scuffed, well-rubbed at the edges, and lacking front free endpaper. McDade 447: "Mrs. Sarah Meservey was last seen alive in Tenants Harbor, Maine, on December 22, 1877. Her strangely incurious neighbors did not look behind her blinds for five weeks; then her strangled body was found. Hart, a neighbor, was convicted of her murder, mainly because he talked too much before the body was found of how he dreamed she was strangled." The author, a handwriting expert, had appeared before the grand jury as a witness for the prosecution. After he learned that a handwriting sample he had been told was written by Hart was actually by someone else, he became convinced of Hart's innocence and determined to prove it.