Synopsis "Cuckold: The Murder of Edwin Bartlett"
Edwin Bartlett's cuckold fantasies caused him to inadvertently arrange his own murder. Of course, the straight-laced judicial system of the nineteenth century tried the case without any idea of the strange mindset that had brought about the odd circumstances. Conservative men of the law who, in their own lives had no doubt walked the straight and narrow in both legal and sexual terms, would be at a loss to fathom why the victim put his wife and her religious minister lover in an intimate and untenable position culminating in the husband's untimely demise. The wild card in the story is the victim's hard to satisfy, cuckold sexual desires, which would be an awkward hand to play in any era but in stilted Victoriana was, as he found out, almost impossible to organize. In a society where divorce was virtually unavailable, the puzzled wife's only solution seemed to be murder, and her artful execution of an imprisoning spouse has prompted debate for over a century. This is a howdunit as much as the usual whodunit. On her acquittal, when asked to explain -- in the cause of science -- how she had done it she never responded, despite being, by that point, immune from further prosecution under the double jeopardy rule. As it turned out those considering the story were closer to figuring out how than they were why, since a cuckold's desires were even more mysterious in those repressed days than they are today.NOTE. This is a full-length true story, not a quick thrill. 103,000 words, 341 pages
