The Hatchet and the Flame: The Murder of Helen Jewett (1836)
In the early hours of April 10, 1836, smoke filled a second-floor room at 41 Thomas Street in lower Manhattan. Inside, a 22-year-old woman named Helen Jewett lay dead in her bed—three deep hatchet wounds to the head, her body partially burned by a fire that had been deliberately set.
Helen was one of New York’s most exclusive courtesans. The last man known to be with her that night was a 19-year-old dry-goods clerk using the alias Frank Rivers. Within hours he was arrested. Within weeks his trial became a national sensation.
This is the story of a brutal murder, a sensational trial, a…
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