Wicked Conduct: The Minister, the Mill Girl and the Murder that Captivated Old Rhode Island (True Crime Ser.)

By: Rory Raven

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Synopsis: The mentalist, mindbinder, and author of Haunted Providence delves into the 19th-century murder of Sarah Maria Cornell. &“If I should be missing, enquire of the Rev. Mr. Avery of Bristol, he will know where I am.&” This scribbled note belonged to Sarah M. Cornell, written the day her body was found hanged in a rural pasture in Tiverton, Rhode Island. An unmarried young woman of limited means, Sarah was four months pregnant, and a married Methodist minister stood accused as the father. Local authorities grew skeptical of Sarah&’s apparent suicide as Reverend Avery&’s conduct appeared increasingly suspect, and eventually the extensive evidence of their tortured relationship set off a groundswell of public interest and media attention never before seen in 1830s New England. This tragic crime left the nation clamoring for justice and became one of early America&’s most sensational murder trials.