<description>&lt;p&gt;In 1857, a prominent New York dentist was found murdered in his Bond Street office. Suspicion fell on Emma Cunningham, the widow who ran the boardinghouse and claimed to be his wife — and heir. Her acquittal did not end the scandal. Adisputed marriage, a claimed pregnancy, and a staged birth kept the city riveted and raised new questions about truth, reputation, and inheritance in mid-19th-century New York.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Source Materials:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Duke, Franklin. &lt;em&gt;Celebrated Criminal Cases of America.&lt;/em&gt; San Francisco: A. L. Bancroft &amp;amp; Company, 1910.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Serratore, Angela. “The Murder of Dr. Harvey Burdell and the Scandal That Gripped 1857 New York.” &lt;em&gt;Smithsonian Magazine.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Roberts, Sam. “The Murder That Gripped Bond Street.” &lt;em&gt;The New York Times.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The New-York Daily Times&lt;/em&gt; (1857), contemporary coverage of the Burdell murder and Emma Cunningham trial.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Contemporary inquest and trialreporting in New York newspapers, 1857. &lt;/p&gt;
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In 1857, a prominent New York dentist was found murdered in his Bond Street office. Suspicion fell on Emma Cunningham, the widow who ran the boardinghouse and claimed to be his wife — and heir. Her acquittal did not end the scandal. Adisputed marriage, a claimed pregnancy, and a staged birth kept the city riveted and raised new questions about truth, reputation, and inheritance in mid-19th-century New York.Source Materials:Duke, Franklin. Celebrated Criminal Cases of America. San Francisco: A. L. Bancroft &amp; Company, 1910.Serratore, Angela. “The Murder of Dr. Harvey Burdell and the Scandal That Gripped 1857 New York.” Smithsonian Magazine.Roberts, Sam. “The Murder That Gripped Bond Street.” The New York Times.The New-York Daily Times (1857), contemporary coverage of the Burdell murder and Emma Cunningham trial.Contemporary inquest and trialreporting in New York newspapers, 1857.

Historical True Crime

Murder at 31 Bond Street: Emma Cunningham and the Burdell Case

Murder at 31 Bond Street: Emma Cunningham and the Burdell Case

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