Pity the Poor Immigrant -- A Tale of Horror and Brutality -- More Shocking Revelations -- A Prison in Disguise -- The Long, Slow Judicial Grind Continues -- A Colorful Side Show -- Ride the Whirlwind -- The First Kaufmann Trial: The Case for the State -- The First Kaufmann Trial: The Defense Opens -- The Verdict -- The Fallout -- A Trail of Calamities -- With No End in Sight -- The Second Kaufmann Murder Trial -- Reaction to the Verdict and the Fate of the Kaufmanns.
Summary:
"A study of the murder of immigrant servant girl Agnes Polreis in 1906 in Parkston, South Dakota, the trials of her alleged murderer, Emma Kaufmann, and the coverage of the murder and trials in the state's daily newspapers"-- Provided by publisher. For three years, beginning in 1906, the mysterious death of servant girl Agnes Polreis, followed by the trials of Emma Kaufmann, gripped the nation's attention. Lurid reports of abuse and even torture in the heartland appeared with regularity in newspapers from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. "I challenge all the pages of literature to show me so sad a case and so awful a case," roared prosecuting attorney George W. Egan in his closing argument in 1907. After less than six months in the employ of Emma Kaufmann and her husband, a wealthy and influential partner in a brewery business in the region's largest city, sixteen-year-old Agnes Polreis, born in Austria-Hungary, was returned to her parents' farm, dead, her emaciated body showing marks of extreme violence--49 wounds in all, some of them gangrenous. An instance of "diabolical cruelty," editorialized one newspaper. But more repulsive than the manner of Agnes' death were the outrageous antics of the attorneys, the shifting testimony of witnesses, and the sensationalizing newspaper coverage. A poor immigrant girl with faltering English, Agnes was abandoned by physicians and exploited by the legal and newspaper professions. Her death and the subsequent trials caused the downfall of a United States senator, but brought no justice for Agnes Polreis.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.