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ismnotwasm

(41,919 posts)
Fri Apr 12, 2013, 01:07 PM Apr 2013

Some people are just perceptive

A family member, on a moments introduction, somehow knew I like to read, and I'm interested I'm obscure history. How did he know?

"I have a book you'll really like" they said, pulling it out. I made a mental groan--it's title is "Chastity"-- but I put my game face on and smiled.


And was completely surprised.

He says,

"This is a story about a women back in, you know the Victorian era, well she, she was--raped--he says lowering voice respectfully, and the rapist came to trial, but it was all men back on those days, women couldn't be on juries, and her rapist was released out on bail. Well she saw him in the field, you know, bothering her and she thinks no one was ever going to believe her, because it was such a shameful thing, you know and he had a couple of buddies to back him up, so you know what she did?"

He leans back, gleam in eye. "What did she do" I asked, recognizing my cue.

"Why, she went in that courtroom at the trial and shot him five times! And THEN she had to go on trial for murder. And you know what happened at that trial?" I shake my head.

The WHOLE courtroom was filled with women!! They came out to support her. And she was exonerated.

I thank him, and gently hand him the book back and thought "how did he know?"

The trial of Lunney and two male relatives who were tried as accomplices was heavily covered by the two Norton newspapers. Women from Norton jammed the courtroom, taking most of the seats. The women didn't understand how a woman could be tried for murder in the death of her attacker, Yocom said. At the time, a woman couldn't serve as a juror and could vote only in a school or municipal election.

Witness after witness testified to seeing Lunney shoot McEnroe, 26, but Lunney told jurors McEnroe earlier had raped her. After 17 hours of deliberation, the all-male jury acquitted her.

"It's a case of a woman being raped, and she just decided that he had taken the most valuable thing she had -- her chastity," Yocom said.

Lunney, who had seen McEnroe in a field several days after he had been arrested for raping her, felt threatened by him, Yocom said.

"She believed she needed to take (matters) into her own hands," he said. "I think the jury didn't have any question that he was the rapist. The jury didn't like to send a woman to prison and certainly didn't want to put her to death."

After learning of the story, Yocom traveled to Norton several times to unearth the details from Norton County Court records and newspaper stories from the Norton County Library. The newspaper stories about the trial ran on Page 1 each day and covered most of that page.

"It was just something that was crying to be written," Yocom said of his decision to write "Chastity."


http://cjonline.com/stories/120405/boo_murder.shtml
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