Death of a Pinehurst Princess

“A socialite bride, a $1 million inheritance, an older husband of questionable social rank, Yankees misbehaving on Southern soil . . . [A] web of intrigue” ( Our State ). A news media frenzy hurled the quiet resort community of Pinehurst, North Carolina, into the national spotlight in 1935 when hotel magnate Ellsworth Statler’s adopted daughter was discovered dead early one February morning weeks after her wedding day. A politically charged coroner’s inquest failed to determine a definitive caus