Murder & Mayhem in Essex County

“The importance of the area to early America . . . make the book a must-read for anyone interested in the dark side of New England history” ( Early American Crime ). The idea of a criminal record originated in the early seventeenth century when the magistrates of the Massachusetts Bay Colony began recording dates, places, victims and criminals. Despite, or perhaps because of, the strict code of the Puritans, some early settlers earned quite the rap sheet that landed them either in the stocks or