She Stands Accused

Book excerpt: "She Stands Accused" by Victor MacClure is a series of historical female crime accounts of the lives and deeds of notorious women who were murderers, cheats, and cozeners. Justice was executed for some of them while others were accused of crimes or were acquitted at least in law. Excerpt: "Locusta, the poisoner whom Agrippina, wanting to kill the Emperor Claudius by slow degrees, called into service, and whose technique Nero admired so much that he was fain to put her on his pension list, barely escapes the deodorant. Messalina comes up in memory. And then one finds M. Paul Moinet, in his historical essays En Marge de l'histoire, gracefully pleading for the lady as Messaline la calomniee—yes, and making out a good case for her."