Love and Madness

Book excerpt: On a spring evening in 1779, as she emerged from London's Covent Garden Theatre, a beautiful young woman was shot in the head at point-blank range by a man in a black suit. The brutal murder was even more shocking because of the victim's identity -- she was Martha Ray, live-in mistress to the Earl of Sandwich and devotee of the arts. The man accused of her murder was none other than James Hackman, a respected Anglican minister and Ray's former lover. The aftermath of the crime created an uproar in London high society, as aristocrats debated Hackman's motives. Had he intended to commit suicide, as he later claimed, but, in a moment of weakness, turned his gun on Ray instead? This riveting tale of a crime of passion re-creates the slaying and the clergyman's trial, which was the unrivaled media sensation of its time.