Book Review: No way out: Precarious living in the shadow of poverty and drug-dealing

Abstract

most clear and well-researched accounts of the crime and provides the context necessary to understand why Lizzie was acquitted. It was not because the prosecution lacked sufficient evidence or because the case was mishandled by the investigators or the prosecution (although he does identify problems here). Instead, Lizzie Borden was acquitted for the crimes she likely committed because of the social and political climate of the time.The book ends by discussing the life of Lizzie and her sister after the trial. Lizzie was quickly shunned from the same groups that supported her. While not discussed by Conforti directly, this perhaps gives further insight into what the trial was really about. Support for Lizzie was likely less about the belief in her innocence and more about protecting the illusion that someone like her is not capable of such atrocities. Overall, Conforti's eighth book, and second on Lizzie Borden, is a welcome and refreshing addition to literature on Lizzie Borden that captures the relationship between her acquittal and the context in which it took place.