Murder, Morality, and Madness: Women Criminals in Early Oregon was reviewed on September 13, 2009 by John Terry in his Sunday Oregonian column "Oregon"s Trails" with the headline 19-century women had few options. Terry also interviewed ex-Oregon Governor Barbara Roberts, a longtime advocate for women's rights. She agreed that "It was not uncommon for women who were menopausal to be put in the state mental institution and never come out again."

   Terry describes the first case illustrated in "Murder, Morality, and Madness. "Charity's saga opens a fascinating array of stores Goeres-Gardner extracted perusing dim newspaper microfilm and yellowing public records."

   He goes on to say, "No pretty Victorian portraits here. Murder, Morality, and Madness: Women Criminals in Early Oregon is not a look at an ideal 'imaginary woman' writers created to 'populate the Western landscape'. It is instead an arresting assembly of 'a few (who) rebelled with violence and murder."
link to: http://oregonlive.com/O/index.ssf/2009/09/women_with_few_options_sometim.htl


   Goeres-Gardner was interviewed by Ron Brown of the Medford TV station KDRV on October 2, 2009.
"The arrival of the first miners and settlers in the Oregon territory in the 19th century also brought the challenge of how to handle them."
To see the program go to http://kohd.com/news/local/143518

~

Goeres-Gardner’s retelling of the women’s situations is very engaging and moving. Regardless of the women or their circumstances, she tells their stories with empathy. The book is well-researched and includes considerable detail about each woman’s case. The author credits newspaper articles as her primary source of research, along with court transcripts and statistics from the Oregon State Penitentiary prison registers housed at the Oregon State Archives. Detailed references and footnotes are included at the end of each chapter and photos of most of the women are included throughout the book.

There is no conclusion or final comments to bring greater meaning to the women’s stories. Despite this drawback, along with a few minor typographic errors, the book provides an informative look at a little-known aspect of Northwest history. I would recommend this book for all libraries interested in collecting materials on women’s history in the Pacific Northwest.

by Samantha Thompson-Franklin, Collection Development and Acquisitions Librarian at Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, ID
From the Idaho Librarian, Vol 59, No. 2 (2009) 

Thoroughly accessible to readers of all backgrounds, June 16, 2009

By: Midwest Book Review