Reviewed by:

• Bigamy and Bloodshed: The Scandal of Emma Molloy and the Murder of Sarah Graham by Larry E. Wood
• Carol Faulkner

Larry E. Wood’s sensational title invites readers into a sordid crime story of reform, marriage, and murder. The unexpected context is Frances Willard’s temperance movement, with its motto of “Do Everything” (p. 17). Though Emma Molloy will not be familiar to most readers, she earned modest fame as a newspaper editor and temperance lecturer after the Civil War. She also appeared occasionally on woman suffrage platforms. This twice-divorced reformer hustled to support herself and her extended family, which included Cora Lee and other adopted children. As a member of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union’s prison committee, Molloy befriended a lifelong young criminal named George Graham when he was in jail. As Wood observes, Molloy’s faith in Graham’s redemption was misplaced. Having written shorter pieces about the murder of Graham’s wife, Sarah Graham, Wood tells readers that “something kept drawing me back” (p. viii). In this book, Wood offers the full story as a well-paced mystery that does not fully explain his fascination. Historians will want more analysis. [End Page 134]

Wood focuses on Emma Molloy’s culpability. After George Graham’s release from prison, he and his wife and children lived with Emma Molloy. Molloy employed him as a manager and an agent. When Molloy relocated from Indiana to a farm near Springfield, Missouri, George Graham came with her. Sarah Graham, who had been married to George twice, and divorced once, stayed behind with their two sons. In Missouri, Graham married Molloy’s adopted daughter Cora Lee. When Sarah traveled to Springfield with her sons, she disappeared. Sarah’s body was later found at the bottom of a well on the Molloy farm, and the coroner concluded she had been shot. George Graham was arrested for the murder, and Emma Molloy and Cora Lee were charged as accessories. The drama did not end there, though Molloy was eventually exonerated.

Wood suggests that Molloy’s fame made her the target of an outraged public. As a speaker on controversial topics such as temperance and women’s rights, he argues, she pushed the boundaries of appropriate feminine behavior and offended many with her radical views. However, Wood overstates the uniqueness of Molloy’s public career. By the 1880s, Americans were well acquainted with women as writers and lecturers. Even so, activist women had to defend themselves against those who questioned their respectability or accused them of advocating free love. Molloy and other women’s rights activists viewed the liquor industry as their principal enemy. After her arrest, Molloy’s fellow reformers stood by her, and it would be interesting to know why, as well as how they understood Molloy’s situation. Molloy’s entanglement with George Graham was certainly unusual, and perhaps Frances Willard viewed Molloy as another victim of male power and privilege.

The scandal surrounding Sarah Graham’s murder is riveting, but that does not make it significant, except to those involved. This interesting episode raises further questions about the impact of reform on women and their families, the decentralized networks that supported social movements like temperance, and the ways nineteenth-century Americans tied their ambitions to particular causes.

审核人：

• 重婚与流血冲突：艾玛·莫洛伊（Emma Molloy）的丑闻和莎拉·格雷厄姆（Sarah Graham）的谋杀案，拉里·伍德（Larry E. Wood）
• 卡罗尔·福克纳

拉里·伍德（Larry E. Wood）的耸人听闻的标题邀请读者进入有关改革，婚姻和谋杀的肮脏犯罪故事。出乎意料的是弗朗西斯·威拉德（Frances Willard）的节制运动，其座右铭是“做一切”（p。17）。尽管艾玛·莫洛伊（Emma Molloy）对大多数读者并不熟悉，但在南北战争之后，她以报纸编辑和节制讲师的名声而声名狼藉。她还偶尔出现在妇女参政选举平台上。这位两次离婚的改革家忙于养活自己和她的大家庭，其中包括Cora Lee和其他收养的孩子。作为女子基督教禁酒联盟监狱委员会的成员，莫洛伊在狱中结识了名叫乔治·格雷厄姆（George Graham）的终身年轻犯罪分子。正如伍德所观察到的那样，莫洛伊对格雷厄姆的救赎的信念是错误的。在写了有关格雷厄姆妻子被谋杀的简短文章之后，伍德（Wood）莎拉·格雷厄姆（Sarah Graham）告诉读者，“某些事情不断使我退缩”（第viii页）。在这本书中，伍德提供了一个完整的故事，作为一个步调缓慢的谜团，并不能完全解释他的着迷。历史学家将需要更多分析。[第134页]

伍德专注于艾玛·莫洛伊（Emma Molloy）的罪魁祸首。乔治·格雷厄姆（George Graham）出狱后，他和他的妻子和孩子与艾玛·莫洛伊（Emma Molloy）一起生活。莫洛伊（Molloy）雇用他为经理和经纪人。当莫洛伊（Molloy）从印第安纳州搬到密苏里州斯普林菲尔德附近的农场时，乔治·格雷厄姆（George Graham）随她来了。莎拉·格雷厄姆（Sarah Graham）已与乔治（George）两次结婚，并且离婚了一次，与他们的两个儿子呆在一起。在密苏里州，格雷厄姆（Graham）嫁给了莫洛伊（Molloy）的养女科拉·李（Cora Lee）。当莎拉（Sarah）和她的儿子们前往斯普林菲尔德（Springfield）时，她失踪了。莎拉的尸体后来在莫洛伊农场的一口井的底部被发现，验尸官认定她被枪杀了。乔治·格雷厄姆（George Graham）因谋杀而被捕，艾玛·莫洛伊（Emma Molloy）和科拉·李（Cora Lee）被指控为装饰品。尽管莫洛伊最终被无罪释放，但戏剧并没有就此结束。

伍德认为，莫洛伊的名气使她成为了愤怒的公众的目标。他认为，作为节制和妇女权利等有争议的话题的演讲者，她突破了适当的女性行为的界限，并以她的激进观点冒犯了许多人。但是，伍德夸大了莫洛伊（Molloy）公共事业的独特性。到1880年代，美国人已经很熟悉女性，担任作家和讲师。即便如此，维权妇女也必须为那些质疑自己的受人尊敬或指控她们提倡自由恋爱的人辩护。莫洛伊（Molloy）和其他妇女权利活动家将白酒业视为他们的主要敌人。在她被捕后，莫洛伊的改革者们一直站在她身边，知道为什么以及他们如何理解莫洛伊的情况将是一件很有趣的事情。

关于莎拉·格雷厄姆（Sarah Graham）被谋杀的丑闻正在吸引人，但除涉及的人员外，这没有什么意义。这一有趣的事件进一步引发了以下问题：改革对妇女及其家庭的影响，支持节制等社会运动的分散网络，以及十九世纪的美国人将野心与特定原因联系起来的方式。