In 1843, when she was 16, Marks was tried for the murder of not only Kinnear, but also Nancy Montgomery, Kinnear’s housekeeper and mistress. Marks worked for Thomas Kinnear, a wealthy farmer, as a teenager. Like Abbott, Grace Marks, the real-life woman who inspired Margaret Atwood’s novel Alias Grace, may or may not have been a deranged killer. State Lunatic Hospital, West Side: Taunton, Massachusetts State Lunatic Hospital, Second Story Breezeway: Taunton, Massachusetts Did Abbott actually do it? Was she mad? Did she believe violence was her only recourse, with no other legitimate way to change her situation? Did she deserve to be locked up? We may never know. “There were general feelings of what caused abnormal behavior, and usually this was a refusal of traditional gender roles.”Ībbott’s case and many others are compelling for their intrigue-but they also point to a time period that leaned on the emerging field of psychiatry to maintain the male-dominated status quo. “They all had very definite ideas about how women ought to behave,” she says. Now streaming on Netflix.Īccording to Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, an author and expert in women’s history in the United States, psychiatrists during the Victorian era-or "alienists" as they were often called in the 19th century-specifically used medicine to police women’s behavior. Her past-riddled with abuse, oppression, and endless toil, all at the hands of men in her life-is a harrowing tale and one that goes to show that even if she were guilty of murdering her masters, it may have been the only option she had. Simon Jordan, a fictionalized psychiatrist of Atwood's invention who takes personal interest in her case.
#Simon says taunton ma series#
In Alias Grace, the Netflix original series based on Margaret Atwood's novel, a fictional version of Grace Marks tells her story to Dr. That Abbott was treated neither as a victim of sex crimes nor as a sane woman who knowingly committed murder was typical of a time in which women suspected of pushing back against their social situations were all-too-often given the diagnosis of “insanity” and institutionalized. After that, little is known, and details surrounding the case remain mysterious.
#Simon says taunton ma trial#
Abbott’s accusations against her stepfather of sexual misconduct were called “singular” by the courts and essentially dismissed.Ībbott stood trial in August 1867 and was committed to Taunton State Hospital, a lunatic asylum in Massachusetts. Meanwhile, the Daily Alta California newspaper reported that she “had threatened to kill her stepfather, and had made no secret of her satisfaction at his death,” though neither of those sentiments necessarily made her insane (or guilty of murder). Then came the tea.ĭespite Abbott’s allegations, most people at the time thought that “something was the matter with her head,” in the words of The New York Times.
When she decided to speak out about the abuse, he threatened to put her in reform school. an unwanted sexual relationship-since she was 13. Why would she do such a thing? According to Abbott, the old man had carried on an “ improper connection” with her-i.e.
In 1867, the 17-year-old allegedly poisoned her stepfather’s afternoon cup, killing him. They say Alice Christina Abbott’s weapon of choice was a cup of tea.
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