Early on the morning of May 13, 1895, Missouri state senator Peter Morrissey was found dead in the St. Louis home of Maude Lewis, a woman who loved him and whom he had been abusing for years. What looked on its surface like an open-and-shut murder case went far, far deeper and exposed unpleasant truths about many facets of life in the late 1800s.
Early on the morning of May 13, 1895, Missouri state senator Peter Morrissey was found dead in the St. Louis home of Maude Lewis, a woman who loved him and whom he had been abusing for years.
The story of Senator Peter Morrissey's murder is really the story of Maude Lewis. The many layers to this story pull back the curtain on dark truths about life before the turn of the last century including the political machines in St. Louis at the time, running election fraud and government corruption; how women were spoken about and treated by the media and the courts; and attitudes toward domestic abuse.
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A note from the host: I love long, involved stories, and I hope you do too, because this is a long one but I think it's as great as it is, in many ways, sad. Please find the show's Facebook and Instagram pages and let me know what you think of this story, and what really happened on that morning in 1895.