Ugly Prey: An Innocent Woman and the Death Sentence that Scandalized Jazz-Age Chicago

Program Type:

History

Age Group:

Adults
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Event Details

The true story of Sabella Nitti, an innocent woman sentenced to hang in Chicago in 1923 for the murder of her missing husband. There was no motive, no evidence, or  positive identification on the decayed corpse found in a Berwyn sewer. But prosecutors wanted an easy win. Sympathetic juries routinely acquitted lovely women who killed their husbands or boyfriends.

In Sabella Nitti, prosecutors saw easy, ugly prey. She was foreign, didn't speak English, and newspaper reporters considered her hideous. Prosecutors quickly convinced a jury she was guilty. Only 95 days separated Sabella from the gallows. Could anyone save her?

As she waited, the scandalous women who inspired the play "Chicago" showed up at her cell block. Sabella's story was pushed out of the spotlight, and journalist Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi tells her long overdue story.