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S. Kay Murphy
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Tainted Legacy: The Story of Alleged Serial Killer Bertha Gifford Paperback – December 1, 2008

by S. Kay Murphy (Author)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 66 ratings
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In recent years, interest has been rekindled in the 1928 trial of Bertha Gifford, accused in the arsenic poisoning of several people in the small town of Catawissa, Missouri.  Gifford was tried for the murder of one man, but many individuals came forward in the course of her grand jury indictment to claim that she had intentionally poisoned others.  Now the subject of a controversial documentary, Gifford's life remains an enigma.  While some view her as a kind hearted woman who provided succor to the ill and dying, others insist that she was a psychopathic serial killer.  Tainted Legacy:  The Story of Alleged Serial Killer Bertha Gifford is a memoir written by Gifford's great-granddaughter, S. Kay Murphy.  Through interviews and archival research, Murphy explores the life and alleged crimes of Bertha Gifford, taking readers along on her quest to find the truth about her mother's beloved grandmother.
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  1. Print length
    164 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Publishamerica Inc
  4. Publication date
    December 1, 2008
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.25 x 8.25 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    160563803X
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1605638034
  8. See all details
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From the Back Cover

On August 25, 1928, a black sedan pulled into the dusty circular driveway of a farmhouse in the tiny rural community of Catawissa, Missouri. The sheriff of St. Louis County emerged from the vehicle and walked slowly up the front steps. A middle-aged farmwife answered his knock. She spoke quietly with him, excused herself to powder her face, then allowed herself to be led outside and taken away. Authorities sought to question her in a mystery which had been building for twenty years: Was she a selfless saint who voluntarily cared for the acutely ill in order to nurse them back to health and restore them to their families, or a minister of death whose crimes would qualify her as America's first female serial killer? In this riveting nonfiction memoir, S. Kay Murphy recounts the tale of searching for the truth about her great-grandmother--accused murderer Bertha Gifford.

About the Author

S. Kay Murphy is a freelance writer, journalist and memoirist who teaches high school English and Journalism.  She lives in the San Gabriel mountains of Southern California.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Publishamerica Inc (December 1, 2008)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 164 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 160563803X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1605638034
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.7 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.25 x 8.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 66 ratings

About the author

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S. Kay Murphy

S. Kay Murphy

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S. Kay Murphy is the author of two memoirs and the Dragon Singer series for middle-grade readers. She loves kids, cats, dogs, giraffes, donkeys, cows, and dragons (not necessarily in that order). She lives in Southern California with her two rescue dogs and one very special black cat.

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
66 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Rob Hatfield
5.0 out of 5 stars Do Family Secrets = Family Shame? (No spoilers)
Reviewed in the United States on August 16, 2023
Verified Purchase
S. Kay Murphy tells an intriguing story on two levels. First, she explores the world of her great-grandmother in rural Missouri, including the fact that she was tried for murder and suspected of many others. For most of our families, the skeletons in the closet aren’t literal. Second, Ms. Murphy has to learn to balance her interest in researching the disturbing family history with her own mother's conflicting feelings of confusion, shame, and love for the sweet grandmother with whom she lived.

Using her journalistic talent, the author digs through old newspaper stories, interviews, official court records, and other documentation to understand the legal case against Bertha Gifford. She personally visits cemeteries, the old family home, and the courtroom/jail. Her mother accompanies her during some of the research and struggles with wanting to know more about what happened and not wanting it to be as bad as she imagines.

The result is a beautiful tale of discovery, truth, family, and legacy - a legacy passed on to the author's children. As S. Kay Murphy states in her dedication, there are many things to be regretted, but nothing to be ashamed of.

Highly recommended.
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Maria Sutton
5.0 out of 5 stars A Moving Story of a Great Granddaughter's Quest to Find Answers
Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2011
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How does anyone go about trying to explain the unexplainable? How does a beautiful young woman using arsenic to stay young and attractive, who later becomes a kind and loving grandmother, start using arsenic on sick children and adults that results in their death? These are some of the questions author Kay Murphy struggles to answer in her remarkable story, Tainted Legacy. Scientists and psychologists have also been studying, for decades, how loving husbands, fathers, sons, wives, mothers, and daughters -- ordinary citizens -- became heartless killers in Hitler's Germany. Bertha Gifford, the author's great grandmother and the subject of Kay Murphy's book, took the answer to her grave. No single, profound explanation has emerged from countless testimonies during the Nuremberg trials, or from scientific experiments on what turns ordinary people to their dark side. In her search to find answers, Kay Murphy lays out the facts of the case for and against Bertha in a straightforward, honest, and unemotional manner, drawing her own conclusions. The author pursues this quest, in part, because she is concerned that whatever the cause may be, it might be in her DNA. If it could be attributable to DNA, then I believe that same DNA is in all of us. Ms. Murphy could have taken the easy way out by concealing the story of her great grandmother from her children and grandchildren, or by repudiating the accusers, but she chose to expose the raw, painful, and heartbreaking facts of the case. I am a firm believer that the truth always creeps up through the cracks: the author's descendants would undoubtedly have come across the story of Bertha Gifford, their ancestor, eventually. By bravely confronting and writing about the tragic story of her great grandmother Bertha, Ms. Murphy has given her family a legacy of strength, acceptance, and resilience. Kay Murphy is a gifted writer who has told a difficult story eloquently and with compassion, putting a human face on the great grandmother who may or may not have done the inexplicable.
One person found this helpful
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Catherine Sunderland
5.0 out of 5 stars This Book Will Not be a Wasted Read
Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2018
Verified Purchase
S. Kay Murphy’s The Tainted Legacy of Bertha Gifford: A Memoir answers a question many of us have pondered: From where did we come? Who were those that preceded us? Who passed on the bloodline? Often this is little more than a litany of who begat whom. Other times the search for our ancestors reveals more: scoundrels, philanderers, ne’er-do-wells.

Murphy has us all beat, though. In all likelihood, her great-grandmother Bertha Gifford was a serial killer.

Murphy documents her painstaking research, her conversations with descendants of some of the victims, her visit to the scene of the crimes—if there was a crime. She takes us through the small towns of mid-America Missouri, country roads that would make your car’s GPS surrender with a shrug of the shoulders. Without answering it, she presents the question of whether Bertha really was the cold-hearted killer she was painted to be. In the end, you have to answer for yourself.

There is also the parallel and testy story of the author and her mother, their relationship, and the taboo of airing the dirty laundry. Even better, though, Murphy spends pages speculating about the demons that might have driven her great-grandmother and how those same demons often inhabit the recesses of her own mind, although we hope not to the point of being a serial killer.

A captivating story told in a straightforward prose that more writers should emulate, this book will not be a wasted read. The Tainted Legacy of Bertha Gifford: A Memoir is not only a good story, it answers the larger question of how our forebearers, whether we knew them or not, affect who we are today.
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

crewcutandnewt
5.0 out of 5 stars Well researched, and touching
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 3, 2023
Verified Purchase
Part true "crime", part memoir. The book tells the story of the author's search for the truth behind her great grandmother - who was the "notorious" poisoner, Bertha Gifford. What emerges is an unpeeling of what is known about Bertha Gifford, much of the evidence on which she was convicted would not be admissible today and casts doubt on her conviction - although the author is not standing on her soap box, but writes with genuine curiosity and feeling. It's as much a digression on the stories we create (and which society is keen to adopt) as a "crime" book, and all the more powerful for that. At the same time, it's a movingly honest account of the author's own story (or part of it) and the effect that secrets can have on us all - it's beautifully written and deserves a wider audience.
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