"True Crime -- The Civil War Discharge of a Union Army soldier held the key to a dark and chilling ancestral secret that lay hidden for nearly 175 years. Detailed account of the 1836 trial, conviction, and hanging of John Earls for the murder of his wife, Catharine, by poisoning. One of the earliest documented cases of domestic violence that led to murder and "the trial of the century."" --provided by Goodreads.