Corpus Delicti by Diane Wagner (1986, Hardcover)

Corpus Delicti
The True Story of L. Ewing Scott, Convicted of Murder Without a Confession or a Corpse
by Diane Wagner
Publisher:  St. Martin's / Marek
Copyright 1986
Book Club Edition

They met at a society party:  Evelyn Throsby Mumper, a wealthy, older widow, and Leonard Ewing Scott, a handsome, elegant bachelor.  After the briefest of summer courtships, Evelyn impulsively married Ewing during a trip to Mexico in 1949.

Almost immediately, Scott began badgering Evelyn for control of her considerable financial fortune.  At first, she refused.  But Scott persisted, and by the spring of 1955 Evelyn yielded to his constant demands.  Then on May 16, 1955, Evelyn Scott vanished.

For months Evelyn's friends tried without success to reach her.  Her husband avoided them and hinted that Evelyn had abandoned him.  He told stories that sounded credible to Evelyn's closest friends:  she was a drunk, a lesbian, and, Scott said, mentally and physically ill.  Her friends went to the Los Angeles District Attorney.

But the district attorney's investigators found nothing -- especially not the body of Evelyn Scott.  It took two years, but finally Scott was brought to trial for Evelyn's murder.  He faced prosecutor J. Miller Leavy, whose legal strategy -- a delicate chain of circumstantial evidence -- was unprecedented.  And it is the confrontation between Leavy -- his faith in the evidence absolute -- and Scott -- calmly denying that his wife was dead -- that is the real story of Corpus Delicti.

This story begins -- and ends -- with these two men, who were interviewed by the author thirty years after Evelyn Scott vanished.  As compelling as a mystery novel, this story was all too tragically true.

Condition:  Used.  Hardcover.  Dust cover.  Pages are tanned and darkening from age.  Previous owner's "Library Of" stamp is on the front endpaper.  Dust cover shows edge wear and tear, and creases.  Dust cover flaps may be tanning from age.  There's an inch long tear on the bottom of the front dust cover.

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