![]() ![]() Convinced that a person’s character, including “the propensity to kill," is mapped out on the cranium, she is eager to interview her subject, 16-year-old Ruth Butterham, who stands accused of murdering her mistress, “slowly, by degrees.” With each visit, Ruth tells Dorothea the sad and brutal story of grinding poverty and devastating loss that led to her involuntary servitude and appalling abuse at the dressmaking shop of Mrs. When she receives a note from the prison matron informing her that “ we another one,” Dorothea is thrilled because this is her chance to prove her ideas about the science of phrenology. Wealthy heiress Dorothea Truelove devotes her charitable work to visiting the female inmates of Oakgate Prison. A Victorian do-gooder meets a young seamstress, on trial for murder, who confesses to killing her employer with just a needle and thread. ![]()
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