It Made the Papers

Episode 11 of 11: After the trial, residents of Marble Street began reporting a woman in white who called out for her daughter. The final episode covers the ghost of Lulu Ostrander, and why Central New York was the one place in America guaranteed to believe in her.     It Made the Papers is researched, written, and produced by 8th-grade journalism students at Durgee Junior High School in Baldwinsv...

Episode 10 of 11: Harriet Schmoll admitted to the shooting, and twelve men spent six hours deciding what to do about it. We reveal the verdict and discuss what usually happened to women on trial for violent crimes in 1900.     It Made the Papers is researched, written, and produced by 8th-grade journalism students at Durgee Junior High School in Baldwinsville, NY, with support from their ELA teach...

Episode 9 of 11: The safest move was silence. Harriet Schmoll chose the stand. We'll cover the testimony that packed the courthouse and the risk it carried.    It Made the Papers is researched, written, and produced by 8th-grade journalism students at Durgee Junior High School in Baldwinsville, NY, with support from their ELA teacher and school librarian. Season one, Murder on Marble Street ,...

Episode 8 of 11: Ten years before her murder, Lulu Ostrander's husband walked out and left her with two children and a label: grass widow. We look at what 1900 did to a woman raising a family without a ring on her finger.   It Made the Papers is researched, written, and produced by 8th-grade journalism students at Durgee Junior High School in Baldwinsville, NY, with support from their ELA teac...

Episode 7 of 11: Harriet Schmoll was put out of her father's house and married at 14, to a man who turned out to already have a wife. We trace a life that went wrong early, and ask why divorce was never really on the table. It Made the Papers is researched, written, and produced by 8th-grade journalism students at Durgee Junior High School in Baldwinsville, NY, with support from their ELA teac...

Episode 6 of 11: Harriet Schmoll never denied the shooting, so her lawyers tried something else: doctors who testified that menopause had made her temporarily insane. We examine the medical beliefs of 1900 and the defense built on them.  It Made the Papers is researched, written, and produced by 8th-grade journalism students at Durgee Junior High School in Baldwinsville, NY, with support from thei...

Episode 5 of 11: In 1900, New York considered women too delicate to hear courtroom testimony, but not too delicate to sit at the defense table facing a death sentence. We look at the twelve men who held Harriet Schmoll's life in their hands.  It Made the Papers is researched, written, and produced by 8th-grade journalism students at Durgee Junior High School in Baldwinsville, NY, with support...

Episode 4 of 11: Spectators brought their lunches to Harriet Schmoll's trial so they wouldn't lose their seats, and most of them were women. We look at how the newspapers turned a village murder into the biggest show in Central New York.  It Made the Papers is researched, written, and produced by 8th-grade journalism students at Durgee Junior High School in Baldwinsville, NY, with support...

Episode 3 of 11: The electric chair was invented in Auburn, NY, practically next door to Baldwinsville, and its first execution went so badly that witnesses called it torture. We’ll explore what it meant for Harriet Schmoll to face the prospect of that machine. It Made the Papers is researched, written, and produced by 8th-grade journalism students at Durgee Junior High School in Baldwinsville, NY...

Episode 2 of 11: Where did Harriet Schmoll get the revolver? Even in 1900, nobody could agree. We dig into the lives of both women and the gun laws that made the question almost beside the point.  It Made the Papers is researched, written, and produced by 8th-grade journalism students at Durgee Junior High School in Baldwinsville, NY, with support from their ELA teacher and school librarian. Seaso...

Episode 1 of 11: On June 9, 1900, Harriet Schmoll crossed Marble Street with a .38 revolver hidden in a bundle of newspapers. Lulu Ostrander was dead within hours, and the papers couldn't stop writing about it. It Made the Papers is researched, written, and produced by 8th-grade journalism students at Durgee Junior High School in Baldwinsville, NY, with support from their ELA teacher and schoo...