Bathsheba Spooner

A Revolutionary Murder Conspiracy

By: Andrew Noone

Narrated by: Scott R. McKinley

Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

What possessed a woman from the elite of eighteenth-century New England society to conspire with American and British soldiers to murder her husband at the midpoint of the American Revolution? The story of Bathsheba Spooner has alternately fascinated and baffled residents of Worcester County for centuries. Beyond central Massachusetts, the tale is largely unknown.

Many, when first hearing of the tale, assume it to be the stuff of legend. It was, in fact, the most sensational “true crime” tragedy of the American 1700’s.The episode’s ingredients included a cold, possibly abusive husband, a handsome, directionless teenager, a pair of roughened British prisoners-of-war, and readily available cash set aflame by social and political isolation, wartime uncertainty and social upheaval. Add to this mixture a haughty, impetuous and (possibly insane) beautiful woman, and what resulted was a brutal homicide whose notoriety was only heightened by the distraction of New Englanders war-weary and economically stressed.

The crime was familiar to observers and participants whose names still represent for us the best in Revolutionary Massachusetts: a signer of the Declaration (Robert Treat Paine), Governor John Hancock, Thomas Jefferson’s attorney general (Levi Lincoln), Justice Jedediah Foster (shared creator of the Massachusetts constitution, which inspired the national document), one of the colonies’ most famed printers (Isaiah Thomas) and, even, obliquely, Abigail Adams. Timothy Ruggles, father of the crime’s instigator who, had he chosen to side with local Patriots rather than become an infamous spokesman for the King, would likely be as famous today as Paul Revere or Samuel Adams. It is tempting to speculate if the crime could have happened had his loyalties been with the Revolutionaries.

Early American marriage and divorce, its political and military background, the social strata, its legal and retributive approach to justice---these contexts serve to frame an amateurly-conceived crime whose circumstances were uniquely suited to provoke a scandal which in its time was as gripping as that of Lizzie Borden’s over a century later.

©2021 Andrew Noone (P)2024 Andrew Noone

Intriguing Story Beautifully Read

This true story of sex, treachery and murder most vile set against the backdrop of the Revolutionary War is thoroughly researched and written. But it only comes to life via the gifted narrator and voice actor Scott R. McKinley. I have worked with McKinley and the man is a genius. He does probably 50-75 voices in this book, and each is unique. His presentation of the story is riveting and non-judgmental. The book starts slowly but definitely begins to be quite interesting. You will enjoy this slice of history!