Florence Elizabeth Maybrick

Born in Mobile, Alabama, in 1862, Florence Maybrick became internationally famous after the 1889 poisoning trial over the death of her husband, James Maybrick, in Liverpool. She was convicted, but the case stirred years of public debate and protest, and her sentence was later reduced.

After her release, she wrote about her experiences in prison and the long aftermath of the trial. Her best-known books include My Fifteen Lost Years and The Story of John Leslie's Escape from Dartmoor Prison, works that helped keep her name alive far beyond the courtroom.

She died in 1941. Today, she is remembered less as a conventional literary figure than as a striking firsthand witness to one of the most controversial criminal cases of the late Victorian era.