The Betrayal of Pearl Bryan

by Larry Tippin

On January 27, 1896, twenty-three-year-old Pearl Bryan of Greencastle, Indiana, boarded a train bound for Cincinnati. It appears Pearl was intent on convincing the father of her unborn child to do the honorable thing. Instead, he and an accomplice betrayed and tragically killed her, in what many newspaper accounts described as the crime of the century. Through numerous retellings of these events, most of which have been highly sensational and only marginally accurate, this story has taken a life of its own, becoming one of folk legend.

This study of the betrayal of Pearl Bryan is taken exclusively from thousands of pages of trial transcripts, depositions, contemporary newspaper accounts and other primary source documents. Those that are familiar with this story will be pleased to finally get an accurate description of the events. Others should find this account of her short life and tragic death fascinating.

Perfect Paperback

Published October 1, 2018

Reviews

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read. The definitive and most exact account of the Pearl Bryan tragedy. A must read if you're going to discuss the event.

[Noah · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5/5

[Violet · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is going to be most interesting to those who live in the Cincinnati/NKY area, or the town of Greencastle itself.

[agirlnamedshasta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since this was my first true crime book it was hard to process that it had actually happened. It was not a fictional tale someone had made up...these were real living breathing humans that lived on this earth. This was hard for me to read because I am so used to the distance reading fictional crime allows. Of course it is better when a crime is "fake"...it doesn't impact you, but this was real, this happened! That it was also local to where I currently live and about the life of a single woman living in a time we all know she had little rights, makes me feel so sad and connected to her. She fell for a guy that honestly could have cared less about her and he just wanted to fix the "problem". How close this is to even our day and age...we feel we have come so far, when there's really not much change at all. I just cannot imagine the confusion and fear she felt in the time leading up to her murder. It breaks my heart. The way this book was put together made it a really good read. Well... except for the utter shock when I turned the page and saw the headless body. That I was not ready for to at all! -slc