Waist-length portrait of Mrs. Cunningham, seated., In Frank Leslie’s illustrated newspaper, vol. 3, no. 63 (Feb. 27, 1857), p. 192., Mrs. Emma Augusta Cunningham was accused of murdering Dr. Harvey Burdell, a wealthy dentist from whom she rented a suite of rooms and with whom she was romantically involved. The murder and subsequent trial caused a media frenzy and, though she was ultimately acquitted of the crime, her innocence came into question when it was found that she was neither married to Burdell nor pregnant with his child, as she initially claimed. The murder remains unsolved.
