Who Killed George?: The Ordeal of Olive Sternaman

Patricia Raible, formerly a law librarian, is currently a bookseller in
Creemore, Ontario.

In the summer of 1896, carpenter George Sternaman died a lingering and
painful death, apparently as the result of arsenic poisoning. But by
whose hand? Was he done in by his wife, Olive? By any one of a series of
doctors called in to attend him? By a careless pharamacist who erred in
compounding a prescription? Much mystery surrounded his death,
especially because of the rumors that Olive’s first husband had died
under similar circumstances. Olive seemed the most likely suspect, and
she was indeed arrested and brought to trial in the Haldimand County
Courthouse in 1897.

The trial aroused tremendous interest and debate, particularly when it
seemed sure that if guilty Olive would hang. And found guilty she was. A
flood of public sympathy—including fundraising, letters, petitions,
and personal appeals to the Minister of Justice—resulted in a
last-minute stay of execution and the granting of a new trial. The whole
ordeal was to begin again.

Cheryl MacDonald has drawn on newspaper reports and court records to
recreate events surrounding the most sensational and melodramatic
Canadian trial of its day. Her account is well documented (with
quotations from a number of original sources) and written in a style
that will appeal to history and mystery buffs alike.