WARNING: Spoilers spoken here.
I liked Ginger’s comment about the Dawson Darling and the other comments about the Good-time Girls, but I’m going with Megan. It’s the transcript. And you’re going to love this: There is a real one, or at least a transcript of the inquest into the death of a real-life good time girl.
I learned of the tragic history of Alice Astor first in (of course) Lael Morgan’s marvelous Good Time Girls of the Alaska-Yukon Gold Rush.
On April 7, 1915, Alice was found dead, her throat cut, in the house she had rented on Fifth Avenue. According to the autopsy report (which should not be read on a full stomach), the murder had cut the jugular, severed her spinal cord, trachea, and esophagus, and taken cartilage from the lower third cervical vertebra. He also had taken muscular tissue off the fourth and sixth cervical vertebrae, and surgically removed the right ovary and tube.
So I called the Alaska State Archives Office in Juneau and the wonderful Angela Fiori was able to unearth documents pertaining to Alice’s death, which included the report on the inquest and the probate settlement of her estate (but not, mercifully, the autopsy report).
And the Dawson Darling was born.
the 23rd Kate Shugak novel
coming April 11, 2023
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Chatter Kate Shugak The History of Kate Shugak in 22 Objects Uncategorized History of Kate Shugak in 22 Objects Kate Shugak Not the Ones Dead the singing of the dead