Diamond Bessie

The Spirit of Diamond Bessie Lives On In New Novel Inspired By Jefferson’s Famous Murder Trial

April 26, 2022 | By Paul McDonnold

In downtown Grapevine, novelist Jody Hadlock breezes into a busy coffee shop to talk about her new book, The Lives of Diamond Bessie, a historical novel about a murder that took place in East Texas in 1877.

Jefferson’s ‘Diamond Bessie Murder Trial’ Plumbs 19th-Century Mystery

March 27, 2019 | By Paul McDonnold

It was the O.J. Simpson trial of its day. Reporters descended on the northeast Texas town of Jefferson to chronicle the tragic tale of Diamond Bessie with black ink and purple prose. Nobody recognized the dashing young couple Annie Moore and Abe Rothschild when they checked into a local hotel in January 1877. But when Moore’s body was found in the woods two weeks later, a bullet in her head, the mystery of Moore, aka Diamond Bessie, catapulted Jefferson into the national spotlight.

The October 2023 issue of Texas Highways "Tastes Like Home"

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