On August 9, 1898, in Dover, Delaware, Mary Elizabeth Dunning receives a package with a note that reads, "Love to yourself and baby. - Mrs. C."  With the note is a box of chocolates and so begins a macabre tale of adultery, jealousy and obsession that would ultimately end in a murder that was the first of its kind - the first to be committed long-distance, by U.S. mail.

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Sources:

Cavendish, Richard.  “The Pony Express.”  History Today, vol. 60, no. 4, April 2010, https://www.historytoday.com/archive/months-past/pony-express#:~:text=The%20riders%20were%20paid%20%2425,every%2075%20to%20100%20miles. 

Culp, Betsey.  “A Splendid Little Murder.”  The San Francisco Flier, December 1998, https://people.well.com/user/sfflier/Botkin.html 

Dowd, Katie.  “Murder by Mail: The Story of San Francisco’s Most Infamous Female Poisoner.”  SFGate, October 2016, https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/San-Francisco-murder-poison-Cordelia-Botkin-9880884.php#photo-11358614 

“Dunning Sent to Jail for Refusing to Answer a Question.”  The San Francisco Examiner, 20th December 1898, p. 1.  Newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/image/457463951/?terms=cordelia%20botkin 

“Fighting For Her Life:  Mrs. Botkin Builds a Wall of Legal Technicality.”  The San Francisco Call, 28th August 1898, p. 16.  Newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/image/81005937/?terms=cordelia%20botkin 

Gallagher, Winnfred.  “A Brief History of the United States Postal Service.”  Smithsonian Magazine, October 2020, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/brief-history-united-states-postal-service-180975627/ 

History.com Editors.  “Transcontinental Railroad.”  History, September 2019, https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/transcontinental-railroad 

“Mrs. Botkin’s Battle Begins.”  The San Francisco Chronicle, 28th August 1898, p. 32.  Newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/image/27601362/?terms=cordelia%20botkin 

“Mrs. Botkin Plans a Desperate Defense.”  The San Francisco Chronicle, 26th August 1898, p. 9.  Newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/image/27599501/?terms=cordelia%20botkin&match=1 

“The Confederate Postal System.”  Smithsonian, https://postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibition/a-nation-divided/the-confederate-postal-system 

Segrave, Kerry.  Dying for Chocolate: Cordelia Botkin and the 1898 Poisoned Candy Murders.  Exposit Books, 2020.