Sirvientas Asesinas / Killer Maids (Spanish Edition)

Description

In the middle of the 19th century, crimes committed by maids had an extraordinary rise. There was no public or private crime in which a servant was not involved, and public opinion called for those guilty to be rigorously punished. Although the courts were sometimes more lenient towards women than towards men in status crimes, they usually punished them severely. There is the example of Clara Marina, Higinia Balaguer, Vicenta Sobrino…Thirteen real stories of maids who killed their masters, each one with a different motive. Women who kill when they believe they have the right to kill, when they think they have more than earned that satisfaction. According to them, they dispense justice. Some, seduced by their masters, had to covertly prostitute themselves inside the house, to earn a bonus. An explanation for the behavior of these peculiar assassins could be that their masters found it normal to nullify them and treat them as slaves. Some were even forbidden to marry. The salary depended on the master’s will and they worked like beasts of burden for nothing or for bed and food.