In 1923, Sabella Nitti was sentenced to die in Chicago for the murder of her missing husband. There was no motive, no evidence, and no positive identification on the decayed corpse found in a suburban drainage ditch. But prosecutors wanted an easy win. Too many guilty but glamorous women had gotten away with murder. In Sabella, prosecutors saw easy, ugly prey. She was a recent immigrant. She didn’t speak English and she was poor. Ugly Prey is the first book to tell the full, true story of an innocent woman and the death sentence that scandalized jazz age Chicago.
"Verdict: For lovers of historical true crime" - Library Journal.
"A page-turning drama and thought-provoking look at gender, ethnicity and class in the American justice system," -- Anne Knudson, West Suburban Living Magazine, May 2017.
"This is an elegantly researched and beautifully written example of investigative journalism," - Jeffery Gusfield, author of Deadly Valentines: The Story of Capone's Henchman 'Machine Gun' Jack McGurn and Louise Rolfe, His Blonde Alibi.
"Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi’s riveting and creepy tale of violence, betrayal, and injustice is an uncomfortable yet all-too-familiar story of anxious Americans' willingness to believe that illiterate, poor immigrants can be guilty of a crime because of who they were not what they did," - Kate Clifford Larsen, PhD, author ofThe Assassin's Accomplice: Mary Surratt and the Plot to Kill Abraham Lincoln.
"Her rigorous history is shocking and moving," - Douglas Perry, author of The Girls of Murder City: Fame, Lust, and the Beautiful Killers who Inspired 'Chicago.'
Available at Amazon.com, Barnes & Nobles (stores and online), Kmart.com, Target.com, and independent retailers.