Emma Cunningham

Emma Augusta Hempstead Cunningham (1818–1887) was a woman from New York City who was embroiled in a scandalous relationship that ended in a crime of murder. She was arrested for murder and fraud, and was sent to trial in one of the most famous cases in the Victorian era.

Scandal Emma Cunningham was a young woman in New York City when she married a widower, George Cunningham in 1835. When he died in 1852 his life insurance policy amounted to $10,000 which was a tidy sum in that era (about $379,452.27 in 2026). As an attractive widow, she met Dr. Harvey Burdell, a prosperous dentist and rented a suite of rooms in his mansion as did other tenants, such as John J. Eckel (later to be accused as an accessory). It was intimated that Cunningham was sexually involved with both of these men.

Dr. Burdell resided and practiced dentistry at his townhouse on 31 Bond Street in New York City, one of the most affluent blocks in pre-Civil War New York. This area declined rapidly in the mid-century and only a few traces of the thirty-five Greek Revival homes remain. Burdell, like his neighbors, was very wealthy, although his reputation was far from sterling as he was accused of embezzlement, reneging on debts and causing a scandal on his wedding day by demanding money from the bride's father who was enraged and canceled the wedding.

Murder On the morning of January 31, 1857, Dr. Burdell's servants discovered his body in his office, at 31 Bond Street, covered with blood, brutally stabbed multiple times and strangled. Upon police interrogation, some of the servants testified that they heard angry words between the victim and his assailant the night before. The police determined that Dr. Burdell had been stabbed at least 15 times by an assailant who was left-handed. Since Emma Cunningham was left-handed, she was an immediate suspect and was arrested for Burdell's murder and imprisoned for trial.

Trial The trial, at its time, was as notorious as the O.J. Simpson trial was in the 1990s and was accompanied by a media circus akin to such trials today. A reputed 8,000 people tried to cram into the church for the funeral and Cunningham reportedly threw herself dramatically on Burdell's casket.