To Spend Eternity Alone

120 years before O. J. Simpson, at the peak of the Victorian Era, there was another murder trial that mesmerized this country. To Spend Eternity Alone relates the story of the 1878 trial of Jesse Billings, one of the wealthiest men in Saratoga County. Billings was tried for the shooting of his wife Eliza Harris Billings. In this unsolved true crime there were four suspects; Jesse, the husband; the handyman, whom the wife had fired that day; a nephew, who lived in the house; and the daughter’s fiancé. Public perception was swayed by the fact that Jesse had shot and killed his only brother when he was 18. Unlike the other books by Palmer, this is a trial story.