Scope and Contents
The collection includes professional correspondence and also research and unpublished manuscripts on the Cordelia Botkin murder case of 1898.
Botkin research includes handwritten and typed speeches to the jury, interviews and testimonies, notes, newspapers, and notebooks.
There is also correspondence from the San Francisco Chronicle.
The collection also contains manuscript material including notes and rough drafts, and a published copy of the book titled, The Girl in the Belfry, a true story about another murder case, written by Offord and Joseph Jackson.
Dates
- Creation: 1943-1959
Creator
- Offord, Lenore Glen, 1905-1991 (Person)
- Jackson, Joseph Henry, 1894-1955 (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open to the public. Collection must be used in Special Collections and University Archives Reading Room. Collection or parts of collection may be stored offsite. Please contact Special Collections and University Archives in advance of your visit to allow for transportation time.
Conditions Governing Use
Property rights reside with Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries. Copyright resides with the creators of the documents or their heirs. All requests for permission to publish collection materials must be submitted to Special Collections and University Archives. The reader must also obtain permission of the copyright holder.
Biographical / Historical
Lenore Glen Offord (1905-1991) was an American reviewer and author who wrote mysteries set in and around San Francisco.
She was born in Spokane, Washington and educated at Mills College, Oakland, California. She married Harold R. Offord in 1929. Her series detectives are Bill and Coco Hastings and Todd McKinnon, a mystery writer. Offord was employed as the mystery book critic for the San Francisco Chronicle for over thirty years. She was also an avid Sherlock Holmes enthusiast.
Offord researched the murder trial of Cordelia Botkin, who was convicted of murdering Mary Dunning and her sister Ida Harriet Deane with poisoned chocolate candy sent through the mail.
In the mid 1940s, Offord wrote a short story entitled "Gifts of Cordelia" which was published in a book about San Francisco murders by Joseph Henry Jackson. The story dealt with the Botkin murder case. Years later Offord decided to give the Botkin case a full length treatment for a Gold Medal series -- original true crime paperbacks. The collection contains the material of that project; the book was never published.
[Source: http://gadetection.pbworks.com]
Extent
1.5 linear feet (1 container) : 1 record storage box
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Lenore Glen Offord was a mystery and true crime writer, and a mystery book critic for the San Francisco Chronicle for thirty years. The collection includes correspondence with the Chronicle, and also research and unpublished manuscripts on the Cordelia Botkin murder case of 1898.
Processing Information
Collection processed by staff, 1970s.
This finding aid may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.
This collection received a basic level of processing including minimal organization and rehousing.
Description information is drawn in part from information supplied with the collection and initial surveys of the contents.
Subject
- Offord, Lenore Glen, 1905-1991 (Person)
- Botkin, Cordelia, 1854-1910 (Person)
- San Francisco chronicle (Organization)
Genre / Form
Topical
- Authors, American -- 20th century
- Detective and mystery stories, American -- Authorship
- Murder -- United States -- Cases
- Murderers -- California -- San Francisco
- Poisoners -- California -- San Francisco
- Poisoning -- United States -- Cases
- Trials (Murder) -- California -- San Francisco
- Trials (Poisoning) -- California -- San Francisco
- True crime stories -- Authorship
- Women authors, American -- 20th century
- Women murderers -- California -- San Francisco
- Women poisoners -- California -- San Francisco
- Title
- Guide to the Lenore Glen Offord Papers
- Status
- Complete Description
- Author
- Tanya Parlet.
- Date
- 2013
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
- Sponsor
- Funding for production of this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).
Repository Details
Part of the University of Oregon Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives Repository
