a substantial number of Paterson residents at their mill and breweries. McAlister's father, who had spent decades establishing his reputation in the city, was so humiliated by the accusation, he offered his son some harsh advice which was reprinted in the local papers. George Kerr's family was similarly affluent and his father was a devoutly religious man. George's brother John was a judge and his brother-in-law was the mayor of Paterson. George himself was married and, at the time of the attack, his wife was eight months pregnant with his sixth child. Death had married into a prosperous family just over a month before the crime. Campbell was working class and the youngest of the men, but he was very well thought of. Of all the men, there was the most doubt of Campbell's guilt. Walter C. McAlister, Andrew J. Campbell, and William A. Death were tried together. Jennie's parents attended the trial, as did Death's young wife Charlotte, Judge John Kerr, and others. At the trial the defense tried to blame her death on the absinthe and not the overdose of chloral hydrate. They blamed Jennie's parents for letting her go out. They blamed Jennie for accepting the men's invitation. They suggested she had victimized the men who stood accused of her murder. The jury rejected that the death was from the absinthe and that the murder was premeditated. The men were found guilty of murder in the second degree for her killing and sentenced to thirty years imprisonment at hard labor. George J. Kerr was set to be tried separately, as he had not been present when the drug that killed Jennie was administered. He initially entered a plea of Not Guilty, but after the other men were found guilty, George changed his plea to the charge of rape to "non vult contendere" or No Contest. He was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment at hard labor. All four sentences were the maximum the law would allow. The appeals of the men were rejected. Legacy Jennie's murder received national press coverage for months after her death. The scandalous nature of her death and the power dynamics between her and her murderers drove much of the interest in the story. Jennie was a working class girl; the men who attacked her were wealthy and powerful. There was a possible copycat crime on March 12, 1901 with Mary Paige drugged, raped