The wayward son of a revered Civil War general, Roland Molineux enjoyed good looks, status, and fortune—hardly the qualities of a prime suspect in a series of shocking, merciless cyanide killings. Molineux's subsequent indictment for murder led to two explosive trials and a sex-infused scandal that shocked the nation. Bringing to life Manhattan's Gilded Age, the author of Killer Colt captures the atmosphere of the tumultuous legal proceedings, gathering his own evidence and tackling subjects no one dared to address at the time, in hopes of answering a tantalizing question: What powerfully dark motives could drive the wealthy scion of an eminent New York family to murder?