On March 26th, 1884, the city of Cincinnati, Ohio was on edge, waiting for a jury to convict a defendant who was accused of murdering a man in December of the year before. That verdict did come down guilty, but not for murder. Instead, the man was convicted of manslaughter. That wasn’t good enough for the people of Cincinnati, and over the next few days one of the most destructive riots in American history rocked the city.
The “Murder at the Regatta” was a story of jealousy, passion, and some say even madness that shocked and fascinated the nation, and changed the very nature of how murder was seen and prosecuted in the United States.