Elizabeth Kerri Mahon

On January 9, 1854, a baby was born who would one day grow up to be the mother of one of the man some people consider to be the greatest statesman England has ever known. Her name was Jennie Jerome. She was born in Brooklyn at 197 Amity Street, when Brooklyn was still a separate city. So not only was she a New Yorker but a Brooklyn baby, the greatest export before the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles. She was the second of four daughters born to Leonard Jerome, and his wife Clarissa. Leonard Jerome was a financier, sportsman and speculator. He founded the American Jockey Club and created Jerome Avenue and Jerome Park in the Bronx (which still exist) as well as elevating the idea of horse racing in the United States. He was part owner of The New York Times and his mansion on Madison Avenue had its own theater. Clarissa, his wife, was a dark beauty who family legend says had Iroquois blood. Another legend is that Leonard Jerome named his second daughter after the Swedish soprano Jennie Lind,

"Lady Godiva was a freedom rider, She was a sister who really could!" Remember those lines from the theme song from the 1970's sitcom Maude? I do and I remember wondering who was Lady Godiva and what did she do that was so great that she was mentioned in a song? Was she even real? Well, yes Virginia, Lady Godiva (1040-1080 or thereabouts, no one is actually sure of her date of birth or death) was real but as for her 'freedom ride' that appears just to be the stuff of legend. The story goes that Lady Godiva rode naked through the streets of Coventry in England in order to get her husband to repeal an oppressive tax that he had levied on his tenants. After Godiva's ride through the town, her husband kept his word and abolished the taxes. The origin of the phrase "Peeping Tom," also comes from later versions of the legend. All the villagers were ordered to shut their blinds so as not to see Lady Godiva in the altogether while she rode through the stree

It'll be six years next month that HRH Princess Margaret passed away at the age of 71. Apparently her ex-husband, Lord Snowdon has decided to share intimate details of his marriage to the late Princess in a new biography. According to Hello Magazine: "News of the book, which is set to hit UK stores in the summer, may come as a surprise to many royal watchers. "There has always been an understanding that no biography would be published during his lifetime," says royal author Tim Heald - who wrote a biography of the Queen's late sister. "He has never spoken a word in public about Margaret," he continues, "He has remained very loyal to her and to her memory." "However, the royal snapper, who married the beautiful, blue-eyed royal at Westminster Abbey in 1960, has given his "full agreement" to the new biography by well-known journalist Anne de Courcy. "I am now happy for people to know about my life and I want to put the record

It was called the Murder of the Century. Eighty years before the trial of OJ Simpson captured the attention of the nation and the world, there was the murder of architect Stanford White by Harry K. Thaw at the entertainment complex that he created Madison Square Garden. The story had everything, society -- money, rage, lust, envy. Within a week of the murder, the Biograph Company had produced a motion picture dramatization. And at the center of this love triangle gone wrong was a young copper haired beauty named Evelyn Nesbit. She was born Florence Evelyn Nesbit on Christmas Day in 1884 in Tarentum, a small town near Pittsburgh, PA, the same city that her future husband, Harry K. Thaw hailed from. But while Harry grew up in the lap of luxury living on the big hill, Evelyn and her family were barely scraping above the poverty line after the untimely death of her father when she was 8. Her mother tried to turn their home into a boarding house with minimal success. They often had so littl

She is the shadowy figure in Dickens’s life, the woman who shared the last thirteen years before his early death. His biographers tried to erase her, their letters to each other were burned, but still the story of Charles Dickens and Ellen Ternan could not be obliterated from history. Ellen Lawless Ternan was born on March 3, 1839 in Rochester, England, coincidentally a city that had much meaning for Charles Dickens. She was born into a theatrical family of long standing. Her mother, father and grandmother had all been actors; her mother, Fanny Ternan, had even appeared on the London stage, with the great actor William Charles Macready (another good friend of Dickens). When Ellen was around six, her father Thomas Ternan had a breakdown and was committed to an asylum where he died two years later. From the time they were small children, Ellen and her two older sisters Fanny and Maria had appeared on stage. The life of an actress in Victorian England was difficult. Not only were actresse

Who doesn’t love a tale about pirates, swashbuckling tales of adventure on the high seas, where men were men, and women were the naughty figureheads on the ships. Well, among the most notorious pirates of the 18th Century were two women. If you take the “Pirates of the Caribbean” ride at Disneyland, you’ll see them featured on the wall, Anne Bonny and Mary Read. Some might call them feminists who chose piracy as a way of rebelling against a male-dominated world. Others might see them as tomboys who just never grew up. Whatever their reasons, Anne Bonny and Mary Read became two of history’s most notorious pirates, male or female. Their story has come down to us shrouded in the mists of legend and myth. The few facts that we know about Anne Bonny are that she was probably born in County Cork in about 1690 to a lawyer named Wiliam Cormac and his maid, Mary Brennan. Cormac was married and the resulting scandal (apparently Mrs. Cormac was not of a forgiving nature) led him to flee Ireland w

On December 11, 1936, Edward VIII of Great Britain made his now famous abdication speech, saying he could no longer continue to fulfill his duties “without the woman I love.” From then on, the story of Edward VIII and Wallis Warfield Simpson passed into the history books as the love story of the century. In the seventy one years, tons of books have been written about the couple, including their own memoirs. Even today she provokes a strong reaction when you talk about her. What is it about this story and this couple that has kept us fascinated for so many decades? This was the biggest scandal ever to hit the royal family of England. Bigger than the Prince and Princess of Wale’s divorce. This was bigger than “Squidgy-gate,” or even the infamous “I want to be your tampon,” recording between Prince Charles and the former Camilla Parker-Bowles. Heck it was even bigger than Princess Margaret and her ill-fated love for Group Captain Peter Townsend, her love affair with the gardener, and her