A Soul on Trial: A Marine Corps Mystery at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

Secrets, Spirits, Scandal, and a Nation Watching

When Marine Corps Lieutenant James N. Sutton died in a brawl in 1907, his mother, his sister and his ghost all challenged the Navy's suicide verdict. By 1909, Rosa Sutton's crusade to save her son's soul from the stigma of a mortal sin had become a national sensation. Marine combat hero Judge Advocate Henry Leonard would prove the perfect foil for Mrs. Sutton.

But soon newspapers across America weighed in on "one of the most remarkable inquirie...