Murder & Mayhem in Ulster County

In 1870, the New York Herald proclaimed that Ulster County was New York's Ulcer County due to its lawlessness and crime. The columnist supported his claim by citing that in only six months, it has been the scene of no less than four cold blooded and brutal murders, six suicides and four elopements. Hannah Markle—the bane of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union—ran a Kingston saloon where murder and violence were served alongside the whiskey. John Babbitt confessed on his deathbed to murde...