Book Description

Polly stayed by her husband Henry Hoag day and night through his illness that July of 1856. It seemed he had once again contracted cholera morbus. Henry suffered from nausea and stomach cramps that caused him intense pain. The doctors from Alabama Center were called, but despite all their efforts, Henry died. Three weeks later their six-year-old daughter Frances, displaying the same symptoms as her father, also died. Polly remarried that fall to a man named Otto Frisch. It would be a short marriage. Her new husband deserted her in October the following year. Shortly after he left, Polly and Henry's 21-month-old daughter Eliza Jane died of mysterious causes. The town's people of Alabama agreed that they saw no lack of attention on Polly's part towards Henry and the children. Then why, in November of 1857, was she indicted for killing her husband and daughters? The punishment for such a crime was the gallows. Would Polly be the first woman in Genesee County history to be hanged for murder? In 1856, in the rural town of Alabama, NY one woman's family suffered from multiple unexplained deaths. The town folk grew suspicious of the now remarried Polly Frisch. An investigation commenced, bodies were exhumed, an affair--exposed. Polly would be arrested for the murders of her first husband and daughters. Her fourteen-year-old son would testify against her. If found guilty, the punishment for such a crime was the gallows. Bread & Butter is the true story of Polly Frisch who poisoned her family with arsenic and the five trials it took to convict her.