6. The Doctors Had an Explanation

Episode 6 of 11: Harriet Schmoll never denied the shooting, so her lawyers tried something else: doctors who testified that menopause had made her temporarily insane. We examine the medical beliefs of 1900 and the defense built on them. It Made the Papers is researched, written, and produced by 8th-grade journalism students at Durgee Junior High School in Baldwinsville, NY, with support from their ELA teacher and school librarian. Season one, Murder on Marble Street, follows a 1900 murder in the students' own village and the questions it raises about life at the turn of the century. The series was inspired by Johnathan Croyle's November 2025 article on the case for Syracuse.com:⁠ https://www.syracuse.com/living/2025/11/did-jealousy-or-temporary-insanity-cause-a-baldwinsville-woman-to-shoot-her-neighbor-in-1900.html⁠ Image ResourcesEpisode cover art of Dr. Locke courtesy of the Evening Herald, Syracuse, 1900