A Mighty Slut Shaming & Brothers

T’was the fall of 1882, and Nicholas Dukes had a lot going for him. He was a prominent attorney. He’d just been elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. To top it all off, he was engaged to Lizzie Nutt. Lizzie came from a prominent family and was hot as hell. But as Nicholas and Lizzie got to know one another better, Nicholas became concerned. She was flirty. Forward. It was possible she wasn’t a virgin! (Neither was he, but that didn’t matter.) Nicholas was disgusted to find himself engaged to a woman who wanted to have sex with him. So he told her father. 

On the afternoon of October 2, 1998, 15-year-old Zach Witman called the police. He’d just discovered his 13-year-old brother, Greg, dead in their home. Zach told the dispatcher, “I came downstairs, and the door was cracked and he was lying there. Just lying there! Gone! Gone! Gone! Gone! Why? Why? Why?” Greg had been stabbed multiple times -- to the point of near decapitation. 

And now for a note about our process. For each episode, Kristin reads a bunch of articles, then spits them back out in her very limited vocabulary. Brandi copies and pastes from the best sources on the web. And sometimes Wikipedia. (No shade, Wikipedia. We love you.) We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the real experts who covered these cases.

“Demon in a bottle: the Dukes/Nutt affair,” by Paul Slade for PlanetSlade 

“An honorable vengeance: the Dukes-Nutt saga,” developed by Rachel Zajac for the Uniontown Public Library 

“A matter of honor,” Murder by Gaslight
“19th century Dukes-Nutt murder scandal subject of new exhibit and book,” by Frances Borsodi for the Herald Standard

“The Witmans” documentary

“Commonwealth v. Witman” findlaw.com

“Gregory fought for life” by Rick Lee and Teresa Ann Boeckel, York Daily Record

“In the jurors’ hands” by Rick Lee and Teresa Ann Boeckel, York Daily Record

“I killed my brother: Zachary Witman admits to gruesome 1998 murder; parole now possible” WITF.org

“The Untold Truth Of The Witman Murder Case” by Aimee Lamoureux, grunge.com

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