The Downfall of Galveston’s May Walker Burleson – My Review

I’ve read about the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 regarding its devastation and the lives it took. Author T. Felder Dorn vividly explains in a small snippet from twelve-year-old, May Walker Burleson, what she and her family endured during the hurricane.

What was more revealing was how the six thousand people who died in the storm were dealt with. I cannot imagine sending them off on a barge and then bringing their bodies to land to be burned out in the open. That tragedy there was enough to deal with for the entire book but the tragedy episodes only increased with the continued story of May.

The Downfall of Galveston’s May Walker Burleson recounts the life of May from her marriage, to her suffragist involvement, to her divorce, to murdering her husband’s second wife. The book further details the murder court case, her time served in prison and lastly May’s final years.

While almost clinical in its storytelling, the book is well researched. Courtroom testimony in both the contentious divorce of the Burleson couple to the murder trial is summarized well. What’s fascinating is the story behind the divorce and it actually being granted. I did not know that divorce’s back then could have a jury decided the granting of the divorce.

Dorn’s book gives small glimpses of history, especially on the 1913 Suffragist parade in Washington, DC. Plus, May was sent to Waverly Hills Sanatorium reputed to be one of the most haunted places in the U.S. One of the best features of the book is the historical photos interspersed with each chapter.

It is hard to imagine how a woman who had the world at her feet threw it all away from her marriage to her riches to her family.