Even though I had no idea what I wanted for Christmas, my husband managed to find a way straight to my heart by giving me several old albums and diaries that he had located and purchased through antique dealers and eBay. A yellowed newspaper clipping tucked behind the photograph of a woman identified as Dora Bowman immediately caught my eye. She's the only named photograph in an album filled with gorgeous old photos, which seems a bit too coincidental to me, but her story is definitely captivating...

"Oh! Dan, don't kill me and I will be yours." It was a woman imploring for mercy. Over her stood a man with a cocked revolver. "D___ you, I will kill you," and with that he fired, but fortunately the ball struck the woman's corset steel and fell to the ground. Twice more the villian fired, but the bullets went wide of their mark.

Dramatic it may seem, but this is the true tale of an engineer named William Schipp, and the much younger Dora Bowman set in 1890 Omaha, Nebraska. Dora apparently lived with William in adultery for almost two years after he solicited her away from "May Morgan's sporting house," before she tired of his attentions and tried to break off their arrangement.

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Saved by her Corset! The Interesting Case of Dora Bowman originally appeared on About.com Genealogy on Tuesday, January 10th, 2012 at 13:14:01.

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