Epilogue
THE DIARY OF CATHERINE PORTER
I cannot put into words the heavy heart with which I write these last few pages. When I am done, I intend to lock this diary away in my trunk, so that only my sister Edith will have access to it once I am dead.
I leave it to her to decide whether or not to reveal its contents.
I know that the atrocities I am about to commit this night will leave people believing that I have lost my mind. Well, perhaps I have, but I can see no other option available to me, save that of sending my only son to an ignominious death at the end of a rope.
I believe in my heart that no mother would ever accede to such a vile ending for one whom she bore from her own body, nurtured at her breast, listened with great pride to his first word, watched him take his first ten
