Capital punishment is perhaps the most controversial topic in New Hampshire today. But this debate has been raging since 1739, when the first persons were executed in Portsmouth. This book explores the disturbing origins of capital punishment in the Granite State, and exhumes the history of other taboo topics, including abortion, body snatching, and suicide. In the end, readers will be rewarded with an illuminating journey into some very dark and dirty corners of New Hampshire's past.