Forgotten Felonies
Bertha Boronda: the Mistress of Mayhem - A Fun-Sized Felony
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Bertha “Bessie” Boronda attacked her husband, Narciso "Frank" Boronda, in the middle of the night in their San Jose home in 1907.
The newspapers called it a violent, deliberate mutilation. The court charged her with mayhem—a crime defined by the destruction of part of the human body.
But no one ever said exactly what she did.
Over time, the story became…