Author’s Note
The Trials of Nellie Belle is a fictional story based on events in the lives of my great-grandmother, Nellie Belle Scott, and my aunt, Leone Barry. What I know about these events, I learned through conversation around the family dinner table, photographs, preserved writing, and research. I have used the real names of most of the historical characters, with some alterations.
Because family stories that pass down through generations are notoriously unreliable, it is safe to say that much of this story is pure conjecture. I believe the stories that Nellie wrote for her creative writing class derive from her courtroom experiences, but how much is true and how much is embellishment I have no way of knowing.
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